City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

As far as books which have been turned into movies go, I will almost always prefer the book. This isn't some weird snobbish thing-I believe a movie is worth just as much as a book in terms of merit, and (depending on the movie and the book) sometimes more. It just so happens that usually I like the book better.

City of Bones is no exception.

I was on chapter ten of this book when I went to see the movie. After enduring what was possibly the most boring 2 hours of my life, I really had very little desire to finish it but I'm glad I did. This book is a hundred times better than the movie. For one thing it's actually pretty funny, a quality I find rare in books. For another, Clary actually does stuff in the book which doesn't involve screaming and falling over all the time.

But anyway, this isn't about my issues with the movie. Taken on its own, City of Bones is a pretty decent book. As I said, the dialogue manages to be pretty funny at times and the secondary characters are all likeable and interesting. My main issue comes from the main characters. That is to say, I don't actually particularly like either of them.

You might question how I can enjoy a book when I don't like the main characters and to be honest, I don't really have an answer for you. Clary is a little bland and suffers from the whole 'hostile and snarky for no real reason' problem which plagues 'feisty' female characters. Jace is just an asshole, plain and simple. But the rest of the characters I liked on the whole and for whatever reason, I was able to look past my disinterest in the two main ones.

The twist at the end I actually really liked, weird though it was. If I hadn't seen the movie first then it would have been genuinely surprising and it's definitely something which hasn't been done before. It's also very brave in YA fiction so Clare deserves some bonus points for that. Which she prompty loses for naming her heroine 'Clary'.

Overall, City of Bones is a moderately enjoyable book. It doesn't make my top ten list perhaps but I will be checking out the rest of the series and it's certainly an improvement from the snorefest of a movie. It's probably worth reading and you could certainly do a lot worse.

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