City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments: Book 1)

Author: Cassandra Clare
Publishing Info: Simon Pulse, 2007
Suggested Reading Level: 13+ years

Synopsis:
Clary is a normal teenage girl until she sees Jace and his two friends, Isabelle and Alec, stake a demon at dance club she is at with her best friend Simon. The problem being that she was the only one who could see them. The very next day something attacks Clary's mom, Jocelyn, while they are on the phone. Jace shows up just as she gets off the phone and follows her to her house where she is attacked by (and manages to kill without Jace's help) a Ravener Demon. Jace takes her back to the "Institute" to be treated for her wounds, where she finds out that Jace and his friends are demon killers called Shadowhunters, and that she has to be the child of a Shadowhunter because she has "the sight" (the ability to see those of other worlds and Shadowhunters wearing runes that hide them from normal humans for a time). Shadowhunters kill demons because they are evil and completely non-human, but they also are the mediators for all of the part-human groups living on earth (including, vampires, werewolves, fairies, elves, and other fae). They were given special powers and the ability to use tatoo-like runes to enhance themselves and their weaponry by an angel who mixed his blood with theirs and gave it to the first Shadowhunters to drink in the Mortal Cup. The Mortal Cup is now lost and the Shadowhunter race dying out. It was lost during a Shadowhunter civil war caused an idealistic maniac named Valentine who wanted to rid the world of anyone not completely human.

While trying to find out what happened to Clary's mother, and why Clary doesn't remember having any connection with the Shadowhunter world, Clary, Jace, Simon, Isabelle, and Alec go on a series of adventures which nearly kill all of them at one point or another.
Clary must have her mind read by the Silent Brothers in the Bone City so she can find out who blocked her memories; attend a party given by a warlock where Simon is turned into a rat in order find out that her mother and her father were Shadowhunters; rescue Simon from the Vampires that took him home, and then escape the werewolves that come looking for her there; fight a greater demon in order to get the Mortal Cup; team up with Werewolves in order to get into Valentine's house where her mother is being kept; and save Jace from being brainwashed by his own father who also happens to be her father, the evil maniac, Valentine.

The end of the book finds Clary coming to terms with who she is and who the people she loves are. Simon, during all of the chaos, confesses to her that he has been in love with her for a long time, and she doesn't know how she feels about him, but they stay close. Clary's mom is in a coma and no one knows why, and she is trying to deal with all of the deception her mom used to try to keep her safe. Jace, she now knows, is her brother, and she isn't sure how she feels about him either.

One thing she does know is that she has no love for Valentine, even though he is her father. He was able to get away with the Mortal Cup, which he plans on using to make an army of Shadowhunter idealists. Now the group has to figure out how to stop him from going through with his evil plan.

Analysis:
There are many reviews out there that will pick this book to pieces. I happen to agree with most of them, but I won't go into too much detail as you could read a better written review elsewhere. Mostly, this book has some fun ideas and characters that were poorly executed. The plot has twists and turns which end up going nowhere; the characters are inconsistent and are therefore often frustrating and unlikable; the prose is weighed down by lengthy explanatory sections and an overabundance of similes/metaphors; and the "romance" is downright annoying. As a (probably overly-) well-versed reader of fantasy novels, this one feels like the author took bits and pieces of all her favorite stories and tried to cram them into one lengthy teenage melodrama; it comes off unoriginal and disjointed. For anyone who is new to fantasy, the ideas won't be recognizable as pieces from other books, so it may not be quite so annoying, but if you're a fantasy buff like me, you may just want to skip it.

Having said all that, I actually enjoyed reading the book--most of the time. The dialogue is funny, and the action is compelling if unoriginal and maze-like. I especially like the character of Jace; though, in my opinion, he is ruined by the fact that he turns out to be Clary's brother and Valentine's son at the end of the book.

As for teaching, the book deals a lot with relationships, good and bad, and could spark some interesting discussions about how we treat the people in our lives and why. You could use it within a lesson on similes and metaphors as there is an abundance of them in the book. It could also be interesting to discuss urban legends or fairy tales and what the world would be like if they were more than just fiction.