Review of City of Bones

 I have just finished reading the book City of Bones, written by Cassandra Clare. I had somewhat high hopes for this book, being that it was on the NY Times Best Seller list and also that it is going to become a major motion picture, or perhaps it already is one, I cannot recall. All this being said, I purchased it on a whim and decided, though it is YA fiction, I would give it a whirl, I mean, Harry  Potter is YA too and those books are terribly engaging. Sadly, this poor excuse for a book failed to entertain me. I read the whole book nonetheless because I have a thing about stopping in the middle of a book. I generally will read the first chapter of a book before I purchase it and if that first chapter doesn't wow me, I won't buy it. Suffice to say, I wish I had done so with this book, but again, it was an impulse buy.

Lets start at the very beginning and say that first off, I tend to dislike when authors, whose skill is seriously lacking, and/or who are catering to a very young audience quote famous authors. She does this three times throughout the novel and that was were the issues started for me. To understand why I feel this way, you need to look at it like this; the author, whoever they are, in this case Ms. Clare, gives the reader a distinct taste of fine literature by utilizing a famous quote, in this case from Shakespeare. While wetting the proverbial whistle of a reader with something truly meaningful by one of the greats can really work, if you are a decent author, I felt as if she was either using one of English Literature's most famous and treasured scribes as a introduction, almost as if he has written her a forward or was trying to piggyback on the greatness of such a figurehead of literature and then her words were so poorly woven in comparison that the mere mention of his words ditracted greatly from her own. Either way, I find this sort of thing rather deplorable. Don't get me wrong, if she were to quote Dante or some such mid-writing, it wouldn't irk me so, because she has set up the quote and it fits into her story. I think that quote set up is huge and to be also as stated previously being such a skilled writer so as to seamlessly blend the words of a master into your own work takes a lot more practice than simply slapping them onto the coat-tails of a few chapter titles.

I digress, back to the writing itself, I also dislike it when authors include words in any other language that cannot be easily understood. Let me explain again; it is not that I dislike the use of foreign words but in context is preferable and if not, then there needs to be a reason. However, the fact that a character might be Hispanic does not warrant the use of Spanish unless he is utilizing a word in that language that does not exist in English (I understand that more times than not, this is the case, not so here) Also, using Latin or other languages and not giving the reader any clue what the phrase means, seriously? This isn't a translation of a novel by Proust, or a collection of poetry in which the meaning is lost if translated into English; it is a novel for prepubescent girls (sorry, there just in not much fighting, gore or action and far too much *spoiler alert* sibling flirtation, which I find quite a bit offensive. Not to mention the blatant thumbs up to homosexuality which, lets face it folks, is a sin, not that this kind of novel really cares about that sort of thing either way.) Basically, if you can't figure out what the word or phrase means based on context, just write it in English (or at least add a translation at the back of the novel). I feel it distracts the reader from the plot and leads to a less satisfying read all together, I mean lets face it, no one is reading this drivel to get smarter, they read it because they want to imagine hot young [insert random supernatural character here]s getting all crazy and then falling in love and possibly engaging the reader in some sort of sudo-peeping-tom-trashy-teen-romance-novel-love-scene. 

On a more writing based level, I feel that the content of the novel, it being filled with dark magic and many rather dark themes, does not match the reading level, but then again this might not be the fault of the author but the publisher. I mean it isn't like kids are sitting at home opening up the classics and quoting famous poets or lecturers at the dinner table, Americans are, in general, idiots and I am including myself in that big stupid pie. I mean look at all of the other developed nations and tell me, does your kid know five languages that are not his native tongue, can he read the King James Bible without having to stop and look up words, is he able to comment on the politics in any other country but his own? I daresay that the answers are no and whose fault is it? Well, who knows.

Again, back to the novel review... The characters are very one dimensional, all of them. I think the the most interesting person the reader is privy to is Clary's mother, who is absent most of the novel. I doubt that this is a subtle move on the part of the author and more of a fluke. In general, the novel was thankfully free of errors as far as typos go but then we come to the setting and it makes me a little annoyed too. If the novel is set in New York, then please make me feel like it isn't just any city but actually NY. I could have been reading about Seattle for all the detail the setting gave me. I will mention that there was a few moments of hope, a few glimpses into what could have be a well developed world, but sadly she leaves things so barren, so bereft of imagery, that my imagination was overly taxed by the lack there of.

I could continue, but I think all of you who read this will know what I am getting at by now. I think that I could have written this novel, on a bad day, with a cold and without use of a thesaurus and it would have still been better. I can't even compare it to the failings of Twilight, because, Twilight was better and that IS saying something. I mean, seriously? This is what is being fed to the youth of America as purchase worthy literature? No wonder we are idiots. As to any final notes, I should add that I tend to be overly harsh but as far as if you should waste your time reading this - don't, it is a few hours of your life that you will never get back. Go find a friend and make cookies, at least they will leave you with a sweet taste in your mouth, not the feeling of having read the same dumbed-down, teenage fantasy fiction novel for the hundredth time.