The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones & City of Ashes | the review

I READ THE FIRST TWO BOOKS OF THE TMI SERIES! And I'm really really happy about that!

So here we go with the reviews!

Title: City of Bones
Author: Cassandra Clare
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publication date: March 27th, 2007
Pages: 485 pages
Rating: ★★★★★

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know. . . .

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I started this book in July, I think. And I read almost half of it and I just couldn't get into it. And then a month later I got the book back from the library and I made myself read it. And I am really really happy I did. Because I ended up loving it!
At first, I really didn't get how this book worked. It's because there is a lot of information about this Shadowhunter world and sometimes you wanna know some things about the world the book is set in, if you know what I mean. And it was really confusing to me. And as I want further into the story I kept over-analyzing everything and that kinda ruined my mood for it. I kept on reading tho, and by the time I hit page 180 I stopped reading and I started reading something else, and after I finished some books, I kinda missed this book and I wanted to watch the movie and I basically made myself read the book so I can watch the movie and overall, the book was really good.
The things Cassandra Clare does best in this book are the descriptions and dialogue. The descriptions are very very well written and imagined. Sometimes I felt that the book could've been shorter because of that, because it wasn't necessary to describe everything so much. But this was balanced out by the dialogue, which was brilliantly done. The characters were very funny and sarcastic, especially Jace and Simon.
The thing that the book lacked, in my opinion, was the character development or at least the fact that their personalities seemed to lack something. And also, Clary was very annoying in this book. And I didn't like her that much.
I loved Magnus! LOVED HIM! Also, I don't understand why Alec and Isabelle were skeptical about Clary being a Shadowhunter (well, I get why Alec hated her), even after JACE MARKED HER AND SHE LIVED! AND SHE.COULD.SEE.THEM!
I was very very scared for Simon after that scene in Hotel Dumort And I just basically wanted to hug him and just kiss him on his forehead and tell him that everything was going to be alright after he saw Clary and Jace kiss.
If you're skeptical about reading this book after watching the trailer of the movie, just read it. It's worth the try.

---WARNING! This review will contain spoilers! Read at your own risk!---

Title: City of Ashes
Author: Cassandra Clare
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publication date: March 25, 2008
Pages: 464 pages
Rating: ★★★★★

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go -- especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil -- and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings -- and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I liked this book waay better than the first one. This was obviously a lot better written and well plotted. The characters were better, the story line was better and everything was better! I had seriously low expectations for this one and I was scared to start it! And then I couldn't stop.
I didn't want to write this in the CoB review because I didn't want to spoil it too much. I was already spoiled about the fact that Jace and Clary "are" siblings, and the fact is, if I hadn't known that, I would've believed Valentine BECAUSE HE SEEMED SO PERSUASIVE! I didn't believe him when he told Jace that "he wouldn't hurt his sister" when he obviously intended to kill her. I just, nope! I hate Valentine. HE KILLED SIMON! He is like somewhat of a racist son of a byatch, kinda like Voldemort, except that Valentine didn't do it just and only for himself, Valentine wants to do what he does because he truly believe it's for the best of the Shadowhunters, EVEN IF IT'S OBVIOUSLY BULLSHIT! Or let's just call him a Dalek.
I was scared when Jace went to Valentine's ship because I thought he would say yes to his offer, and I knew deep down that he would never do that.
The relationship between Simon and Clary seemed, even if I really made me grin, a bit weird. And all of the sudden. And I was scared that Clary was going to break up with him, not the other way around BUT THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN AND I'M REALLY HAPPY!
The whole changing of perspectives made me more confused than a chameleon in a bag of skittles, but I realised after 50 pages that it was for the best.
About Simon, I LOVE SIMON! I stumbled upon some reviews of the books in which they said that they didn't like Simon. WHY?!?!?!?! He's the most adorable thing ever! And as a nerd, I know he's my type! And I was SHOCKED when I read that part with him being a vampire. As we all know, vampires are usually really "sexy, bad-ass, confident, arrogant", but he's not that at all! He's a vegetarian, which I fucking love (I am not one, but am aspiring to be one), Jewish (it just makes him different), not arrogant, and not necessarily sexy, just cute, and not bad-ass, just witty. And I love him! It's really nice to finally see a vampire that's just not like the typical vampire. He's the only vampire that I would do, basically.
I know I blabber a lot in these reviews. Excuse me.
I just loved this book a lot more than the first one and everything is SO EXCITING! And I genuinely do not know what else to say about it.

I feel like I read about 5 books with reading just these two because they're very action packed and long! Cannot wait to read the next books and The Infernal Devices. AWWWEEYEEEAAH!

Finally, I have to go. Am sorry for the blabbering. I was watching TV while writing this. Judge me.

Goodbye,
E.