I should have known better.

City of Bones

By Cassandra Clare

I read this book as part of my 2013 reading challenge.  I will read 24 books from different genre's this year.  This fulfilled the paranormal category.  I've heard good things about Mortal Instruments and they are making a movie that will be released this summer.  I balked at the cover.  Wow.  If it doesn't say ridiculous teenage romance, I don't know what does.  And then there was an endorsement by the one and only Stephanie Meyers.  She happens to be 4th on my nemesis list.  I should have turned and run then.  I know better!  Here is the general idea of the book.  There are demons, there are half demons, there are mundanes (which is  a stupid name for normal humans) and there are shadowhunters.  You guessed it, the shadowhunters kill demons and keep half demons in line.  Jace is one such hunter (we hate him), as are Alec and Isabelle (we don't care either way about them).  In walks Clary (bleh).  Turns out, a demon seemingly kills or abducts her mother.  In an effort to be more positive, I'll start with the good.  I like the idea of shadowhunters.  They keep alluding to the concept that most stories are real.  Cassandra Clare (from here will now be referred to as CC) borrowed mythology and demonology from many different cultures and religions.   That seems really interesting.  The bad:  CC managed to ruin the one interesting aspect of the book.  It was like a 485 page information dump.  Demons, vampires, faeries, werewolves, angels, silent-mind-reading-monks, glamors, angelic touched instruments, steles, ruins.  Most of it isn't explained.  I think that CC would have done better if she would have focused on a couple of those areas for the first book.  And then there are her characters.  I'm reasonably sure they caused me physical pain.  Clary, obviously named after Cassandra Clare (lame) is a ridiculous, insipid girl.  She has an immediately and inexplicable crush on Jace but refuses to admit it to herself.  She has a best friend named Simon that is in love with her.  She doesn't know how beautiful she is.  I sense a love triangle coming in future books.  Jace is your typical YA pretty boy.  He has a troubled past, he has an urge to protect the poor mundane, Clary, with his life if necessary, he has a hard exterior that Clary is trying to soften, blah blah blah.  I've heard this story before.  If you are planning on writing a YA book, please attempt to be original.  And the bickering!  It is so irritating and forced.  Jace and Clary are constantly snapping at each other,which is fine if you can make it sound natural.  CC apparently doesn't have that ability.  It just sounds absurd.  And the writing!!!!  She used the phrase, "he half pushed-half pulled me along" so many times I lost count.  HOW DO YOU EVEN DO THAT?!?!  And "he turned his finely chiseled nose to the side."  Just his nose, or the whole thing?  And what am I even reading, a dime store bodice ripper?  A friend of mine recently expressed that it seems like YA books are just being written with the hope of a movie deal.  That might be so.  This certainly has the feel of it.  Poor writing, poor characters, poor world building, with a good screen writer, could be a good movie.  We'll see, I suppose, in August.  In the mean time, probably have not learned my lesson.  I'm a sucker to the promise of a good story.