City of Bones

sshans2 - I do not recommend reading this book in public if you want to be thought of as sane: you will laugh with EVERY page, and as soon as you stop laughing you'll just start rolling on the floor again, until you're terrified and shocked and crying-- yet somehow still laughing uncontrollably. When sixteen-year-old Clary Fray (or is that even her real name...?) is thrusted into a whole new world where 'all the stories are true'--demons, werewolves, vampires, faeries-- she realizes that her mundane life to this point has been full of lies. She is a Shadowhunter, though she was not raised that way, and soon learns how to act like one while still preserving some of her own childhood innocence. She meets people with unforgettable personalities (You can't not love Luke, Magnus, Jace...)...and if you just turn the pages and read on, so will you. To me, this was a young adult version of the Harry Potter series--not that you can't read Harry Potter as a young adult :-) --with just the things a book needs: unpredictable plot twists, and much longing to be in this fictional world alongside these lovable characters.

April 9, 2007
Clare's debut novel, first in the Mortal Instruments series, is a sprawling urban fantasy packed with just about every type of creature known to the genre, and still spacious enough to hold more. Fifteen-year-old Clary Fray witnesses a killing in an "all-ages club"; when she confronts the attackers, she learns that they are spectral Shadowhunters, charged with killing demonic creatures called Night Children. Clary returns home to find her apartment vandalized and her mother missing, apparently kidnapped by creatures in the service of someone named Valentine. An attack by a slithering beast sends Clary to the infirmary at the Institute, hidden home of the Shadowhunters. There she befriends the hunter Jace, who tells her of Valentine's intention to find the Mortal Cup, one of three Mortal Instruments the Angel gave to the first Shadowhunters (the others are a mirror and sword). Great secrets abound both in Clary's past and in her own head—secrets that are gradually revealed to her about her mother, her mother's eccentric friend Luke, her relationship with Jace and, eventually, about Valentine himself. Clare's atmospheric setting is spot-on, informed equally by neo-gothic horror films and the modern fantasy leanings of Neil Gaiman. Werewolves, vampires, angels and fairies all fit in this ambitious milieu. At the core, though, this is a compelling story about family secrets and coming-of-age identity crises. Fans of the smart/chic horror typified by Buffy the Vampire Slayer
will instantly fall for this new series. Ages 14-up.

May 1, 2007
Gr 8 Up-When Clary Fray witnesses three tattoo-covered teenagers murder another teen, she is unable to prove the crime because the victim disappears right in front of her eyes, and no one else can see the killers. She learns that the teens are Shadowhunters (humans who hunt and kill demons), and Clary, a mundie (i.e., mundane human), should not be able to see them either. Shortly after this discovery, her mother, Jocelyn, an erstwhile Shadowhunter, is kidnapped. Jocelyn is the only person who knows the whereabouts of The Mortal Cup, a dangerous magical item that turns humans into Shadowhunters. Clary must find the cup and keep it from a renegade sector of Shadowhunters bent on eliminating all nonhumans, including benevolent werewolves and friendly vampires. Amid motorcycles powered by demon energies, a telepathic brotherhood of archivists, and other moments of great urban fantasy, the story gets sidetracked by cutesy touches, like the toasted bat sandwich on the menu of an otherworldly restaurant. The characters are sporadically characterized and tend toward behavior that is both predictable and slightly repellentClary finds out who her real father is about 200 pages after readers will have it figured out. Despite the narrative flaws, this version of New York, full of Buffyesque teens who are trying to save the world, is entertaining and will have fantasy readers anxiously awaiting the next book in the series."Heather M. Campbell, Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.