I was prepared to fall in love with this book in a ‘this is going to be an awesome series’ kind of way. But unfortunately, the book was less Hunger Games and more Twilight.

The female lead was a bit of a wet sponge, moping over her new crush Jace, while being totally oblivious to the fact that her best friend is completely and utterly in love with her.

The book wasn’t completely devoid of action, and I did find it quite exciting in places. There was obviously a lot of setting up of the world and the story, it being the first book in the series and all, so I didn’t expect it to be quite as action packed as it was. It seems like Clary basically ran from one danger to the next, dragging her new ‘friends’ along with her.

I’m hoping that later books in the series give more of a detailed look at how the ‘runes’ work. All we seem to know so far is that they have some sort of powers, but I want more details! In books like Mistborn, this kind of thing is all explained pretty early on, and it’s not quite so mysterious. I know that young people like action packed blockbuster-y kind of books, but I wouldn’t mind occasionally slowing down the pace for a bit more information.

I’m not giving up on the series just yet, I’ll give it another chance to see if Clary can become a bit more self assured and less reliant on the boys around her. She did have a bit of a shock at the end of the last book concerning the boy she was moping over (I’ll give you no spoilers, but I did expect it way before it was revealed in the book). Hopefully this won’t make her even more mopey than she already was, and instead give her the kick up the backside that she so desperately needs!

I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the book, and it most definitely wasn’t terrible, I’ve just read some really great books recently and I think this may have suffered as a result. Let’s see where it goes…