City of Bones, 1 (Mortal Instruments, #1)

by Cassandra Clare

[Joni Reads]

I waited a long to read this series. For a while my local library only had the second book in the series but that's not my main reason for waiting. I am more of a contemporary YA kind of girl. And yet I have yet to read a paranormal YA book and dislike it. Makes no sense does it? Well anyway, I finally found the first in the series at the library and promptly took them home. As soon as I started City of Bones I was enraptured.
We first meet Clary, our main character, at a teen night club with her best friend Simon. Following a series of events she witnesses a murder. But not just any murder. She witnesses the murder of a demon. And as it turns out no one can see the murderers aside from Clary. She tries to shake the whole thing off until she goes home to find her mother has disappeared and a demon is waiting to attack her at her apartment. She is saved by Jace, one of the people she saw murder the demon at the night club.
Jace is a shadowhunter. He and his family hunt and kill demons. As Clary is drawn into their world she finds out that her life is not as it has always seems and Clary might be more connected with Jace's world than she once thought.
I was completely caught up in this novel from the beginning. I felt the pull of it when I was not reading it. The descriptions of the faces and creatures have so much detail that I could picture everything like a movie behind my eyes as I read. I got a bit annoyed with Simon lingering in the background through out the book but eventually I got used to him. I really liked Clary's attitude. She was sarcastic and funny and she really held herself together in a situation that would have most teenage girls falling apart.
My favorite part was when they talked about the runes and their magic. The fact that the Shadowhunters had runes tattooed onto their bodies to protect and aid them in battle was just an interested and new concept. And reading about the glamour that was used to hide the Shadowhunters home, modes of transportation, even to hide themselves makes me want to look closer at the world around me and see what I may have been missing.
The action is this novel flowed so well and I was able to keep up and never found myself confused as can happen with some paranormal novels. Cassandra Clare has created a well laid out world that is easy to immerse yourself. And you are in for one surprising twist at the end that had me falling off my chair.