What is City Of Bones About?

Answer 1

The main characters, Clary Fray and Simon Lewis, are at a club where Clary witnesses a murder by a group of teens, and is shocked that Simon and the club's security guard, cannot see the culprit-a boy called Jace, who claims that the boy he murdered was a demon. The next day, Jace offers to take Clary to meet his tutor, but before she can do so, she receives a distressing phone call from her mother. She returns home to find her mother missing, the apartment trashed, and a monstrous creature, a Ravenor demon, lying in wait for her. She defeats the creature, but is injured in the process, and Jace takes her to his home. His home is called "the Institute", an old gothic cathedral in New York that humans, or mundanes, can't see, because it is protected by a force called glamour. Here, she recuperates. She also meets Hodge Starkweather, Jace's tutor, as well as his siblings Isabelle and Alec Lightwood.

Returning to her apartment with Jace, Clary is attacked again by a monster called a "Forsaken", which Jace kills. They escape through a magical portal to Luke's, a family friend's, house, where they meet Simon and overhear a conversation between Luke and two men who Jace reveals to have killed his father. They return, with Simon, to the Institute and recount the conversation to Hodge, who in return tells them the tale of a group of '"Shadowhunters", or demon hunters who are invisible to humans, known as "the Circle", who attempted to kill all "Downworlders", or demons. Although their leader, Valentine, was supposedly burned to death, Hodge feels that Valentine may have survived. Hodge also reveals that he, the Lightwoods, Luke, and Clary's mother were all members of the Circle.

Hodge then acquires the help of a monk with magical powers, called a "Silent Brother", Jeremiah, to discover how Clary is able to see Shadowhunters and why she was attacked. Jeremiah discovers a block on Clary's mind, and takes her and Jace to the City of Bones, where the Silent Brothers attempt to break it. Although the attempt fails, Clary discovers flashes of information, particularly the name Magnus Bane, which, with Isabelle's help, Clary traces to a party, which she attends with Jace, Simon, Alec and Isabelle. There, they discover that Magnus is the High Warlock of Brooklyn, and he placed the block on Clary, although his attempts to help her remember are unhelpful. During the party, Simon is turned into a rat by a faerie drink, and Jace and Clary have to rescue him after he is taken home by a vampire.

After returning to the Institute, Jace and Clary talk and eventually kiss, but when Simon catches them and gets angry they argue with each other. Clary begins to draw, and draws a rune which allows her to make her drawing real, leading her to believe that this was how her mother hid the Mortal Cup, within a Tarot card. They return to Clary's apartment, and are attacked by a demon who is searching for the Mortal Cup. The battle leaves Alec badly injured and Simon saves their lives. They return to the Institute and give Hodge the Cup, but he betrays them and gives the Cup, and Jace, to Valentine. When he tries to escape, Hodge is attacked by Luke in werewolf form. Luke then tells Clary that Valentine was her father, before he and his pack attack Valentine's HQ.

During the attack, Luke and Clary get inside, and while Luke is distracted, Clary finds Valentine and Jace. Valentine reveals that he is also Jace's father, making them siblings. Luke then returns to fight Valentine, with Jace's help, but Valentine escapes to Idris, where he has hidden the Cup. Clary retrieves her mother, who is in a coma, and takes her to a hospital. In the meantime, Alec has been healed by Magnus Bane. Clary and Jace meet at the Institute and express their frustration that they cannot be together.

Answer 2

Possibly to stay strong and expect the unexpected

Answer 3

The theme is expect the unexpected.