The Moral Instruments centers on a girl, Clary who can suddenly see the mystical world around her. The she meets Shadowhunters (demon slayers) Jace, Alec, and Isabelle. Her Mother gets kidnapped and the race is on to find the Moral Cup before the evil Valentine.
City of Bones is the first book in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series; it is good. The main character is Clary Fray; she is shy and clumsy, but is never shown being either. In fact, she acts completely opposite of how she is described. The other character is Jace the typical-young-adult-bad-boy-love-interest. Neither character has much of a personality; the much more compelling characters are Simon, Alec, Isabelle, and Magnus. The book has a habit of telling the reader what is going on, not letting them fill in the details themselves, and being overly descriptive in some places. Clare does build a fantastic world, but the writing style is slightly juvenile. Clare started out writing Harry Potter fan fiction, and at times the reader can tell.
The Movie City of Bones is okay-not great, but not terrible. The special effects were stunning, both scary and lifelike. The casting and acting is also amazing. Lily Collins was the perfect Clary and Jamie Campbell Bower nailed it as Jace. Despite these two highlights, there were several flaws. The movie was predictable, even for those who have not read the book. The action did not start until around the twenty minute mark. The romance was also a big part of the movie; it was like she forgot a few times that her mom was gone and wanted to kiss the attractive boy instead of looking for her missing mother. It was a good starting point for a franchise, but the story telling needs more refining the stakes need to be higher, and there needs to be more fighting mythical creatures, and less romance.
