City of Bones (Clare novel)

Did You Know?

• The film adaptation was shot in Toronto and New York.
• The film starred Lily Collins as Clary Fray and Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace Wayland.

Plot

Clary Fray visits the Pandemonium club with her best friend Simon Lewis and sees a blue-haired boy killed by two other boys, but the body vanishes and no one else can see the attackers. The next day her mother Jocelyn announces a move to the country, upsetting Clary. Simon notices scars on Jocelyn's back, but Clary dismisses it. At a poetry reading Clary meets Jace, one of the boys from the club, who explains that he is a Shadowhunter, a demon-hunter, and that Clary has the Sight, allowing her to see beings from the Shadow World. Jocelyn calls Clary frantically, warning her not to come home and to tell Luke that 'he' has found her. Clary returns home to find her mother gone and is attacked by a demon, which she kills with Jace's Sensor. Jace brings her to the Institute, the Shadowhunters' headquarters, where she meets Isabelle, Alec, and their tutor Hodge. Jace proves Clary has Nephilim blood by touching her with a stele, which leaves her unharmed. Returning to her house, Clary and Jace meet neighbor Madame Dorothea, who has a teleportation portal. Clary rushes through it to find her mother, landing at Luke's bookstore with Simon. Luke returns with two men sent by Valentine Morgenstern to interrogate him about the Mortal Cup, a talisman both sides seek. Luke claims ignorance of where Jocelyn hid the Cup.

Characters

Clarissa Adele 'Clary' Fray/Fairchild/Morgenstern is a little over five feet tall, thin, with bright red hair, green eyes, and freckles, and looks nearly identical to her mother. She describes herself as less attractive than Isabelle and flat-chested. Clary grew up oblivious to the Shadow World and her real heritage, raised by her mother Jocelyn in New York. She is an artist who draws her emotions. After her mother is kidnapped, Clary adjusts to life as a Shadowhunter and develops a mutual attraction with Jace, though the revelation that they might be siblings dashes their romantic hopes. Jonathan Christopher 'Jace' Wayland/Morgenstern was orphaned at age ten when his father was murdered by members of the Circle, though this is later proven false. He was sent to the New York Institute to live with the Lightwoods and Hodge Starkweather, training alongside Isabelle and Alec Lightwood. He views Isabelle as a sister and shares a sacred parabatai bond with Alec. Jace is cold and arrogant, rejecting love and believing only in war. He was brutally trained in the arts of war and is considered the best Shadowhunter of his age. He has golden hair, eyes, and skin.

Reception

Critical reception for City of Bones was mostly positive. Publishers Weekly called the book 'a compelling story'. Teen Ink gave a mixed review, calling the book 'addicting' but noting parts were quite predictable. The School Library Journal also criticized the book's predictability but wrote that the version of New York full of Buffyesque teens trying to save the world is entertaining and will have fantasy readers awaiting the next book.

Allusions to other works

Cassandra Clare includes references to the works of Holly Black, a friend of hers. At the beginning of the book, Clary draws while listening to a band called Stepping Razor, which is the name of Ellen Fierch's band in Black's book Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. In Chapter 10, Clary sees homeless teenagers including a girl with a shaved head and a boy with dreadlocks and facial piercings who appears blind in one eye; these are characters Valerie and Luis from Black's book Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie. Clare also references Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet, drawing inspiration from it. The antagonist Valentine, later revealed to be Clary's father, is a nod to Reeve's antagonist Thaddeus Valentine in Mortal Engines, who is also discovered to be the father of one of the main characters.