City of Bones
Cassandra Clare's 2007 series opener launched The Mortal Instruments, the urban fantasy that defined a wave of YA paranormal in the late 2000s. Fifteen-year-old Clary Fray watches a boy get murdered in a Brooklyn nightclub by three teenagers no one else can see, and the next day her mother disappears, her apartment is wrecked, and a clawed monster comes through the door. Pulled into the hidden world of the Shadowhunters, half-angelic warriors who police demons in plain sight of unaware humans, she follows a cocky golden boy named Jace into Manhattan's vampire dens, werewolf packs, and the abandoned Institute that becomes her base. The novel mixes secret-history mythology, an addictive will-they-won't-they romance, and a propulsive plot about a Cup that controls demonic forces. The series spawned a film, a TV adaptation, and a sprawling Shadowhunter Chronicles universe still being added to.
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Fifteen-year-old Clary Fray sees a murder at a Manhattan club that no one else can see. The killers are Shadowhunters, demon-hunting warriors hidden among us, and her own mother has been hiding from them for years.
The Mortal Instruments has six books: City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire. Cassandra Clare has written several connected series in the Shadowhunter universe.
Yes. A 2013 film adaptation titled The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was released. The film underperformed and a planned sequel was scrapped. A more successful TV series, Shadowhunters, ran on Freeform from 2016 to 2019.
City of Bones was written by Cassandra Clare, published in 2007 by Margaret K. McElderry Books.
City of Bones is 512 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, City of Bones takes most readers 8 to 11 hours to finish.
City of Bones is a standalone novel by Cassandra Clare, not part of a series.
City of Bones is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
