City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I picked this book up on a whim as I hadn't heard of the Mortal Instruments series beforehand, and bought it after skim reading in the shop for a bit (I am going to get banned from bookshops for doing this!). 

The first 5 or so chapters were actually really good at getting me interested, it starts off with normalcy from the main character's (Clary) point of view as we would see things and then unexpectedly shifts to the perspective of a demon in a world that’s completely new to us, which was enough to keep me reading.

The books follows New York based teens Clary and her best friend, Simon as they are introduced to the world of the Shadowhunters following some close encounters with demons. They uncover a world that is very different to the one they thought they knew.

The Shadowhunters are a secretive group who protect humans from demons and when you get your first glimpse of the Shadowhunters, you don’t know whether or not you like them because even though they’re clearly the good guys, they aren’t the likeable guys either. 
It is interesting to see a different type of hero in them, they’re sullen and sarcastic and rather pretentious rather than kindly and respectful and selfless which gives a nice change from all the insufferably nice heroes and gives some cool drama between the different characters. 
Additionally, it’s really interesting to see a normal guy like Simon, who already feels at odds with the world, try to adjust and wrap his head around the fact that the world is vastly different to the one he was brought up to believe in.

As the story progresses, the relationships between characters grow in different ways which is also a refreshing change from everyone suddenly being friends as soon as they meet. There are cool side characters that really carry the backstory and give the book more diversity in terms of their seriousness and humour. 
The villain is also great in how he's introduced and built up.

Overall though I only have one real fault with this book and that is even though the whole point of the Shadowhunters’ existence is to kill demons, not enough demons make an appearance in this book for my liking!

This book is the first of six in The Mortal Instruments series.

Image copyright: Walker Books Ltd