Jenny's Book Bag

DNF at 40%

I'm sorry Ms. Clare, I just don't like your writing. I tried to like your books. I wanted to like your books. I was disappointed in City of Bones , but it was intriguing enough that I was willing to give City of Ashes a chance. I was hoping that this one would be better than the first one.

I don't like giving negative reviews, because as an aspiring writer, I know how difficult it is to write a novel. I haven't even gotten to the more difficult steps of finding an agent, a publisher and continued success like Cassandra Clare has. That's still an amazing achievement even if I personally don't like her novels. I just wanted to preface my review by stating that before I start complaining.

So, here are my issues with the writing.

One, I didn't think there was a real sense of setting. It sounds like a vague place where they live and work without much else going on. It's more of a placeholder than a well-developed world.

Two, the characters are two-dimensional at best. I didn't think their personalities had enough individuality or emotion. The dialogue makes them all sound the same and it didn't matter if I read the book or listened to the audiobook. All characters have a motive and that's partly what keeps the story going, but these characters didn't have enough motive to keep my interest. I didn't feel the emotions that the characters should have been feeling in different situations.

Three, I lost interest in the story. It felt like it wasn't going anywhere and since I didn't like the characters, I really didn't care what happened to them.

And four, I thought it had pacing issues. City of Ashes started slower than City of Bones. By the time I reached the 40% mark, it still felt like nothing was going on, so I gave up.

We all have unique preferences in novels and gravitate toward certain writing styles. Cassandra Clare novels just aren't for me.