City of Bones | Free As a Girl With Wings

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I know I said I’d post this tomorrow, the actual day, but I got tired… Lesson learned! I will now try to not post as much on one day.

So the topic for this month’s chain is “What are your favorite book beginnings and/or endings?” Before I went to sleep last night, I wrote down some notes for myself to remember in the morning. Those will be helping me!

Let’s start with the obvious–beginnings.

These are all of my favorites! So I’ll say the book title, what I like about the beginning, and perhaps a quote.

The Book Thief–The beginning is so original and funny and intriguing, and it just hooks you.

First the colors.

Then the humans.

That’s usually how I see things.

Or at least, how I try.

And the title of the first chapter is “Death and Chocolate.” I mean, come on. How can you not like that?

Harry Potter–Yet again, a hook. And the first sentence doesn’t necessarily talk about Harry; it talks about the Dursleys and their normality. Which is great, I think.

The Lightning Thief–It’s funny! Everything about Percy Jackson and the Olympians is funny, because Percy is narrating it. Duh. :P

City of Bones–I believe someone else talked about this already, but whatever. You see a blue haired buy in the beginning, who Clary thinks is cute, and then [SPOILER ALERT] he turns out to be a demon and is killed after a few pages. Ah, the irony of life. And then the killer of the demon turns out to be Clary’s boyfriend, even though she hates him and thinks he’s evil in the beginning.

I Am Malala–Honestly, I just love the first two sentences.

I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.

Is that cool-sounding or what?

The Fault in Our Stars–This one is obvious. The first sentence, which is a paragraph, is all about how Hazel’s mom thinks she’s depressed, and what she makes her do. It opens us up to Hazel’s character and voice and life. Brilliant, I think.

Now, the endings. I don’t like endings that much. They mean the book, or series, is over. No more. Nada. I will be so sad when I get to the end of the Blood of Olympus, because then it will be over. For reals. No more funny Percy, or smart Annabeth, or cocky Jason, or adorable Leo, or mysterious Hazel, or baby-face Frank, or charm-speaking Piper. :'(

However, I do love the ending for Harry Potter, because of the epilogue. Most of my favorite endings have epilogues–I just love ’em. They tie everything up all neat and tidy, with sweet families and children. [Contrary to my love of epilogues, I don’t think Nakoma will have one. Sorry!]

So now my dad is saying I have to get up, because today is my sister’s birthday party and I have to help out. It’s Harry Potter themed! I’m going to sort people. :)

Here are the rest of the amazing people linking up for TCWT:

7th – http://vergeofexisting.wordpress.com/
8th – http://zarahoffman.com/
9th – http://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/
10th – http://www.elizamcfarlish.weebly.com/
11th – http://sammitalk.wordpress.com/
12th – http://irisbloomsblog.wordpress.com/
13th – http://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/
14th – http://fantasiesofapockethuman.blogspot.com/
15th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/
16th – http://magicandwriting.wordpress.com/
17th – http://ttkesley.wordpress.com/
18th – http://www.brookeharrison.com/
19th – http://www.freeasagirlwithwings.wordpress.com/
20th – http://roomble.wordpress.com/
21st – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/
22nd – http://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/
23rd – http://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/
24th – http://lillianmwoodall.wordpress.com/
and http://www.paperdaydreams.com/
25th – http://write-where-you-are.blogspot.de/
and http://theedfiles.blogspot.com/
26th – http://insideliamsbrain.wordpress.com/
and http://anmksmeanderingmind.wordpress.com/
27th – http://semilegacy.blogspot.com/
and http://dynamicramblings.wordpress.com/
28th – http://oliviarivers.wordpress.com/
and http://randommorbidinsanity.blogspot.com/
29th – http://theloonyteenwriter.wordpress.com/
30th – http://thelonglifeofalifelongfangirl.wordpress.com/
and http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ (We’ll announce the topic for next month’s chain.)

Love y’all to the moon an back. <3 Thanks again for 50 followers.

I finished City of Bones! It was really good. I really like the author’s style; it’s somewhat like mine and it just works. I don’t know any other way to say it. Cassandra Clare uses dialogue, the perfect amount of description, and I never was like, Ugh, I don’t wanna read it.

SPOILER ALERT! If you want to read the book, do not read below, unless you want to be spoiled.

I really enjoyed the characters; they seemed so real and truthful to the world. Clary, the main character, is a mix of qualities. She’s funny, lovable, sarcastic, pretty, smart, a little clueless, but so creative. I thought her friendship with Simon was very real: Best friends for ten years, never romantically involved, and then, boom!, Simon says he’s been in love with her all that time. I think many boy-girl friendships do turn into that.

Alec and Isabelle are siblings, and very close. You can tell they have a bond, which I think is sweet. They’re close in age, so closer together. And Alec is always saving Isabelle and Jace, even though he’s never killed a demon. Isabelle is very kick-butt and strong. Girl power! She uses a whip as her weapon, which I think is pretty cool. None of the guys have one. Isabelle is also very stylish: a fashionista. She combines weapons with accessories, like her bracelets that have stuff certain creatures don’t like to repel them. She kind of reminds me of those scantily-clad anime girls in TV shows or comic books.

Jace reminds me of Jason from the series by Rick Riordan, Heroes of Olympus. They’re both super powerful, have weird pasts, and look kind of the same. Jace is also very proud. At one point in the book he says, “My one true love is myself,” and I thought, Ew! That guy is so self-centered! At the beginning of the book I didn’t like him much, mainly because he always wanted to be the hero and save the day and blah blah blah. (He’s also the stereotypical “hot guy” which bugs me.) But towards the end I warmed up to him because he and Clary had a thing and he was very nice to her and sweet. I love the scene where they’re riding a flying motorcycle and Clary has her arms around his waist. So cute and somewhat cliché, but, hey, I’m a sucker for stuff like that.

Near the very end, the last chapter before the epilogue, Clary finds out that Jace is her brother. I was just like, whatdaheck?! When Valentine was telling them, all the pieces fit together: JC=Jonathon Christopher=Jace, Valentine ran off with Jace, mom thought JC died and has his lock of hair plus pictures, that’s really Jace. And I thought it was a really cool plot twist until BAM. Clary (duh) is in love with Jace, and he probably is in love with her, too. But now they’re siblings!!! Whatdaheck, Cassandra Clare?! Now there isn’t Jary/Jarissa!!! (I made those ship names up right now.) They were perfect!!! (Awkward thing: they kissed.) NOOO!!!!

not my animated GIF

The plot was amazing. Everything caught me off-guard, from Valentine and Jocelyn being married to Hodge betraying them. Way to go Cassandra Clare! How in the world did she think all that up?

To conclude this review, what did you think of City of Bones? Who was your favorite character? And no spoilers for the next books, please.

I hope you didn’t spoil it for yourself! If you haven’t read City of Bones, will you? I promise, it’s like eating ambrosia.

Also, I updated Nakoma last night. I know you’ve all been waiting for the tenth chapter for a very long time. I worked hard on it. Please give me feedback!

Now I have to figure out what book to read next… Recommendations, por favor?

Until next post,

Chloe