I, as a young woman, love romantic stories (and yes, even supernatural romantic stories) so I spent my summer reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It is book 1 of The Mortal Instruments book series and it is currently being made into a movie. The book is separated into three major sections so that is what sections I chose to break up my thoughts on the novel.

::::Spoilers Ahead::::

My first thoughts were, why the hell is a 15 year old going to club called, Pandemonium. That just seems dangerous and scary. I get it, there are bouncers and security measures, but she’s only 15 going to a dance club filled with ravers, goth kids, and the like.  I know city life is a little different for teenagers but clubs seem like the something they should wait on. Right?

The whole first couple of chapters, all I could  think of is that Simon is super sweet, but while he is obviously in love with Clary, it is also super obvious they aren’t meant to be together despite what he thinks.

Her mom seems nice but incredibly overprotective. From the beginning it seems like there is something more to her mother then they are letting on. This is later confirmed when Simon remarks about her scars that Clary cant see and seem eerily similar to Isabell’s markings from the first chapter.

Jace also confirms that some of the scariest things like vampires, werewolves and zombies all exist. I figured as much because if demon hunters are around that probably means that other things like that are around as well. But this novel is becoming eerily similar to other works of fiction I have read but I will touch on that later.

Well I was close to right. Revealed in this chapter is that Clary is the daughter of a shadowhunter. I surmised she was something of the sort but I guessed Fay. Jace says that she would have died if she had been just mere human, wait… I mean “mundie”. However, she didn’t die so she is a shadowhunter and for now the clave safe house isn’t being invaded by mere “mundanes.”

I wondered when Clary was going to actually call someone and tell them she wasn’t dead. This seems for the most part to take place is relatively modern times and normally if a young girl goes missing for three days someone calls the cop right?

Here is my biggest problem with the novel thus far:

Ok, roughly a third of the book in all I could think was … this book so far is a lot like True Blood and Harry Potter put together and without any of the sex and maybe a little Twilight thrown in.

Seriously.

Young child who has lost one or both parents, finds out they are from a mysterious powerful bloodline, can perform magic or see things others cant, and is involved in a love/like triangle. The young child finds out that the world still contains things considered to be myths such as werewolves, vampires, and faeries and so on. Thus her worldview is opened and she is able to save the world from the threat that for some reason only they can battle.

Don’t get me wrong, the story line is interesting and captivating but maybe I just have seen to many movies/shows/books. Either way it seems very similar to these storylines.

At the end of this section of the novel, it is revealed that Clary’s mom was married the main villain, Valentine. And even more, Hodge and her were part of his inner circle very similar in nature to the Nazi’s of our own history. (I doubt this likeness is a coincidence by the way)