The Importance Of Revenge In Cassandra Clare's City Of Bones

Have you ever looked at your history teacher and thought he was a little pale? Not your average pale, but ghostly pale, almost vampire pale? Is the delivery man a little hairy? And toothy? An unable to deliver on full moons? These scenarios are fully plausible in Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, the first book in The Mortal Instruments series. It was originally a trilogy, with the City of Glass being the finale, but readers begged for more, and Clare added three more books to the series and included a prequel and sequel series. In City of Bones Clary Fray discovers a New York that runs in her veins, but one she has never seen. Alongside irresistible Jace, indifferent Alec, and edgy Isabelle, Clary must find her missing mother in a realm full of vampires, werewolves, faeries, and warlocks. Not to mention demons, angels, and Nephilim, the mighty offspring of angels and humans. In City of Bones, Clary and her best friend Simon are clubbing it out, when she sees a group of people no one else can see. Apparently, her mother senses that she’s discovered her ability, so she plans on fleeing to a country home outside the

In my opinion, a factor that made the book so great was the theme of revenge that drifted off the pages. Revenge is a force so powerful that drives you towards lunacy. You are blinded, and all you wish is for harm to fall upon those that hurt you. Parents get murdered left and right in this story, leaving children looking for vengeance. “Clary didn’t see how killing one person could make right the death of another, but she sensed there was no point in saying that.” (chapter 10, paragraph 254) However, revenge was pretty common in the Shadowhunter culture. In fact, the only reason Valentine wanted to wipe out the Shadowhunters was because they “unjustly” killed his parents in a distant past. In City of Bones, no revenge is equivalent to no