Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Publish Date: April 2007

VOYA rating= 4P, 3Q S, J

Fifteen-year-old Clary Fray visits her favorite New York City night club late one evening and watches attractive teenagers follow a blue-haired boy into a storage room. Next thing Clary knows, the boy is dead, and the body disappears. Clary is not your typical mundie—she can see Shadowhunters and the demons they hunt. Clary’s mother is kidnapped, their home is ransacked, and Clary kills an evil Ravener in her own home. She is then temporarily adopted into the Shadowhunter clan, and begins to learn their ways. For some reason, Clary has the Sight and must use her powers and her new friends to find and rescue her mother. Along the way, she is burdened by the love of her best friend Simon and the complicated feelings she has towards Jace, a Shadowhunter.

This fast-paced fantastic thriller will keep readers on the edge of their seats. It includes everything from werewolves to mind-sucking librarians to vampires to a brother unknowingly kissing his sister! Just what teenagers love to read. Clary is an independent, saucy female character who adapts her newfound powers easily and thinks nothing of throwing a weapon at a werewolf. The dialogue is awkward at times which led to the 3Q rating. Clary makes some trite remarks that interrupt the narrative flow. The author is in a writing group with Holly Black, author of Tithe and Valiant, two dark fantasies similar to City of Bones.