The Mortal Instruments:
City of Bones
City of Ashes
City of Glass
by Cassandra Clare
Written over the course of the past few years, the trilogy has become a massive success, achieving both great acclaim and bestselling status. The first in the series begins with its heroine, Clary, and her best friend Simon hanging out at a nightclub in Manhattan. Though supposedly invisible to the average human eye, Clary spies a trio of teens cornering a suspicious boy at the club. Clary intervenes, much to the trio's dismay and the ringleader Jace's amusement. What follows is a full immersion into a world of demons, witches, vampires, werewolves, and those called shadowhunters. Jace and his surrogate brother, Alec, and sister, Isabelle, begrudgingly provide the introduction into this new world for Clary.
However, Clary is not all that human as she seems, and with the sudden absence of her mother, and the increasingly erratic behavior of her mother's best friend Luke, Clary is thrust out on her own. Her relationship with Jace is tempestuous, the fine lines of love and hate manifesting themselves on a daily basis. Her attraction to him is irresistible though, and their blooming attraction builds into a horrible realization.
The problem with writing of a trilogy is the necessity of both explanation and the promise of unrevealment. I cannot describe the relationship between Jace and Clary, for it foregrounds the story that is the foundation of the series. Suffice it to say, with Jace's both help and hindrance, Clary learns the world of the shadowhunter and discovers her mother's role in it, and finally finds the identity of her horrible father, who in turn serves as the series' most sinister and powerful element of torment and violence.
The Mortal Instruments' is a trilogy created by strong writing, vividly imagistic scenarios, many biblical and medieval allusions, and the wonder of true and passionate love.
