artsy musings of a bibliophile

City of Bones is a breathtaking tale of a somewhat young yet mature protagonist. I didn't know what to expect from it but what I got was way, way unexpected. Why, oh why? Yes, the series is just too good from the very start, the dialogue to my perfect liking and it has the right amount of gory details and va va voom moments.Clary Fray is one of those protagonists who are level-headed, grounded and fun feisty but doesn't have a sly bone in their body. With a guy BFF who is not gay (thank the Lord) and a pretty stable life to live, it was supposed to go perfect. But perfect lasted for the time it took for Clary to see people who are supposed to be invisible, to the humans at least. Thus, begins the journey into the unknown world of Shadowhunters.Jace Wayland, a blonde-haired-and-gold-eyed hunk of a guy, is your not so usual Shadowhunter with an ego that is enough to freeze you with a look. I liked him straightaway because of his witty dialogue laced with pretty heavy sarcasm. But he had depth of personality and enough of experience to last him a lifetime of the constant sarcasm. Case in point, "A diary with no drawings of me in it? Where are the torrid fantasies? The romance covers?"I just loved the interaction of Jace and Clary in the book. It had all the elements to make me breathless. My favorite quote from the book: "The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he'd learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed." The characters are well-formed and they actually connect to each other and to their history. Simon was kind of hard to get used to because he seemed somewhat of a jerk. Uh, I mean a different kind of jerk than Jace. But then he had the protective guy-slash-BFF role perfected down to a t. Anyhow, he had his reasons to act like he did. Though, whether they are justified or not remains to be seen.On a side note, I really don't agree with people who compare The Mortal Instruments series to the Harry Potter series. There is no basis. Yeah, there could be similarities alright and it is good to have Harry Potter series as a series to look up to. But that is that and I wouldn't want to ruin my reading experience of this series, anyway.I really liked City of Bones, however heart-wrenching it turned out to be. Glad to have started the series. The writing style of Cassandra Clare is just right because the story moved fast but not too fast so as not get what was actually happening. I liked the portrayal of demons, vampires and werewolves in the book. Some pretty heavy action to look forward to and a good amount of OMG moments thrown in.