PDF Ù City of Bones Ä Cassandra Clare
Ts 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 kno 19 Apr '16 Bet you're sick of my updates nowJust for reference on the recent Sherrilyn Kenyon v Cassandra ClareKenyon has filed a lawsuit against Clare and also provides a list of alleged similarities between Clare's work to her ownRead and decide for yourself 15 Jun '13 update again Saw some stills for the movie and to be honest despite being slightly spurious in my casting of City of Bones I actually think my version is much better than the movie versionI mean look at Isabelle and look at ClaryCorrect me if I'm wrong but Isabelle is supposed to be way hotter than ClaryAnd don't even get me started on JaceI mean Jamie Campbell Bower was cute in a couple of his other films but Jace was supposed to be I dunno swoon on your feet panty wetting hawwwtAnd SimonI mean he has friendzone written all over him 12 Jan '13 I know this is now being made into a film and I know they've all got the cast sorted out but I imagined them very differently So here's how they all played out in my headSimon Aaron Taylor JohnsonFor some reason I always imagined Simon as young Eisenheim And a part of me wants to kick myself for associating the 2006 film with this book in any wayAlec Ezra MillerAnd no it's not because he's ueerIsabelle Jessica SzohrBecause I wanted to put this picture in here 'kay?Jace Draco MalfoyI mean come on Is there even a debate on this??Clary Kristen StewartOnly because her acting skills match the uality of Clary's personality 11 Aug '12 Also known as Why Readers CAN Review An Author As Well As HisHer Book And Why STGRB Are Full of Shit And Obviously Never Took English Lit Classes For Telling Us We're Not Allowed ToI heard about the whole plagiarism issue long before I even heard of Cassandra Clare's books so I tried getting into it as objective as possible given the circumstances All I know is that she pretty much copy pasted whole wads of text from another FF writer from published books from TV dialogue into her Draco Dormiens trilogy without providing any credit to the original authorsI also know that she lifted wads of text from Draco Dormiens into her published Mortal Instruments What remains a mystery though is whether these bits copied into The Mortal Instruments were her own original pieces of writing or some of them even plagiarized work?I won't go much into the whole plagiarism thing since if indeed any plagiarized work exists in The Mortal Instruments that is pretty much speculationHowever it does bring to mind uestions of ethic; should a plagiarist be published? Some people strongly believe in giving second chances I think people only deserve second chances when they admit to their errors and have truly proven their repentance Both cases which I have not as of yet heard Cassandra Clare doOther uestions popping into my head include shouldn't there be some sort of punishment for plagiarists? I mean if I did in university what Cassandra Clare did in Draco Dormiens and arguably The Mortal Instruments then I would've been kicked out on the curb and my pretty Master's degree ripped to shreds And similar to the whole Chris Brown debacle instead of condemning her far below ethical work habits we the consumers commend their artwork as if sending the message that whatever wrongs they have done it doesn't matter because people still eat their shit up There is no learning curve here; or at least no deterrence factorBut anyway I tried to suppress these nagging uestions while I read the book because I wanted to know if I would truly objectively enjoy City of Bones Especially after the whole GR Bullies absurdity where an increasing number of voices proclaim that Reviews Should Be About Books And Completely Separate From The AuthorWell ladies and gentlemen my experience reading City of Bones will provide evidence alongside many other ample evidence out there that no sometimes we as readers cannot keep the two things separate Sometimes our moral and ethic code just won't let us Reading is after all a subjective experience and all sorts of things influence our enjoyment of it including our perception of the author And if that affects our enjoyment of a book then it damn well does belong in a review if we choose to put it thereSo Anyway Now that I'm off my soapbox The biggest thing that stands out while I read City of Bones was how inconsistent the writing was It was so lazy and repetitive information was handed over to us on a silver platter there was no subtlety or any depth going on But then there would be brief short scenes or dialogues that actually made me laugh out Those few and interspersed scenes surprised me like one wet and icky autumn day when I found a five dollar bill while raking up my neighbour's filthy gardenTry as I might to ignore it I was at a dilemma Should I enjoy this? I mean it's only five dollars Surely they couldn't miss it And I mean I'm working my arse off in this horrible weather because my mother owes them a lawnmower And anyway it might not even be theirs to begin withIn the end I took the money come on you would've too but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I would have And the delight I should have felt at finding money just wasn't thereThese funny bits of dialogues and scenes filled me with just as much inner turmoil as my five dollar note dilemma and even though I know that maybe perhaps it could be that these are all Cassandra Clare's own words I still couldn't shake off the icky suspicions out off my gut did she draw inspiration from some other unknown source here?In the end it just ravaged me with too much guilt and suspicions that what originally would have been a five star scene was reduced down to three stars and a really really sad faceAlso a part of the inconsistent writing was the inconsistent narration I know 3rd person omniscient gives the narrator the power to sift through characters' thoughts and emotions as they please but this is what made the narrative sound forced and contrived We would normally follow Clary as the novel progresses until it is convenient for us to see things from another character's perspective in which case off we'll jump into another person's headThese conveniences are just one example of what I mean when I say that the narrative lacked subtlety When we aren't directly being fed a certain character's thoughts and emotions through hisher own point of view we are blatantly told their feelings by the character themselves Rarely are people in real life so honest and self aware as the characters in City of BonesAn asshat? Jace looked as if he were about to laughWhat you said to Simon I was trying to save him some pain Isabelle will cut out his heart and walk all over it in high heeled boots That's what she does to boys like that You want to know what it's like when your parents are good church going folk and you happen to be born with the devil's mark? He pointed at his eyes fingers splayed When your father flinches at the sight of you and your mother hangs herself in the barn driven mad by what she's done? When I was ten my father tried to drown me in the creek I lashed out at him with everything I had burned him with everything I had burned him where he stood I didn't think you liked me all that muchIsabelle's brightness faded and she looked down at her silvery toes I didn't think I did either she admitted But when I went to look for and Jace and you were gone Her voice trailed off I wasn't just worried about him I was worried about you too There's something so reassuring about you And Jace is so much better when you're aroundThe point I'm trying to make here is that we get to know the characters because other characters are constantly telling us about them instead of us making our own informed opinions of them based on their actions and words This is why I say the writing was lazy and lacked depth And how Cassandra Clare tried to show us that her characters have background and troubles and are oh such damaged goods was or less through self testimonials such as the second uote up above where Magnus Bane so conveniently gave away his entire childhood to three random teenagers The chapter The Werewolf's Tale was another one of these self testimonials for another partially important character This is a whole new level of telling instead of showing Where unimaginative writers just unload all these information through descriptive prose Cassandra Clare was at least creative enough to hide it into her dialogue But the same underlying problem is still there we see none of this damaged goods I didn't need Sweeney Todd to tell me his past to know that he was a damaged troubled man His actions spoke it for meAs for information being handed to us on a silver platter all you need to do is take a look at the entire ending scene with Valentine to see my point The whole chapter was an infodump session Rarely do I read villains who are so eager to reveal their past and provide explanations to their potential victims The Harry Potter novels were slightly guilty of this especially in the earlier books but I believe a lot of other things about the books redeemed itself from this one faultJace was also a bit of an infodumper but I don't take away points for this I mean I get it it's hard to get on without one character at least explaining what the blazes was going onSpeaking of characters this is rather tough Many reviewers despised Jace because he was such an asshole Clary herself accuses Jace of being an asshole plenty of times But I've lived a fair amount of years and I was friendly with uite a few assholes during my own teenage years And let me tell you one thing Jace is no asshole He's a guy with daddy issues trying to act tough And that is as deep as any of the characters get I guess he would be my favourite character out of the whole lot not my favourite character as in the one I liked the most but the character whom in my opinion was the most developed without self testimonials or other characters telling us about himBut remember my five dollar note dilemma? Yeah Jace was without a doubt a direct cut and paste of the Draco from Clare's Draco Dormiens trilogy who by default is a creation of JK Rowling's So forgive me if I can't separate the book from the author because frankly? If I enjoyed this book simply because of Jace that doesn't say much about the rest of the book or the uality of writing because Jace is not even Clare's original characterFurther illustrating the inconsistencies of Clare's writing though was the sudden and drastic change in Jace's character during the scene with Valentine There is no way one person in such a short amount of time could thoroughly convince and change Jace into such an obedient? passive? receptive? character No matter who the person claimed he was or what evidence he brings to the table Even if Jace believed in everything Valentine told him there is no way it would have drastically changed him in such a manner and such a short timeJust as unlikely was the way Jace was ready to walk the ends of the world with Valentine build a new life with him and in the next moment after a few words from Clary was ready to throw that all away once again The double inconsistencies astound me Clare simply does not understand human psychology or even human nature enough to make solid charactersThe other characters were forgettable to say the least They all sounded the same I'm afraid Witty dry sort of humour It gets tiring after a while Also the Magnus and Alec thing? Can I just say ew? Magnus is like what? Forty? And Alec is sixteen?Even Valentine the Villain was not much of a villain He didn't frighten me or even daunt me I kept reading how Clary was disgusted at how manipulative he was during his scenes but reading the pages myself reading his words his actions? He wasn't particular conniving or ingenious really it was just that Jace was so ready to have a family back he was willing to lap up every bit of contradicting information he heardPlot progression and twists were unsurprising Uninspired No wait they were inspired By Star Wars and Harry Potter to name a few Perhaps even a bit of Buffy in thereAnd this is where my final dilemma lies To like or not to like? That is the uestionFor light fluff it has entertainment value enough But what little entertainment value there was was lifted off other better pieces of work out there To say that I did not enjoy City of Bones would be a lie; but the uestion is did I enjoy City of Bones or did I enjoy the bits of Harry Potter and Star Wars in City of Bones?I'll let you decide if it's fine to like a book filled with other writers' characters other authors' plot twists other screenwriters' dialogue Perhaps I'm being too uptight but here's how I see it New York with Potterverse and Star Wars Take that away and what are you?
Cassandra Clare Ä City of Bones EPUB
City of BonesInvisible 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 ac Okay so I’m far behind the curve on reading this but I very much enjoyed my introduction to the world of nephilim Shadowhunters and demons Clare constructed a vivid believable parallel world with great characters punchy dialogue and a winning mix of humor pathos and action I like her take on warlocks vampires and werewolves and of course I’m a big fan or urban fantasy where these fantastic elements mix into the regular gritty city life of New York Clary Fray is a sympathetic protagonist though I was eually drawn to the supporting cast I especially like that the villains are believably three dimensional Even when you do not support them you understand what motivates them There is no easy black and white good and evil dichotomy I’ll be interested in seeing where the series goes from here and what Clare does with her Victorian preuel series The Infernal Devices