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 was reading a high school essay which bores her to death. It got so bad that I increased the narration speed to get through it quicker. At the end, I wish I never started this series and kept Cassandra Clare in fond memories from the previous trilogy I read.