You know how some
people make new years resolutions like: Read Fifty Books in One Year?
Well, I think one that better applies to me is: Read Less Books &
Do More Work & Other Stuff because by January 3rd I'd already
read three books. But that's not entirely my fault. Cassandra Clare
shares a large part of the blame.
Here is what the back
cover of City of Bones has to
say for itself:
When 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 odd markings.
This is Clary’s
first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding
the earth of demons - and keeping the odd werewolves and vampires in
line. It’s also her first meeting with gorgeous, golden-haired
Jace. 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 an
ordinary mundane like Clary? And how did she suddenly get the Sight?
The Shadowhunters would like to know...
Clary Fray is a
fifteen-year-old artist (because YA heroines always want to be
artists or writers when they grow up & never accountants or
publicists or occupational therapists*) whose world is turned
upside-down when she realises she can see through the glamour that
demons & other Downworlders use to become invisible to humans
("mundanes": the new muggles). Then her mother disappears &
Clary & her nerdy, bespectacled best friend Simon team up with
teenage Shadowhunters Jace, Isabelle & Alec, to find out where
she is.
Clary soon discovers
that her mother was once a Shadowhunter herself, & that all of
Clary's early memories of the demon world have been erased. Also,
serious Bad Guy Valentine, an evil ex-Shadowhunter previously
presumed dead, wants to summon demons to help him eliminate any
Shadowhunters who don't agree with his Death Eater-ish beliefs.
Evil supernatural
purists, mysterious tattoos, demons, werewolves & vampires, a
beautiful boy with a serious attitude problem: City of Bones
(along with its sequels, City of Ashes &
City of Glass) sounds
like your typical young adult urban fantasy. Which it is. Only
not all typical young adult urban fantasy is this addictive. Here's
what really worked for me about this series:
1.
Good prose. One of the reasons this series is so
easy to read is because it's just really well written. The
descriptions are gorgeous, the dialogue is snappy & often very
funny & the pace is perfect. I could hardly put it down (I read
an entire trilogy in three days, of course
I could hardly put it down).
2.
Good stock characters. In some ways Clary is like every other YA
urban fantasy heroine (she's artsy, she thinks herself plain but boys
love her even if she doesn't realise they do, she ends up with
unusual powers), only somehow, probably related to point 1, she's
very likeable & not annoying in the slightest. She's also maybe
more fleshed-out than the other heroines I'm thinking of: she's kind
of nerdy, a little flighty & quite short-tempered, which makes
for a pretty realistic supernatural teenager.
Similarly,
Jace is the Regulation Hottie. He's a bad boy with an attitude
problem & a blatant disregard for authority who functions as
one-third of the love triangle that always seems to involve a "plain"
girl, her nerdy but wise-cracking best friend & an aloof &
mysterious new boy. But Jace isn't idealised in the way that some
Regulation Hotties are (*cough*Edward*cough*); he has a carefully &
sensitively crafted backstory to his brooding & can get pretty
exasperating (which also makes for a pretty realistic supernatural
teenager). So while I'm generally always on Team Best Friend when it
comes to love triangles, I have to admit that the chemistry between
Clary & Jace can get pretty electric.
Some
of the secondary characters include sexy, ass-kicking Shadowhunter
Isabelle & her moody, closeted brother Alec;
Dungeons-&-Dragons-playing, curly-haired best friend Simon;
sarcastic, glittery warlock Magnus Bane; & charismatic but
manipulative bad guy Valentine. All pretty standard characters
(except Magnus, perhaps, who is too awesome to be counted as a stock
character) but all excellently written, engaging & complex. This
is how all YA fantasy characters should be written.
3. Forbidden love. I
LOVE forbidden love. Tortured romance is so much more satisfying than
regular romance, & although this series does action &
adventure really well, it often feels like the romantic tension is
leading the plot. And with the intensity of the will they/ won't
they/ can they/ can't they, that's hardly surprising.
4. ALL the supernatural
creatures! If you like vampires & werewolves & faeries &
warlocks & angels & demons & you just don't know which to
chose, this series has 'em all. Now I have to admit I'm not a big fan
of angels. Angels in fiction (especially in YA) tend to make me roll
my eyes a lot (unless they belong to Philip Pullman or Neil Gaiman).
In the Mortal Instruments series
Shadowhunters are humans with distant angel ancestors, & there's
a fair amount of angel lore to go with all the demon stuff (while
somehow avoiding discussing if any particular god exists within the
word of the series) which I suppose makes sense, but I'm not
particularly fond of it. The demons of the series are great, however,
sort of like Buffy demons
only with less of the kitten-eating & more of the
human-ribcage-cracking.
Actually, the
Mortal Instruments series reads
sort of like a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer
& Harry Potter.
(These are a few of my favourite things...) It's good, reliable young
adult fantasy & I highly recommend it.
*It used to vaguely
annoy me that so many characters in novels want to be or become
artists & writers until I realised that for every character who
achieves their childhood dream of becoming a writer, there is an
author writing these characters who achieved the very same dream.
