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City of Bones is the first novel in The Mortal Instruments series written by Cassandra Clare.

Description

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 teenagers covered with odd markings. This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons — and keeping the odd werewolves and vampires in line. It's also her first meeting with gorgeous, golden-haired Jace. Within twenty-four hours, Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in an ordinary mundane like Clary? And how did she suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...

Chapters

Part One: Dark Descent

  1. Pandemonium
  2. Secrets and Lies
  3. Shadowhunter
  4. Ravener
  5. Clave and Covenant
  6. Forsaken
  7. The Five-Dimensional Door
  8. Weapon of Choice
  9. The Circle and the Brotherhood

Part Two: Easy is the Descent

  1. City of Bones
  2. Magnus Bane
  3. Dead Man's Party
  1. The Memory of Whiteness
  2. The Hotel Dumort
  3. High and Dry
  4. Falling Angels
  5. The Midnight Flower
  6. The Mortal Cup
  7. Abbadon
  8. In Rats' Alley

Part Three: The Descent Beckons

  1. The Werewolf's Tale
  2. Renwick's Ruin
  3. Valentine

Epilogue: The Ascent Beckons

Characters

Shadowhunters

  • Clary Fray - the main protagonist of the series, Clary is a Shadowhunter who grew up in the mundane world.
  • Jace Wayland - one of the most skilled Shadowhunters of his generation, Jace is an orphan who witnessed his father's death.
  • Alec Lightwood - the eldest Lightwood and Jace's parabatai, Alec is very protective of his family and finds himself not trusting Clary, whom Jace is inexplicably drawn to.
  • Isabelle Lightwood - Alec's beautiful younger sister, Isabelle is a strong and fierce Shadowhunter, as well as a rebellious daughter.
  • Valentine Morgenstern - the notorious leader of the Circle, believed to be dead for over a decade.
  • Jocelyn Fray - Clary's mother who goes missing, kidnapped by Valentine.
  • Hodge Starkweather - the tutor of the New York Institute, cursed to forever be unable to leave the Institute grounds because of his past treachery.

Mundanes

  • Simon Lewis - Clary's geeky, mundane best friend who inevitably joins Clary and the Shadowhunters because of his feelings for her.
  • Madame Dorothea - a hedge-witch who has lived in the same building as the Frays for years.

Downworlders

more...

Gallery

Art

Editions

International covers

Video

Special content

  • Repackaged paperback edition: The repackaged and updated version of the books' paperback, released on September 1, 2015 in the US and Canada, features a new cover with spine art and includes minor corrections and changes, a map of Shadowhunter New York by Drew Willis and new exclusive content written by Cassandra Clare, including a new foreword and the extra story When Midnight Comes which is Jace's perspective on his first kiss with Clary.[1][2]
  • Barnes & Noble repackaged hardbound edition: A hardbound City of Bones with the new cover art (a special, limited edition as hardcover editions otherwise continue to use the original covers) which also contained the maps from the repackaged paperbacks, a poster of Clary done by Alexander Taini, and a brand new extra: the beginning of the book rewritten from Jace's point of view called Awake.[3]
  • 10th Anniversary Special Edition: A special edition released on November 7, 2017 to commemorate the book's 10-year anniversary since its first release. It features new cover art, gilded edges, over thirty interior illustrations by Kathleen Jennings, six new full-page color portraits of characters by Cassandra Jean, the map of Shadowhunter New York, and contains the "Official Clave Files" on many characters—including Jace, Clary, Alec, Isabelle, Raphael, Magnus, and Church—which specifies their birthdays, their scars and Marks, and the Clave's analysis of their personalities.[4]
  • LitJoy Special Edition: A special edition box set of the series released in February 2022 as a part of the Cassandra Clare Collection. It features cover art by Carlos Quevedo with lettering by RJ Gualberto, symbol sprayed edges, endpaper artwork by Jorge Jacinto, 2 tip-in artworks by Sophia Volovik and Gonzalo Mendiverry, and all the books are in a slip case designed by Irina Shirokova featuring Clary's new Empathy rune by Valerie Freire created for the box set. Each book has Cassandra Clare's annotations, select chapters from The Shadowhunter's Codex, and the content from the repackaged paperback editions. City of Bones uniquely has an illustrated signature page by Ekaterina Vedernikova.[5]
See all freely released additional content here

Film adaptation

The film adaptation of the book, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, was released on August 21, 2013. Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower starred as Clary Fray and Jace Wayland, respectively, and the film was directed by Harald Zwart. The film was set to be the first of at least a trilogy; the poor reception, however, led to the cancellation of future plans and the eventual reboot into a TV series.

Trivia

  • The original (now hardbound) cover features Jace Wayland, the skyline of New York City and the graves found in the Silent City. The repackaged (paperback) cover also features Jace (with the model the same as the one on the original City of Lost Souls cover), this time kneeling and reaching for the Mortal Cup's tarot card on the ground, wearing his Morgenstern family ring on one hand and a sword in the other, and the Enkeli rune behind him.
  • The Jace on the original cover was, in fact, two people edited and put together as one.[6]
  • The title refers to the Silent City, which is sometimes referred to as the City of Bones.
  • The book is told from different points of view, namely from Clary, and briefly in a demon's, Jace's, Hodge's, and Luke's.
  • Cassandra Clare is good friends with the author Holly Black. Both have referenced each other's works in their own books.
    • Stepping Razor, a band Clary was listening to in her room, is the name of Ellen Fierch's band in Holly Black's Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. (chapter 2, Secrets and Lies)
    • Val and Luis, characters from Valiant, are seen by Clary during a carriage ride on the way to the Silent City. (chapter 10, City of Bones)

References

Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter Chronicles
The Mortal Instruments
City of Bones City of Ashes City of Glass
City of Fallen Angels City of Lost Souls City of Heavenly Fire
The Infernal Devices The Dark Artifices
Clockwork Angel Lady Midnight
Clockwork Prince Lord of Shadows
Clockwork Princess Queen of Air and Darkness
The Last Hours The Wicked Powers
Chain of Gold The Last King of Faerie
Chain of Iron The Last Prince of Hell
Chain of Thorns The Last Shadowhunter
The Eldest Curses
The Red Scrolls of Magic The Lost Book of the White The Black Volume of the Dead
The Bane Chronicles
What Really Happened in Peru Saving Raphael Santiago
The Runaway Queen The Fall of the Hotel Dumort
Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything
The Midnight Heir The Last Stand of the New York Institute
The Rise of the Hotel Dumort The Course of True Love (And First Dates)
The Voicemail of Magnus Bane
Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy
Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy Pale Kings and Princes
The Lost Herondale Bitter of Tongue
The Whitechapel Fiend The Fiery Trial
Nothing but Shadows Born to Endless Night
The Evil We Love Angels Twice Descending
Ghosts of the Shadow Market
Cast Long Shadows Son of the Dawn
Every Exquisite Thing The Land I Lost
Learn About Loss Through Blood, Through Fire
A Deeper Love The Lost World
The Wicked Ones Forever Fallen
Companion books
Secrets of Blackthorn Hall
Better in Black: Tales of Romance
The Shadowhunter's Codex
A Long Conversation
An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters & Denizens of Downworld
All the Stories are True: Classics Reimagined in the World of the Shadowhunters
Adaptations
The Mortal Instruments: The Graphic Novels
The Official Mortal Instruments Coloring Book
The Infernal Devices: Manga Series
City of Bones: The Graphic Novel
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments
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