City of Bones

10th Anniversary Edition The Mortal Instruments, #1

by Cassandra Clare

Hardcover, 528 pages

English language

Published Nov. 17, 2017 by Margaret K. McElderry Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-5344-0625-4

(31 reviews)

City of Bones is the first urban fantasy book in author Cassandra Clare's New York Times bestselling series The Mortal Instruments. The novel is set in modern-day New York City and has been released in several languages, including Bulgarian, Hebrew, Polish and Japanese. It is the first book in the first trilogy of The Mortal Instruments which includes the books City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass.

5 editions

Shannon Kay reviewed City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2) by Cassandra Clare

Review of 'City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2)' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

I read this all in one day and it looks like I never even marked it as "currently reading". I was hooked, and couldn't put it down! If it hadn't been 3:30am I would've started the next one immediately. I'm waiting to find out that Jace and Clary aren't proper siblings for some reason and I have several theories on the matter. I noticed that they both have star shaped scars on their shoulder blades. Something different runs through Jace's veins according to the fairy queen. The inquisitor knew something was up, but in dramatic information teasing fasion, died before we could find out. Valentine was, I'm sure, about to say "I didn't mean Jace" when he told Clary about her mother's first child. I could complain that these tactics are a bit contrived but they're working on me and I'm anxious to read the next book in the series.

Zoran B. reviewed City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1) by Cassandra Clare

Review of 'City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I really liked Clare's other series, The Infernal Devices trilogy, which I listened as audiobooks last year. So the hope was that this was going to be as good, especially because it's set in present time. I should know better than to set high expectations for the book - it inevitably leaves me disappointed.

In short, The City of Bones is an infantile version of the Infernal Devices: a girl torn between two boys, plus some shadowhunters, demons, a big, bad villain etc. I understand this is a YA novel, and I felt too old for it throughout the book. The inane dialogues annoyed me, the teenage love story was unconvincing, and the main plot - hunt for the "Immortal Cup" which can create more shadowhunters - too fairytalish to swallow. The audiobook version was read by Ari Graynor, who sounded like a teenager, but unfortunately also read like she …

bungakumi reviewed City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2) by Cassandra Clare

Review of 'City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

ME AFTER FINISHING THIS BOOK

Jace and Clary:

Luke:

All in all:

Shannon Kay reviewed City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1) by Cassandra Clare

Review of 'City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

I think this is my favorite "urban fantasy" type book that I've read so far. I really liked the settings and was drawn to the characters. I was a bit confused at the end, I was sure some things would be straightened out, but let me say that I can't remember the last time I was so tempted to look ahead at spoilers for a book.