City of Bones/City of Ashes/City of Glass/City of Fallen Angels/City of Lost Souls: 5 (The Mortal Instruments)

Classic current day YA novel...but much more dark. Angels, demons, vampires, werewolves, warlocks, fairies, AND corruption? What else can a person want? Well, the book does lack in some ways...Being older than a YA (but not wanting to admit it), there were times I wanted to slap Clary in the face to get her to stop being so annoyingly whiney(sp?)/bratty. There are many characters who are pivotal to the story, but aren't as developed as they could have been. All of the main characters are also pretty paranoid about/secretive from their significant others, which doesn't really indicate a strong foundation. But I get it...adolescence is a tough time with hormones going crazy and learning about life.So leaving adolescent emotions/tension aside, this is a pretty good series. If you love the mystical/fantasy YA stories, you won't be disappointed. Unlike the Twilight series, the love triangle isn't the central point of the story. Because of the various characters, the story is more developed than Twilight, too. (Note: I love the Twilight series, too.) Of course it wouldn't be a YA novel without a love story, which is an endearing one...but also very DARK!A huge plot twist in the first book made it IMPOSSIBLE to put down the 2nd and half of the 3rd. After that, there was a bit of a lull in the story and the books DO drag at times. The first 5 books could probably have been condensed into 3, but that seems to be the norm in YA books these days.Oh, and if you watched the movie before the book, there are some HUGE changes made in the movie. Having read the books first, the major screenplay changes were very disappointing.Can't wait for the 6th and final installment in May. Already pre-ordered it :-)

I purchased the hardcover edition of the 5 books set. The movie trailer is what got me looking into these books several reviews said it was better than twilight & the hunger games. IMO if the movies are any indication twilight doesn't set the bar very high but I did enjoy reading the hunger games after my daughter read them. I went to the movie before the books arrived, the movie is good & I've just finished reading the first book. My review will focus on the first book for now and I will update as I read the rest. City of Bones: While the book is different than the movie I can't necessarily say the book is better which is usually the case. I will say for the most part the movie seemed to get the characters right for the most part. The book somewhat reminds of Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire" in the sense the author goes into great detail about things that don't really enrich the story much if at all. There's a good 60-80 page section in "Interview" that just seems to ramble without progressing the story much. Thankfully though Anne got much better as her books progressed & I'm hopeful that will prove true with Cassandra Clare as well. There aren't any long spells like that in "Bones" thankfully but the author does tend to get overly descriptive about some things that don't seem to matter. While I found the book entertaining and enjoyable I never got the "can't put it down" feeling some books have. Seems like the books are aimed at pre-teen to teenage girls but I'm a 37 y.o. man & I liked the book. My biggest complaint is the author goes to the trouble of quoting Star Wars but not only misquotes who said what, she actually gets the wrong movie as well. C'mon Man!

I absolutely love Cassandra Clare - she writes very descriptively and the characters are unique and interesting. I find that the books start to get a little "dark" heading into the 3rd, 4th, 5th books - which isn't a bad thing, but as someone who doesn't like horror movies I'm not sure that I'll want to see the movie versions of the later ones, the books can be scary enough at parts!There's still enough love, learning, coming of age etc. to keep the avid reader interested if you're not a fan of all the blood and fighting and demons. It's a very good balance. Having read the prequel series, Infernal Devices, first, I loved recognizing pieces that crossover between the two. Now that I'm rereading the Infernal Devices, I'm finding things I wouldn't have picked up before reading the Mortal Instruments - you can read them in whichever order, I liked reading the Infernal Devices first.I don't "love" the characters as much as those in the Infernal Devices - I feel like the world of 1878 London was deeper, more interesting as compared to this series set in present day New York. Both series' are excellent reads though! I just found myself getting frustrated on occasion with the characters. For instance, the parabatai connection between Jace and Alec isn't really described in depth, but if you read the Infernal Devices you realize how important it is in understanding their personalities.I originally bought the paperback, but passed those on to my brother and traded up to the hardcover. As someone who loves the look and feel of books, I have to say, these "feel" great - the cover art is beautiful and has a glossy, almost "shiny" feel to it - they match the Infernal Devices hardcovers as well. I highly recommend this series, and other works by Cassandra Clare as well!

The books are very nice, but I thought I would receive the box to keep the books in.

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Cela fait un peu plus d'un an que j'ai acheté cette intégrale des 5 tomes parus alors et je viens à peine de la finir.Je suis pourtant une bonne lectrice et ce n'est pas de mon genre de mettre autant de temps à finir un livre une fois que je l'ai commencé!Sauf si celui-ci ne m'emballe pas plus que ça.Et je dois avouer, quitte à me faire fustiger, qu'après avoir lu le tome 1 j'étais mitigée... J'ai enchaîné directement avec le 2 en espérant que l'engouement allait naître une fois que de nouvelles révélations auraient été faites, relançant le récit, mais ce fut pire et la lecture du 3 fut un vrai calvaire car je l'ai lu sans réussir à m'impliquer, à me projeter. Je l'ai difficilement fini, mais fini quand même car je ne voulais pas m'arrêter au beau milieu (toujours rester sur un compte rond).Ce qui m'a déroutée et a fait que je n'ai pas plus accroché que ça à la fin de la lecture des 3 premiers tomes c'est probablement la façon dont l'auteure amenait ses rebondissements: aussi évidents et qualitatifs que dans les feux de l'amour! Quel intérêt de continuer à lire un livre quand tout vous parait tellement prévisible et parfois même ridicule? Pourtant l'univers était bon, bien construit et bien amené avec une bonne mythologie. Les personnages, quant à eux, suffisamment variés même si ils manquaient un peu de travail sur ces 3 premiers tomes assez centrés sur les péripéties et malheurs de notre couple de personnages principaux. Personnages principaux qui ne m'ont d'ailleurs pas vraiment captivée.Et donc j'en suis restée là pendant très longtemps, reportant la lecture des deux autres tomes car j'avais d'autres lectures plus passionnantes en main. Finalement, il y a deux semaines, je me suis motivée à reprendre, bien décidée à aller jusqu'au bout du 5ème tome quoi que j'en pense. Ce qui s'est avéré une bonne initiative car les tomes 4 et 5 se sont avérés beaucoup intéressants en termes d'intrigues et d'enjeux. Donnant la part belle aux personnages secondaires dont on peut étoffer un peu plus les caractères et les personnalités en suivant le cours de leurs pensées et de leurs émotions. Un vrai plaisir! Surtout que nombre d'entre eux se sont révélés vraiment attachants et qu'il est difficile, vu la tournure des événements, de ne pas craindre pour eux.Au final je suis très partagée sur cette série. Elle a démarré de façon très maladroite mais s'améliore agréablement sur la fin. Comme on dit, c'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron. L'auteure a réussi a franchir un niveau en cours d'écriture de sa série et j'espère qu'elle en franchira encore un autre avec le 6ème et dernier tome, histoire de finir en beauté.En tout cas, j'ai hâte de me plonger dans la cité du feu sacré, dors et déjà en ma possession, pour voir si il est à la hauteur de mes attentes!

Wow, AMAZING SERIE. I went to see the movie first(loved it but...). I'm a big fan of anything supernatural but without all the free gore...I loved Harry Potter(I'm 45 years old !!!) but I though that Potter's was a kiddy's story compared to the mortal instruments. So I immensely enjoyed the movie, so much that I ordered the mortal instruments serie(5 books) which I read in, lets say in 4 DAYS...Pity that the movie producers changed almost everything about the story...The name's are the same, the general chemistry is there but not much else...So sad cause the books are EXCELLENT...I Wonder with all the change they made if there will be 5 movies for the 5 books...Anyway, the story is captivating, the struggle between good an evil, the impossible love, the way all caracters fits so well with each other...The complexity of the plot, it kept me reading completly entrhaled until the very last book, a reading spree of which I havent seen the equal in a very long time...So I went and ordered the clockwork serie(the 3 books)...I sure hope there will be other stories to come.