"All the stories are true."
I'm going to preface this by saying that I initially started reading the Mortal Instruments series when I was 16 years old, I'm 21 now. I don't typically reread books because I find that I have a hard time staying interested in a book where I already know what's going to happen. That being said, the Mortal Instruments series and the other books in the Shadowhunter Chronicles immediately became some of my favorite books and to this day I consider them that.
If you are on booktube or just watch booktube videos like I do, then you might know that emmmabooks is hosting a year-long readathon of the entire Shadowhunter Chronicles. If you did not know then I will link her video here. Having never reread any of the books in the series, I was pretty excited to join the facebook group and see how my thoughts on each of the books had changed, if at all.I've just finished my reread of City of Bones (and Lady Midnight in preparation for Lord of Shadows because I still haven't read it) and as I had anticipated there were quite a few things I noticed this time around that I hadn't before and basically, I can't even form a solid opinion because my thoughts are so conflicting. In this post, I'll be discussing what changed for me, what I still love, and all of my other thoughts on City of Bones after 5 years of having first read it.
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So first things first, there is a lot of differing opinions on this book. As popular as it is, it seems to get an awful lot of hate. I tried to remain objective while I reread this so I could really see it for what it was. When I first read it I thought I had stumbled upon gold and I really couldn't understand how anyone could hate or even dislike this book. Rereading it now I definitely noticed some things that I either hadn't seen before or ignored because of how much I liked it overall.
1. Writing - The first thing I immediately noticed was how the writing changed. The writing in City of Bones isn't bad IMO, it's just not as good as Clare's more recent works. It's not really an issue so much as an observation, but I was rereading Lady Midnight at the same time as I was rereading this and the difference in the writing between the two was so apparent to me. With City of Bones being Cassandra Clares first published novel it is expected that her writing would improve over time, but still, it's something I picked up on right away.
2. Clary - I understand that in order to write a good character they have to be flawed and grow over time, but to remember how much I liked Clary as a character and then to go back and read her perspective in the first book is so hard. I don't remember ever not liking Clary but thinking of how great and mature she is towards the end of the series and seeing her be so annoying in City of Bones is almost painful. Everything is made into a much bigger deal than it needs to be, she makes poor decisions, and instead of accepting that she is new to this world, she throws herself into any danger she comes across. She acts as if she needs to prove she's as good as them...which she isn't, at least not in the beginning when she still needs to take time to learn what she's doing. Again, this is an example of good character development but it's still super frustrating to read.
3. Clary and Simon's Friendship - While on the topic of characters, I had a big problem with the friendship between Clary and Simon. I remember them as having a great friendship and while I still love how close they are, it was pretty apparent that Clary's kind of a sucky friend. Clary's mentioned as being the best friend Simon could have, until she meets Jace and then she's all Simon who? There were several points throughout City of Bones where Clary mentions that she forgot Simon was with her, and at one point says that she almost forgot he existed altogether. Yeah, not the kind of friend I'd want around. All this being said though, I'm still pretty bitter that she and Simon didn't end up together because I shipped them so hard.
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✿ I also paid close attention while reading so I could kind-of-but-not-really annotate my edition. I didn't want to actually write in it, so I just made notes on post-its that I stuck to the top of the page. I think the biggest thing I noticed while rereading was how much I forgot. At one point I flipped to a random page halfway through the book to see if I would recognize what was happening and I had no clue. I've seen people reference things that happen in the book and had to look up what they had mentioned because I couldn't remember. I consider this book to be one of my favorites and I completely forgot how the ending played out as well as most of the book past the first few chapters. There were times throughout the book where I would be unsure of what was going to happen next because I honestly couldn't remember how different plot points solved themselves.
Something else I noticed, I don't know how soon Clare had the idea for the Infernal Devices series, but there are quite a few references in City of Bones to things that are later explained/ later occur in the Infernal Devices. These are references you wouldn't be able to pick up on unless you'd read the Infernal Devices already and knew the significance of these 'filler sentences'. I just thought it was interesting how soon those hints show up. There are also references made/ questions raised that I'm just now seeing answered in the Dark Artifices so I think that's something important to note as well.
For me, rereading City of Bones was almost like reading it for the first time and I already know the other books in the series are going to feel the same way. I still consider this to be my favorite YA series, rereading City of Bones definitely reinforced this, and I'm excited to see how the other books surprise me and what I notice in them as I remember less of them than I did of City of Bones. Are any of you participating in the readathon? Comment below and let me know how you're liking rereading the books or anything interesting you've noticed.
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