Clare's City of Bones

You think you're having a rough day? Clary goes out with her friends to a club and sees a boy murdered by two Shadowhunters-- only he isn't a boy, but a demon. Later, Clary gets a panicked call from her mother, telling her not to come home. Clary does, of course, only to be set upon by a demon and rescued by the very Shadowhunters who killed the demon in the club. Things only get worse-- she finds out that her mother had a relationship with a Shadowhunter gone bad-- Valentine, who wanted to find the Mortal Cup and use it to turn children into his own private army. Downside of that? Most of them would be killed. Clary finds out that she herself is part of this world of demons and demonhunters, even though her mother tried very hard to keep her from realizing it.

There's plenty of action in this book, some romance (Clary's long time friend Simon versus the hot but smarmy Shadowhunter Jace) and some clever twists on the whole vampire-witch-fairy stories that the teens seem to adore. At first, I thought it would be a self-involved Goth tale (starting out at the club put a bad taste in my mouth), but it improved. Some of the writing is very clever. Hearing the suggestion that Valentine sent the demon after Clary's mother because "maybe he wants to get back together", Jace says "It wouldn't be my move. First the candy and flowers, then the apology letters, then the ravenous demon hordes. In that order."(Page 153)

With the exception of a drawn out battle for Simon after he gets himself turned into a rat, the book improved steadily from the begining, and in the end, I liked the book. Much better than Twilight, but not quite as clever as Blue Bloods. I will look forward to the sequel, The City of Ashes, which is already out, and The City of Glass, which comes out in March of 2009.

http://www.cassandraclare.com/
http://www.mortalinstruments.com/