City of Bones: An urban fantasy full of demons, werewolves and things that go bump in the night

Photo: Simon & Schuster

Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series begins with her first book, City of Bones.  We follow Clary Fray and her best friend Simon as they head to the goth-infused Pandemonium Club for a night of dancing. Shortly after arriving, Clary spots two boys trailing a couple into a room marked “No Admittance”. One of the boys has a knife. Against her better judgment, Clary opts to ditch Simon and follow the teens. Plunged into the world of “Nephilium”(another term for Shadowhunter), Clary witnesses a trio of tattooed-teenage-Shadowhunters murder a boy. Or was it a boy? Claws like razors, black blood and conversations about demons precede the boy’s disappearance into thin air. The “murderers” are as shocked as Clary that as a “mundie” (nickname for a mundane human) she can actually see them.

Following an attack by a lizard-like demon and the disappearance of her mother, Clary is thrown head first into a world of secret societies and monsters. She reluctantly joins the quest to retrieve The Mortal Cup which has been stolen by a Shadowhunter named Valentine. Demon activity is on the rise as Valentine works to rid the world of all “Downworlders” and anyone opposed to his evil plan. For hundreds of years, the Shadowhunters and Downworlders have coexisted peacefully…until now. Sensing the threat, vampires, fairies, werewolves and warlocks, otherwise known as Downworlders, are bracing for a war and Clary and her new friends are forced to take sides.

With her mother gone missing, Clary discovers a hidden past and family ties that will lead her to the truth about who her real father is and the discovery of a sibling that she never knew she had. City of Bones is an edgy, witty read full of danger, self discovery and a love triangle that gets a bit sticky. Clare has a knack for creating memorable characters and fantastical scenes dropped into the urban sprawl of New York City. With mirrored portals, flying motorcycles powered by demon energies and a Downworlder café that serves up fairy food right next to the city’s best onion rings, she has brilliantly painted a world hidden by glamoured facades.

Cassandra Clare was born in Teheran, Iran and traveled the world with her American parents. She has lived in France, England, Switzerland, Los Angeles and New York. She worked for entertainment magazines and tabloids before adopting her pen name for her first young adult series inspired by her favorite city, Manhattan. She is working on The Infernal Devices Trilogy, a prequel to the Mortal Instrument series, set in Victorian England. The first book in the series, The Clockwork Angel is due to be released in September 2010.

For more info:  More on Cassandra Clare 
Mortal Instruments Party and Signing in New York City. Saturday August 22nd, 2009
City of Ashes and City of Glass are the next books in the series.
The Infernal Devices Trology is the prequel to The Mortal Instruments series.  Due out in 2010. 

Click here for an excerpt from City of Bones.