There isn’t much that I can say about City of Bones, that hasn’t already been said.
This book is hit or miss for a lot of people, and while I totally understand where both sides are coming from, this is one of those series that has been a part of my life for so long (way before I was super active in the book community/made aware of the scandals and issues surrounding it), so for me this is a hit. (items marked as spoilers are actually just some thoughts I had while writing the review, but I felt that they kind of messed with the flow. This is a spoiler free review!!)

I just can’t help it; this book is fun. It’s great to sit and read in a few short sittings, or it’s great to read slowly because it is so easy to fall back into the world after reading just a few pages. There are multiple scenes in which the dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny. The plot is fast paced and easy to follow. I am no longer blind to the controversy surrounding this series, so while I won’t say that this story was original I will say that the first time I read it, it was original to me. And despite what the actual verdict is, that isn’t an experience that can go away. It sparked my interest in books similar to this, I am now a total sucker for books about demon hunting

Spoiler

haven’t read the works by the authors who believe CC copied there work but I do plan on reading them!! I only just found out who they are! Also I don’t approve of the idea of her plagiarizing someone else’s work, but like I said this story had a heavy impact on me before I even was aware

. And I’ve never been opposed to books following along with typical/popular YA plots as long as they do it well

Spoiler

I consider going along with the trends different from the plagiarism issue that I just mentioned—totally makes sense if you personally do not though

, and for me this book is done well. Despite the issues in creativity that some people focus on (rightfully so), I think the story is well written and presented well to its intended audience. I love it.

I like the characters quite a bit. I like how human they all feel/read. They are all incredibly flawed, especially in this book. But readers get to watch them grow and mature as the series goes on. A lot of their prejudice views are resolved as the series goes on. I think that showing them struggling with these views in book one, while they all still have a lot to learn, is fine as long as the issues are resolved later on and they learn from their mistakes /do better to control their thoughts and emotions as they grow. Which they do.

Spoiler

I do have to admit that I am not sure if this factor would have sat with me as well if this was my first time reading this series. If I was unaware of the growth I would probably be put off by some of the attitudes in this book. But as I said, this is a rearead and when I first read the series I was young and didn’t understand how offensive some of the characters opinions/comments were, but I did understand that their growth and ability to change their opinion was important.

So despite the fact that it isn’t necessarily right, I don’t think it’s all bad. The characters are human, and they learn from their prejudices which is really all we can ask for

Spoiler

besides you know, not being prejudice in the first place but nobody is perfect.

This part is getting repetitive because I’m not sure if I’m explaining it well so I’ll move past it for now, but I hope that you understand what I am trying to say here.

The only issue I had with this book is that I had mentally combined the events of CoB and CoA in my head. I thought the ending of CoA was the ending of book one and was very stressed out the entire book because I couldn’t figure out how we would get there in time. Other than that, this was a super enjoyable reread that reminded me of just how much I love this series/world.