City of Bones (Clare novel)

This article is about the young adult novel by Cassandra Clare, for the novel by Michael Connelly see City of Bones (Michael Connelly novel).

City of Bones

First edition cover of the book City of Bones.
Author	Cassandra Clare
Language	English
Series	The Mortal Instruments Trilogy
Genre	Young adult
Publisher	Margaret K. McElderry
Publication date	March 27, 2007 July 2, 2007
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	496 pp (hardback, first edition} 512 pp (paperback)
ISBN	ISBN-10 1416914285
Followed by	City of Ashes

City of Bones is the first book in The Mortal Instruments trilogy, a young adult urban fantasy series set in New York written by Cassandra Clare. It was originally published in the USA in hardcover on March 27, 2007, and was released in the UK on July 2, 2007. It was also released in paperback in the USA on February 19, 2008. It achieved #8 on the New York Times Best Seller list (Children's books) in April 2007.City of Bones received considerable praise from Publishers Weekly, Locus, and authors Holly Black and Kelly Link. Critisism was received from School Library Journal.

Publication History

File:City of bones German.jpg

Cover of the German translation of City of Bones.

City of Bones was first published in the US by Margaret K. McElderry on March 27, 2007. A paperback version of the book was subsequently released in the US by Simon Pulse on February 19, 2008. A hardback large print version of the book was published by Thorndike Press on September 3, 2008. No hardcover copy of City of Bones was released in the UK, but a paperback edition was released by Walker Books on July 2, 2007. An Italian translation of the book was released by Mondadori, and a softcover version of the book is going to be released. A German translation of the book was released by publisher Arena Verlag, and a paperback edition of the book is due to be released. A Danish translation of the book was released by publisher Borgen Forlag, and a paperback book is due for release. A French translation of City of Bones was released by publisher Univers Poche and a softcover edition of the book is due to be released. A Spanish translation of the book was released by Univers Poche, and a softcover edition is also expected.

Characters

• Jace Wayland, a mysterious and sexy, yet arrogant shadowhunter.
• Clary Fray, a shadowhunter, yet brought up as human by her mother, to protect her.
• Isabelle Lightwood, Jace's adopted sister, beautiful and obnoxious, also a shadowhunter.
• Alec Lightwood, Isabelle's birth brother. Alec is in love with Jace though hides is homosexuality.
• Simon Lewis, Clary's human best friend, who has been in love with her for several years.
• Luke Garroway, Clary's mother's best friend, once a shadowhunter, now a werewolf.
• Valentine Morgenstern, Jace's and Clary's estranged father, he turns up after 15 years when he was supposedly dead and steals the mortal cup from his ex-wife.
• Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn.
• Hodge Starkweather, Isabelle, Alec's and Jace's tutor. He is in league with Valentine.
• Raphael, The leader of the local vampire gang, who speaks spanish.

Synopsis

The book starts out with the main character, Clary and her friend, Simon, going to night club. Upon entering, Clary follow a suspicious-looking girl and boy into a room, in which the girl and two other boys attack and kill the other boy. The body then disappears, leaving Clary completely astonished. Clary then notices that the murders were merely teenagers, covered with tattoos. Clary asks the teenagers what happened, and they seemed surprised that Clary could see them. They have a whispered conversation and then tell her to leave, as the boy they killed was a demon, and there was no proof that he was killed. Clary then leaves the club with Simon, and she returns home.

The next day, Clary and her mother get into an argument about the summer vacation. Clary's mother wants to take Clary to visit her relatives for the summer, but Clary refused, angrily saying that she didn't want to not see Simon for the summer. Clary then phones Simon and asks him to go with her to the coffee shop, to which he agrees. While there, Clary sees one of the boys from the club outside the coffee shop. She runs outside, and the boy says his name is Jace, and that she has to come to his home with him. Clary adamantly refuses, but then receives a panicked phone call from her mother, telling her to not come home. Clary leave Jace and rushes home, and sees her house in a mess, with no one in sight. Clary is then attacked by a demon in her mother's bedroom, and is poisoned. She manages to kill the demon, but blacks out afterwards.

Jace follows Clary home, and sees the demon attack Clary. Jace takes her unconscious body outside to her front lawn, where she wakes up, and faints again. Jace then takes her to the church where he lives. Clary stays unconscious for over 3 days while she heals from the poison in her body. After waking, she meets the other two teenagers from the club, the girl, Isabelle Lightwood, and the other boy, Alec Lightwood. She then meets Hodge, their guardian, and he explains that the trio are "Shadowhunters", humans with angel blood, who protect humans from demons and "Downworlders", who are mixes of demon and human blood.

Jace takes Clary to meet Hodge, and he asks her what happened. Clary mentions the name Valentine, and Hodge seemed stunned. Hodge then explains who he is, and his relationship to Clary's mother. He then realizes that she has a block on her memory that prevents her from remembering anything. He writes to the Silent Brothers to get them to remove the block from her head, but finds out that the block is too strong for even them to remove without damamging her.

Jace takes Clary to the person that made the block,Magnus Bane the High Warlock of Brooklyn, and finds out that every two years since Clary was a little girl, her mother brought her to him, to get the block replaced. Magnus refuses to remove the block; he gives her a rune to remember old memories instead.

Reviews

Publishers Weekly commented that the book “is a sprawling urban fantasy packed with just about every type of creature known to the genre”. Locus praised the book as "a highly readable first novel". A review in the School Library Journal noted that the book contained a variety of narrative flaws including characters that were "sporadically characterized" and whose behavior was predictable. In spite of this they noted that the book was entertaining and would leave readers anticipating the next installment. Holly Black, best-selling author of the book Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, stated that City of Bones was, "Funny, dark, and sexy. One of my favorite books." Author Kelly Link said, "It's vampires versus werewolves in Harlem, while sexy demon hunters prowl through downtown clubs and Brooklyn coffeehouses—City of Bones is epic urban fantasy at its demented, delightful best. Cassandra Clare is a genius."

Editions

Margaret K. McElderry (United States, etc.)

• ISBN 978-1416914280 Hardcover

Thorndike Press (United States, etc.)

• ISBN 978-1410409584 Large Print Hardcover

Simon Pulse (United States, etc.)

• ISBN 978-1416955078 Paperback

Walker Books (United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc.)

• ISBN 978-1406307627 Paperback

Arena Verlag (Germany, etc.)

• ISBN 978-3401061320

Univers Poche (France, etc.)

• ISBN 978-1416955078