City Of Bones - A Review by Nevermore

City of Bones is a bit of an unfortunate case, though sometimes it seems to a somewhat necessary evil in book series in which a whole world needs to be set up for the plot to really start unfolding. This is that book in the Mortal Instruments series, and much of the book is spent on exposition that is largely told rather than shown. Good chunks of the book are characters delivering histories of what has come before, filling in the main character, Clary Fray, who is getting introduced to the world of the shadow hunters alongside us.

I did enjoy the book, but I feel I should probably get the bad out of the way before diving into the good. As with many young adult fantasy books, the characters in the story are largely brooding, dark characters with so much angst they could fill a small house with their brooding and still be bursting out at the seams a bit. Given, as often is the case with fantasy characters, the hardships the characters have gone through in their lives are definitely things that would not be easy to just shrug off and live with, but the moodiness seems quite excessive at times.

This book introduces us to Clary Fray, who is out at a club with her best friend, Simon Lewis, when she sees some mysterious goings on in a room off to the side - which ends in the death and disintegration of a young man who, it turns out, was in fact a demon. Through a series of further events, Clary finds herself entangled with the group of teenagers who killed the demon in the club - Shadowhunters, part of an elite and ancient order of Nephilim (humans whose blood has mixed with the of angels), dedicated to protecting normal humans from the denizens of the "Downworld" - every creature from fantasy you can imagine: fairies, vampires, werewolves, demons, etc. The plot continues to open up further, and Clary discovers that there is far more to her life and family than she had ever known.

The universe is somewhat reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter, in that there are protectors of the mundane, normal humans that lurk in the shadowy places that the average folk prefer to pretend don't exist. That said, it isn't terribly derivative of the aforementioned works, though there are definitely parallels, for example, Clary's friend Simon, who has no particularly spectacular skills besides being rather nerdy, brings to mind Buffy's companion Xander.

Cassandra Clare's world is definitely her own, bringing the creatures of fantasy very solidly into the modern world, and painting a very vivid image of how they operate day-to-day, and giving small hints to how the inner workings of the Shadowhunter world operates, as well as rather nicely incorporating real-world elements such as racism, homophobia, and struggles with sexual orientation. The book was definitely quite exciting, particularly in its action sequences, and the twists and turns of the plot are certainly enough to have me ready to pick up the next book in the series.

Unfortunately, I do not always have a lot of time to sit and read, so I experienced City of Bones as an audiobook, which I downloaded from Audible.com.

The audiobook is read by Ari Graynor (Whip It), and while certainly not the best reading I've ever heard, her voice worked well for at least the female characters, as she emoted for them fairly well. However, when she read any of the older male character, it took an unintended element of comedy as the result ended up sounding somewhat like a teenage girl impersonating her father. Still, she doesn't drone on, and although her inflection is off at times, making one give pause to consider the meaning of a phrase every now and again, she does a good job of getting the emotion and excitement across as needed.

If you're interested in downloading this audiobook, you can click the picture or simply follow the following link: City of Thrones on Audible.com.