City of Bones

These opening chapters introduce the main characters of the novel as well as the Shadow world. Clary has Shadowhunter blood, though she is not yet aware of it. Later, it’s revealed that Clary’s mom left the Shadowhunters to keep her and Clary safe from Valentine and hide the Mortal Cup. Clary’s mom took Clary to Magnus Bane every two years to renew a spell that kept Clary from remembering the Shadow world. At the story’s opening, it is time for the spell to be renewed, but Clary’s mom has been unable to contact Magnus. As a result, Clary is seeing more evidence of the Shadow world and able to remember Jace, Alec, and Isabelle’s battle with the demon.

The man with catlike pupils in Chapter 2 is Magnus, which foreshadows his involvement in Clary’s history as well as his later appearance in the story. Clary doesn’t remember him because he uses a glamor to hide himself and erase him from her immediate memory, more evidence the spell is fading because he wouldn’t need to do so if it was at full power. Magnus’s presence in Madam Dorothea’s apartment also foreshadows Clary visiting the psychic later as well as that her apartment is where the Mortal Cup is hidden.

Most of the novel is in Clary’s point-of-view, but Clare occasionally changes the perspective to offer additional insight into the story. She does so with the demon in Chapter 1, the only time the reader gets a demon’s perspective. Demons survive by consuming human life energy, as shown by how he looks forward to tasting Isabelle’s death. Demons are also jealous of the vitality of humans because demons cannot feel the same draw to life. The demon’s death in Chapter 2 is another way humans and demons differ. Rather than leaving a body behind, demons are sent back to their home dimension when killed, meaning they can eventually form again and find a way back to a dimension with life. As a result, the battle Shadowhunters wage against demons is never done.

Simon and Jace are Clary’s two main love interests, and each represents a different choice Clary can make. Simon and Clary have been best friends almost their entire lives, and Simon symbolizes the life Clary knows. Being with Simon would be a choice for things to stay the same and, ultimately, for Clary to give up the Shadow world. Though Clary does not have similar feelings for Simon, she may have developed them had she never discovered her Shadowhunter blood. Jace represents change and a life Clary has never considered until now. Choosing him would be a choice to enter the Shadow world and accept her Shadowhunter heritage. At the end of the book, Jace and Clary learn they are siblings, but given that Valentine pretended to be Michael Wayland (the man Jace believed was his father), it is possible that all is not what it seems where Jace’s family is concerned, meaning he may still be a love interest for Clary in later books.

Chapter 3 is Clary’s introduction to the Shadow world and her past. Jace’s arrival at the performance shows his interest in Clary on both personal and professional levels. He doesn’t believe Clary is dangerous, but he sought her out to appease Hodge and also because he wanted to see her again. The rune he shows Clary foreshadows that Clary’s own runes are hidden or have never been applied. The phone call from Clary’s mom is the inciting incident and the event that forces Clary into the Shadow world. The slithering noise is a demon, and though the noise terrifies Clary, she believes she can face whatever makes it because she doesn’t yet know demons are real.