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"City of Bones" by Cassandra Clare

Why I read it: The boy asked for it for his birthday, and then he asked for the other two books in the series in quick succession. So we own them all. And he told me they're way better than Twilight, so I went for it.

Bookmark: Receipt for sunglasses from the drugstore.

Tastes like chicken: When I started reading it, it seemed a lot like "Tithe" by Holly Black. I don't know how much I was influenced by the blurb (from Holly Black) on the cover. So when the boy was casting about for something to read, naturally I forced Tithe on him. I'm not sure if he finished it, but he did mention that the Seelie (or maybe Unseelie) court comes up in book 2 (City of Ashes) so clearly he got pretty far in it.

What I liked: This was an entertaining read that had some good twists. I always wonder about books where youth and teenagers seem quite unsupervised, but this one made that believable. I really liked the way Clary didn't know what she was. That seemed well done.

Not so much: The boy kept trying to tell me what's going to happen next.

Lesson: The mythology here didn't make me nervous at all, even though there are angels and demons, vampires and werewolves, and especially crossbreeds, all of which my mythology has. It all seems well worked-out, but completely different from my mythology, which is reassuring.

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