City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2007) is the first in the Mortal Instruments series of young adult urban fantasy novels, followed by City of Ashes. The book follows a seemingly ordinary 15-year-old girl as she learns she is descended from an ancient race of demon hunters. City of Bones is a New York Times bestseller and inspired several media adaptations, including a graphic novel of the same name (3rd World Publishing, 2013), a feature film entitled The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013), and a Shadowhunters television series (2016-2019).

The novel won and was nominated for several awards, including the Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award (2010) and the Georgia Peach Book Award (2009). Cassandra Clare is the New York Times bestselling author of over 20 books and short stories for young adults, many set within the Mortal Instruments universe. Born in Iran to American parents, Clare spent her younger years traveling before settling in the United States for school, eventually working for several magazines including the Hollywood Reporter. She got her start in writing with Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fan fiction before City of Bones (her debut novel) was published. She currently resides in Massachusetts with her husband. This guide follows the 2007 Margaret K. McElderry Books edition of City of Bones .

Plot Summary

City of Bones takes place in modern-day New York City and follows 15-year-old Clary (Clarissa) Fray as she learns of her demon-hunter origins. Out for a night with her best friend Simon Lewis, Clary spots a group of teenagers wielding weapons following an unarmed boy into a storage room. Afraid something bad will happen, Clary follows them, only to find the unarmed boy is a demon and the other teenagers are Shadowhunters—a race of half-angel humans who protect the human world from demon chaos and destruction. The next day, Clary feels a nagging sense that she’s forgetting something and has a huge fight with her mom, who suddenly wants to go to the countryside for the rest of the summer. Angry, Clary goes out with Simon, ignoring calls from her mom, and at an event where one of their friends performs, Clary sees one of the Shadowhunters from the night before—Jace.

Simon doesn’t see Jace, and Clary is sure something strange is going on. She confronts Jace, demanding to know why he’s following her. Before he can answer, Clary’s phone rings again, and feeling uncertain, she answers. In a panicked voice, her mom tells her not to come home before the line goes dead. Clary rushes home, where a demon stalks through her apartment. Clary manages to kill it, but it stings her, delivering a dose of its poison. Jace rescues her and brings her to the New York Shadowhunter Institute for treatment.

Three days later, Clary wakes to learn her mom is missing and a test has proven she is also a Shadowhunter. Over the next several days, Clary grapples with her feelings as the search for her mother brings her deeper and deeper into the Shadow world. Her mom stole the Mortal Cup, an object of great importance to the Shadowhunters, and hid it away from a Shadowhunter named Valentine, who wanted to use the cup to create an army of Shadowhunters to overtake the Clave (governing body) and purify the human race. Clary, along with Jace, Simon, and the other teen Shadowhunters of New York, search for information, which brings them to Madam Dorothea, Clary’s downstairs neighbor, who performs a tarot card reading that reveals a memory block in Clary’s mind.

To keep Clary safe and hidden, her mom had a warlock named Magnus Bane cast a spell that would keep Clary from remembering any evidence of the Shadow world she saw, and she was able to see Jace and the others that first night because the spell is wearing off. The group goes to a party at Magnus’s house, where Magnus shows Clary a Shadowhunter rune that helps speed up her memory recovery and Simon is turned into a rat. A group of vampires makes off with rat-Simon, and Jace and Clary rescue him, all the while growing closer.

Back at the Institute while Simon recovers, Jace takes Clary up to the greenhouse for her birthday, where they share a kiss. Simon finds out and flies into a rage because he has been in love with Clary for years. Clary blows off the kiss, hurting Jace’s feelings, and alone in her room, she accidentally discovers the ability to insert objects into drawings using runes. She remembers the tarot cards at Madam Dorothea’s house and is sure her mom hid the Mortal Cup in the cards. Clary and Jace visit Madam Dorothea, where Clary extracts the cup from the cards.

Back at the institute, Jace’s tutor takes the cup and summons Valentine, who takes Jace and the cup and disappears. Clary chases after the tutor, where she is kidnapped by a werewolf, who turns out to be a close friend of hers and her mother’s. With the wolf pack as backup, Clary storms the abandoned hospital where Valentine took Jace and keeps Clary’s mother captive in a magical sleep. Jace believes Valentine is his father, and it’s revealed that Clary’s mom was Valentine’s wife, suggesting that Jace and Clary are siblings. Valentine escapes with the Mortal Cup, and Clary rescues her mom, who doesn’t wake.