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City of Bones

Author:
Cassandra Clare
Read by:
Mae Whitman
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Unabridged Audiobook

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Ratings
Book
479
Narrator
91
Release Date
April 15, 2014
Duration
13 hours 45 minutes
Summary
Discover the world of the Shadowhunters in the first installment of the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series and “prepare to be hooked” (Entertainment Weekly). City of Bones is a Shadowhunters novel.

When Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder—much less a murder committed by three people covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. And she’s more than a little startled when the body disappears into thin air. Soon Clary is introduced to the world of the Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of warriors dedicated to driving demons out of our world and back to their own. And Clary is introduced with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque monster. How could a mere human survive such an attack and kill a demon? The Shadowhunters would like to know…
Reviews
Profile Avatar Anonymous Feb 2023

I love the book but the ending just tears out my heart and stops on it. Awesome book.

Profile Avatar Kassandra C. Jul 2021

Amazing narration

Profile Avatar Madeleine W. Mar 2020

Let me start off by saying I really enjoyed the narration. Mae Whitman had great voices throughout for every character and made it fun to listen to. The story however? Cassandra Clare is a very amateur writer. Her writing style isn’t the worst but sometimes she writes with very jarring analogies, detracting from the picture and taking me out of the story. Other times it is clear she wrote with a thesaurus nearby to expand her vocabulary. The plot structure is also very weak. There will be a chapter of exciting action and then five chapters of boring history lessons and dull dialogue. The twists are rather poorly executed, either making no sense or being the most obvious cliche in the book. Another issue I had with this novel was our protagonist, Clary Fray. She is the definition of a Mary Sue. Clary is perfectly “mundane” in every possible way. She undergoes zero character development and learns zero lessons. Clary consistently treats her best friend poorly, often ditching him and getting angry over his happiness. Oh and he still forgives her regardless because of course he does. Clary does almost nothing to advance the plot. Wait actually: she can throw a knife and perfectly hit her target with no practice and can understand Spanish with no studying. Oh wait, those are just traits of a Mary Sue. Clary will also occasionally slap someone or curse them out because she’s a “strong female character”. Eye roll. She also has the intelligence of a brick wall, being absolutely oblivious to *SPOILER* Luke being a werewolf or Valentine being her father. Things we could see coming from miles away. The worldbuilding and overall plot is pretty good!! It’s very entertaining and I completely understand why people would fall in love with the world and want to continue reading this series. It’s not the best and it never swept me up in its magic like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson did, but it’s definitely not bad. Lots of potential here. HOWEVER the biggest issue I have with this novel is the use of cliches and rip-offs instead of originality. Many of you might not know but Cassandra Clare used to be a fanfiction writer and has gotten into trouble in the past for her plagiarism. She has since stopped and moved forward from blatantly stealing the works of others, but City of Bones is far from the most original concept. In fact, it actually started as a Ginny x Draco fanfiction. See the connections? She also wrote Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction, which heavily influenced her worldbuilding of this Shadowhunter world. Valentine is an obvious rip-off of Voldemort even down to the names. Two evil lords with Nazi ideology who were once powerful and have “come back from the dead”. I could continue but you get the gist. Overall, City of Bones could have been a fantastic debut novel. It’s set in an exciting world with an author full of potential. However, Clare relied on an amateur writing style, a Mary Sue protagonist, and an abundance of stolen ideas. Quite depressing as I know I would have absolutely adored this book. Please do not let this review discourage you from reading! I’m sure many people will enjoy this book! However, please do not believe it is literature of any sort. And also be aware that Cassandra Clare is a very problematic person for an abundance of reasons, including fetishizing incest but that’s for another time...

Profile Avatar Idawg67 Jul 2025

I love this book and the narrator !!

Profile Avatar Lora bowen Oct 2024

I thought this was a great start to a series and I can't wait to read more.

Profile Avatar Kasey C. Aug 2021

I forget that there is only one person reading! She is very good over the past couple years I’ve listened to it three times!

Profile Avatar Anonymous Nov 2019

I’m originally a fan of the film before I realized the film was based off the books. I’ve tried watching the tv show but it’s just way to corny for me like it’s targeted towards younger teens. So I thought I’d try the books and am happy so far with the first book... Moving on to Book 2... Fingers crossed hoping the rest of the book series is as good as the first...!!!

Profile Avatar Traniel P. Aug 2019

I appreciate the narrator and the excitement at the right times. It is not easy to create different voices when taking on multiple characters. Story was really good

Profile Avatar Nick H. Jun 2019

Great book to listen to.

Profile Avatar Anonymous Oct 2018

Great,amazing,thrilling.

Profile Avatar Danielle D. Aug 2018

I liked the book. Had a food amount of action. It was easy to follow. Narrator was excellent. Liked the character development. I liked the preview to the next book in the series. That one looks interesting.

Profile Avatar Madison M. Aug 2018

Really love this book. The series and movie both just don’t do it justice. It’s almost too magical to be reinacted. I love a book that can take my mind places it’s never been. Excited to read the rest of the series!

Profile Avatar courtney frazier Feb 2017

I love love love The Mortal Instruments series. I love that it has a little of the romance but also a little action. I can appreciate that Cassandra gives the characters relatable personalities as well! I think the narrator did an pretty good job as well, her voice was a little irritating at times but over all pretty well done.

Profile Avatar Cheyenne Backlund Jan 2017

love it! Great Narration. I really enjoyed her portrayal of each character.

Profile Avatar Sierra Behrens Dec 2016

Overall it was ok. The narrators British accent is terrible. She switches in between the characters being British and American. If you look past it it's not so bad but I wish she would've just pick one nationality.

Profile Avatar Janaih Parsons Nov 2016

I love this book. I've read it twice and listened to it once. The narrator was awesome. I definitely recommend it. :)

Profile Avatar Richanda Hatcher Jun 2016

It was funny listening to a female do Jace's voice, but she did really great.

Profile Avatar Kristen Garrison May 2016

The narrator does a great job and I love the book!

Profile Avatar jenae williams Apr 2016

She does a wonderful read of the book, great inflections of voice and feeling/emotion of characters!

Profile Avatar Josh Peeples Mar 2016

Wondeful book and great reading. Loved this book. One of my favorite series and the voices were not bad at all.

Profile Avatar Samantha Rodriguez Mar 2016

Loved the book. It's something great to listen to while I'm at work. I get things done and I get to listen to a book while doing it. The book itself was amazing, great imagery. I could really see a little movie inside my head. And the narrator was the best. Not monotonous and not too over the top either. Perfect audiobook!

Profile Avatar Samantha Downs Feb 2016

I loved this book however the narrator wasn't that great.

Profile Avatar Maureen Bies Jan 2016

I thought Mae Whitman did a good job with the narration.

Profile Avatar Theresa Burlew Oct 2015

I enjoyed listening to this book. I thought the narrator was quite good and presented the various characters very well and with consistency. I look forward to listening to the other books in the series. Guess I should start with the first one. LOL

Profile Avatar Merina Burton Oct 2015

Loved the book ms and I, personally, thought Mae Whitman was a fantastic narrator. She managed to capture Jace's haughtiness and Clary's whininess perfectly. Ive found very few audiobook narrators that I like, (males just can't do female voices and females just can't do make voices) but I definitely approve of Mae.

Profile Avatar Angela APPLEGATE Aug 2015

Someone different needed to narrate the book. Love the series but her voice was a tad annoying

Profile Avatar joshua hopper Jul 2014

loved to see the difference between the book and movie. the narrator has to be one of my favorites!!!

City of Bones

City of Bones

Author: Cassandra Clare
Read by: Mae Whitman
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