Kat Kennedy's Reviews > City of Bones
City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)
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Kat Kennedy's review
bookshelves: books-that-deserve-painful-death, just-plain-bad, kat-s-book-reviews, kat-s-rants, ya-pnr-maddness
Feb 09, 2010
bookshelves: books-that-deserve-painful-death, just-plain-bad, kat-s-book-reviews, kat-s-rants, ya-pnr-maddness
***Warning: won't contain spoilers cause I didn't get far enough to give a fuck and discover anything worth spoiling.***
Okay, so let me get this out straight. I have never NOT finished a book before. Okay, I'm lying. The History of Sexuality Volume 1 by Michel Foucault remains unfinished as does Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Why? Because they were boring.
Because, as I read them, I wanted to take a cheese grater to my skull and rub vigorously just to have something to do!
But I have never NOT finished a Young Adult paranormal novel before. And I've read some BAAAAAD books. But I didn't finish this book because it goes beyond bad. It makes the History of Sexuality seem amazingly interesting and colourful.
To be fair to Ms. Clare, I was not actually "reading" her novel so much as listening to the Audiobook. The Narrator, Graynor, did a particularly craptastic job.
To be fair to Ms. Graynor, she didn't have much to work with. I tuned her out, I swear, I was focusing on the actual prose, taking in the story, trying to get interested. But the writing was terrible. It was painful. The characters were annoying.
Now, I've been fair to Ms. Clare and I've been fair to Mr. Graynor. So there's only you left to be fair to now.
And in order to do that, I have to admit that I wasn't EXPECTING to like this book. I was, however, expecting to be pleasantly surprised, and I'll explain why.
Many years ago, Cassandra Clare was Cassandra Clair - a VERY popular FF author in the Harry Potter and LoTR circles. I actually greatly enjoyed her Draco Trilogy. I've read it many times. I had heard that this book was very similar to DT and so I was expecting to find it to be a guilty pleasure. Something my moral compass told me to leave behind, but that I would actually enjoy too much to do so. But I was wrong.
Yeah, she plagiarized that work and I won't really go into it except to post a link because in the end, I'm not reviewing her, I'm reviewing her work.
But here's the problem. Jace is really just Draco from DT. Simon is really just Ron and Harry amalgamated into one. Clary is really just Ginny. The bad guys seems too much like good ol'Voldie. The plot is painfully similar to DT. It was like reading her old work all over again. And I think, because she was really just redressing her old characters, she didn't even both to give them any growth in this story.
To be honest, I didn't read far because the writing was boring (oh my lord, the similes! Someone save me from them) and poorly constructed; the characters were boring and poorly constructed and the plot was boring and poorly constructed.
I'd already read DT so I didn't need to read this.
Okay, so let me get this out straight. I have never NOT finished a book before. Okay, I'm lying. The History of Sexuality Volume 1 by Michel Foucault remains unfinished as does Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Why? Because they were boring.
Because, as I read them, I wanted to take a cheese grater to my skull and rub vigorously just to have something to do!
But I have never NOT finished a Young Adult paranormal novel before. And I've read some BAAAAAD books. But I didn't finish this book because it goes beyond bad. It makes the History of Sexuality seem amazingly interesting and colourful.
To be fair to Ms. Clare, I was not actually "reading" her novel so much as listening to the Audiobook. The Narrator, Graynor, did a particularly craptastic job.
To be fair to Ms. Graynor, she didn't have much to work with. I tuned her out, I swear, I was focusing on the actual prose, taking in the story, trying to get interested. But the writing was terrible. It was painful. The characters were annoying.
Now, I've been fair to Ms. Clare and I've been fair to Mr. Graynor. So there's only you left to be fair to now.
And in order to do that, I have to admit that I wasn't EXPECTING to like this book. I was, however, expecting to be pleasantly surprised, and I'll explain why.
Many years ago, Cassandra Clare was Cassandra Clair - a VERY popular FF author in the Harry Potter and LoTR circles. I actually greatly enjoyed her Draco Trilogy. I've read it many times. I had heard that this book was very similar to DT and so I was expecting to find it to be a guilty pleasure. Something my moral compass told me to leave behind, but that I would actually enjoy too much to do so. But I was wrong.
Yeah, she plagiarized that work and I won't really go into it except to post a link because in the end, I'm not reviewing her, I'm reviewing her work.
But here's the problem. Jace is really just Draco from DT. Simon is really just Ron and Harry amalgamated into one. Clary is really just Ginny. The bad guys seems too much like good ol'Voldie. The plot is painfully similar to DT. It was like reading her old work all over again. And I think, because she was really just redressing her old characters, she didn't even both to give them any growth in this story.
To be honest, I didn't read far because the writing was boring (oh my lord, the similes! Someone save me from them) and poorly constructed; the characters were boring and poorly constructed and the plot was boring and poorly constructed.
I'd already read DT so I didn't need to read this.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
February 9, 2010
– Shelved
October 6, 2010
– Shelved as:
books-that-deserve-painful-death
October 7, 2010
– Shelved as:
just-plain-bad
October 7, 2010
– Shelved as:
kat-s-book-reviews
October 12, 2010
– Shelved as:
kat-s-rants
January 8, 2012
– Shelved as:
ya-pnr-maddness
Comments Showing 1-50 of 654 (654 new)
message 1:
by
Heidi
(new)
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rated it 1 star
16 fév. 2010 18:48
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Before you strike me down, let me explain.
First off, at that time fantasy was a fairly new genre for me. The Twilight saga had just wrapped up, and though I found Breaking Dawn to be incredibly disappointing, I still liked the paranormal/fantasy aspect the whole series. And so I started devouring every fantasy/paranormal book I could get my hands on.
It wasn't long before I came across this series. At the time City of Glass had just been published and word on the internet was that it was a good series. I was too much of a noob to know better then to believe the vast majority of book bloggers. I didn't know they always tend to sugarcoat their reviews. Or just plain lie. So. Yeah...
Anyway, I purchased City of Bones and I liked it. (Just so you know, I've never watched an entire episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm a special effects snob--always have been--and the cheesy special effects on that show would always make me cringe.) So, when it came to the Buffy universe I was unable to make the connection--that she was borrowing, liberally, from the Buffy universe. It was all new to me.
Because this series was a breath of fresh air--my salvation, if you will--when I was drowning in a sea of horribly written YA vampire novels, I ignored the similarities to Harry Potter and Star Wars.
Even after I found out that she was an unoriginal hack and everyone seemed to hate her, I didn't think less of her. I was like, "so she borrowed from her own--not actually published--work. Who cares?" I even went so far as to read all the allegations against her, and I thought people needed to get over it, move on. So she made a (huge) stupid mistake years ago. I'm sure she's learned her lesson. People need to forgive and forget. It's not like she's Hitler. Besides there are far more important things to worry about in this world.
And that is where I stood on this matter for about a year.
Funny thing is, I tried rereading this series last month. You know what, I don't like it anymore. It totally sucks and seems totally unoriginal now that my eyes have been opened. It's funny how I didn't think this way about the Mortal Instruments series until I tried reading it again.
Anyway, I (finally) understand where all you Cassandra Clare haters are coming from. She sucks, her books suck, and her work doesn't deserve to be published.
(*whispers* That being said, I think I'm still going to read the two books she has coming out within the next year or so. You're allowed to judge me. I don't mind. I'm already disgusted with myself but clearly not enough to stop myself from reading those books. And anyway I'm a curious person--sometimes I just can't walk away.)
P.S. Since this is (unintentionally) so long I think I'm going to post it as an addendum to my original review of City of Bones. I've been meaning to explain myself, but have been too lazy to write something up. Now I don't have to.
I'm going to have to reread the Harry Potter series. It has been a long time since I've read it. I can't wait until I can read the Harry Potter series with my oldest kid. I know she'll love it.
Like I said, I was around when her whole big controversy happened and at the time I was like, "But I like her! She can't have plagiarized her fanfiction THAT bad!" (Actually yes, whole paragraphs of other author's work were worked into her FF!)
But I still expected to like COB because I knew that her writing was funny and compelling. So when I actually found that it was just a big, cheap, poorly written knock-off, I was REALLY disappointed. That being said - I can totally get how someone who wasn't familiar with her work would get sucked into it.
I think I'll borrow her new series when it comes to the library. I won't buy it. But I'm feeling like I want to rip a book to pieces and that should be fun to do. Even if I have to suffer through her similes to do it.
During Christmas vacation,I tried to read it again, but I just couldn't. But I am not changing reviews. Too many other good books out there. And I will most likely read her new stuff when it comes out.
I gave her one chance and one was quite enough.
Don't give up trying:-/
Maybe the people that write those reviews just don't like audiobooks...they aren't for everyone.
I cannot like this review enough, I quite literally had to force myself to finish this book. Cassandra clare , in my mind, is the worst YA author out there . . . : /
Either way, reading it right now, and it's modestly fun. As an outsider-yet-HP fan, now that you mention it, there's some HPishness about it.
(I think Katya is trying to point out you attributed it to Emily. Awkward!)
And, man, these review for Clare make me want to run in the opposite direction. I've only read one short story by her, and that was enough.
Honestly, Ceridwen, I think you'd probably dislike these books, but would otherwise be nonplussed by them.
Interesting. Do you say that because it's far enough from my usual fare that I just wouldn't care about the stuff she gets wrong? Or, maybe not care is the wrong phrase. Maybe not take it personally, because this genre isn't my thing, exactly?
I am a fan of all of those things. Less Red Dwarf, but mostly cuz I've only seen a season. I do like some YA, and it's sad she's lowering the bar. :(
Or blithely ignorant!
Actually, Mr C almost bought this because of his steampunk obsessions, though maybe I'm thinking of a version with less of a torso on the cover? Or possibly another Clare book altogether? Anyway, I was able to say pretty convincingly that this wasn't to his tastes. So, phew! He's a bigger sf nerd than I, bless his heart.
I'll admit, it's more entertaining than this book.
Befo..."
This is exactly what happened to me two months ago. May I quote you? ;)
REALLY?