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City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)

Cassandra Clare

Start date: March 1, 2011

Finish date: March 31, 2011

Discussion: Monthly Group Read

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Jan 08, 2011 Janet Morris rated it it was ok

Shelves: contemporary, goody-two-shoes, taboos, books-in-a-series, dysfunctional-family, romance, fantasy, bad-characters, geeks, bad-parents

I'm a bit of a weirdo. I don't actually mind when fanfiction gets turned into book form...as long as it is worth reading and it makes some effort to not be a ripoff of the original story. When it comes right down to it, this book and the series that it belongs to just aren't worth reading and they have obvious issues with copying from other books, as well as television and movie series.

I tried not to read up on the series or its writer before I started reading these books. I know that there was I'm a bit of a weirdo. I don't actually mind when fanfiction gets turned into book form...as long as it is worth reading and it makes some effort to not be a ripoff of the original story. When it comes right down to it, this book and the series that it belongs to just aren't worth reading and they have obvious issues with copying from other books, as well as television and movie series.

I tried not to read up on the series or its writer before I started reading these books. I know that there was some serious drama-llamaing a few years ago on LiveJournal, but I tried to ignore that and be as objective as possible while reading these stories. So when I say that I didn't like the stories, I don't mean that I don't like the author's past, I just mean that I found the stories to be seriously lacking in many ways.

They aren't well-written at all. Even though the story's plot may seem original, it isn't. I would suggest readers watch at least the first two movies in The Prophecy franchise, as well as read the books in the Harry Potter series (where the fanfiction version of this originated), Star Wars, and the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I almost started a list while reading this of all the episodes, movies, and books where a scene would be swiped from. Her inability to come up with an original plot wasn't the only thing wrong with the writing. The actual writing was bad. It was choppy. I would read a sentence, then have to take a break and try to go on to the next sentence. It felt like English wasn't really even her first language. And the editing, don't get me started on that. The errors in this book were just so shocking.

The characters weren't all that interesting. They were so trope-y and stereotypical. There is no growth by any of them. If anything, they actually get worse as the story goes on. I was offended by the way that Magnus is basically portrayed as a slut because he's bisexual. Bisexual characters always get that kind of treatment in books, and that's a major reading pet peeve of mine.

And the incestuous nature of the lead characters' relationship is just grotesque. I don't care if they end up finding out that they aren't siblings or not. Incest is not sexy. And I feel like this series almost tries to glamorize it.

I cannot understand how this book is popular or even liked by anyone. It's awful. It's offensive. If you haven't read it already, please don't waste your time in checking it out. It really isn't worth it. ...more

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Mar 09, 2010 Mel rated it really liked it

Wow really like this book.

Clary doesn't know about a secret world compose of demons, vampire, werewolf and shadowhunters.
Not only does she find out that this world exist but that she is a part of it. Her mother tried to protect her from this part of her family heritage.
She becomes involve in the other world and meets Isabelle, Alec, Hodge and Jace.
While trying to find a way to save mom she discovers that her mom was hiding alot more than the little box mark J.C.

I love this take on the otherwo ...more

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