City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (Book 1 of the Mortal Instruments Series)
Book Description: When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder — much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Clary knows she should call the police, but it's hard to explain a murder when the body disappears into thin air and the murderers are invisible to everyone but Clary.
About the Author: Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father's backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old. Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called "The Beautiful Cassandra" based on the eponymous Jane Austen short story (and from which she later took her current pen name).
Equally startled by her ability to see them, the murderers explain themselves as Shadowhunters: a secret tribe of warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. Within twenty-four hours, Clary's mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque demon.
But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know....
After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina's world travels and Britney Spears' wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again.
Cassie's first professional writing sale was a short story called "The Girl's Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord" in a Baen anthology of humor fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her two cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.
Here's What I Think: This was the book select for my IRL book club and I was hopefully to get engaged by it. It did not disappoint. The book does not dillydally in getting to the juicy part of the story. It is filled with imaginative characters and an intense storyline. Though it is definitely a YA selections (not much language or sexual situation) I would call it a cross between True Blood (because Clary is thrust into a world that she was born into but shielded from by a good intentioned family member) and The Hollows (because she has a means to combat the Demons, but just has a lot of learn). My fave character is Jace. He is so determined to be the big strong arrogant man but can't get past his heart of gold, no matter how hard he tries. The plot of this book lends itself easily to being a series without being redundant. I have already started the second in the series and I am enjoying the energy and pace of the story immensely.
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