City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare

Blurb:

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...

Review:

"Don't order any of the faerie food," said Jace, looking at her over the top of his menu. "It tends to make humans a little crazy. One minute you're munching a faerie plum, the next minute you're running naked down Madison Avenue with antlers on your head. Not," he added hastily, "that this has ever happened to me."

Honestly there isn't much for me to say. I've listened to an audiobook of part of this series before but I stopped after the fourth or fifth book (I can't remember anymore, it's been a while) because I disliked it so much. It has been a couple of years and still coming across an incredible amount of people who absolutely adore Cassandra Clare it has been increasingly hard to resist checking her books out once more. And that's where I'm at.

The first book, meaning this one, I probably know best so I wasn't really reading it attentively and rather skimmed through it but I guess it was okay. I wasn't sure whether I really wanted to continue with this series but once I've finished it I pretty much had my mind set on at least continuing with the next book.

As for "actual opinions" of mine I have the following thoughts:

• I don't really like Jace. He's annoying and surprisingly random. Surprisingly as in "I didn't remember these interactions to be this awkward" (like when he suddenly tells the falcon-story). Also he really isn't funny, which I thought was supposed to be his whole deal.
• I also don't really like Clary, though better than Jace. I mean, she's introduced to this "new world" kind of deal and immediately assumes that she can just take charge, somehow. "We need to do this next! I totally know what I'm doing!", yeah sure.
• I don't get the chemistry between the two at all. Generally, I don't get any chemistry whatsoever (meaning: am I supposed to like Alec and Magnus? Because I couldn't care less).
• Shadowhunters are annoying brats. And I actually like that as a kind-of storyelement.
• I wished there was more actual shadowhunting going on.
• I wished there was less relationship-stuff going on.
• I wished the whole Clary-Jace thing wouldn't play out as stupidly as it does.
• I wished they had less collective stupidity. Like, Mom: "don't come home, Clary!" - Clary: "Oh, shit, I really need to go home!" - Everyone: "Yeah, sounds cool."

Rating:

I've rated this book as 3/5 in the past but I think I'm going to lower the rating to 2/5 stars.

Details:

Name: City of Bones

Deutscher Titel: City of Bones (Chroniken der Unterwelt #1)

Series: The Mortal Instruments

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Pages: 485