One of the first blurbs I read about City of Bones likened it to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That gave me some doubts about it as I have read several of the novelisations based on BtVS and they left me unfulfilled.

Fortunately I decided to give it a try and once I did I was blown away – it was indeed similar to Buffy but in a way that made me recall what was good about the television series. Some parts of the book also made me compare it to Harry Potter, but CoB is not an imitation of those two series rather it is a novel that can stand on its own merits and stand tall it does!

Clary (the protagonsist) is a well-written teenager who stumbles into a mysterious world of demon-hunters and monsters who are as shocked that she can see them as she is.

One of the strong-points of the novel is the personal interaction between the main characters who even though they are tough hunters are not so confident in their own abilities that they don't bicker and second-guess themselves.

The book is well-plotted dark fantasy aimed squarely at teens but will also find fans amongst older readers. Cassandra Clare has managed to write a book that seems familiar and new the same time, there are secrets that are only hinted at and the story gradually became clearer as I read but there were a number of plotlines left artfully dangling that made me itch to get my hands on the second book in the trilogy.

By the end of the last page I had become a believer in Cassandra Clare's world and that (in my book) is a mark of a great writer.

City of Bones is a novel that I loved from beginning to end and I give it a 9 out of a possible 10!

Reviewer: M. Imrie