I love the witty dialogue in this series, though I find some aspects of the books questionnable. Here are my favourite quotes,other notes and plot summary.This is one of my favourite series for a long time. Here are notes on Book One, City of Bones
(Apologies in advance for typing errors)
Tribes and Places
Greater Demon Abbadon, the Greater Demon of the Abyss, Lord of the Fallen.Hardly ever killed. Need to kill in their physical and ethereal forms before they die. P332
Nephilim -offspring humans and angels.Shadowhunter. Drink the Angels’ blood from the mortal cup. Only recent that women allowed to be Shadowhunters alongside men. You can turn a mundane into a Shadowhunter, but not Downworlders– they can’t withstand the runes. Usually has to be a child. Shadowhunters must keep their promises.
Downworlders share the shadowworld with the Nephilim.
Warlocks -Lilith’s children. Half human half-demon. All witches and warlocks are crossbreeds and as such are sterile. All downworlders are part demon, but only warlocks are children of demon parents.
Vampires –result of diseases brought by demons from their home dimensions. Part human. Only rogue vampires drink blood from living people.
Werewolves -result of diseases brought by demons from their home dimensions. Moon’s children.
Faeries -fallen angles, cast out of heaven for their pride. Offspring of demons and angles.Avoid midday sunlight. Devil has no power except in the dark p101
Silent Brothers – archivists. To strengthen their minds, use powerful runes that twist and warp their physical form and they cannot see. They read minds. Powers of the mind not body.
Demons – interdimensional parasites.They use up a world, destroy life and move on. Only demons can travel between worlds because they are partly non-corporeal. Disappear when killed.
Ifrit – warlocks with no magic.Half demons who can’t cast spells.
Idris -home for the Nephilim. Alicante- City of glass.
Forsaken- humans that have been marked and do not have any Shadowhunter ancestry. Go insane, become killers. Don’t sleep, don’t eat, unless told, and die quickly. They are evil. They are loyal to whoever marks them.
Quotes
I have not slept.
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma or a hideous dream;(65)
The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council, and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection. Shakespeare Julius Caesar
p19 That’s not a person little girl. It may look like a person talk like a person and maybe even bleed like a person. But it’s a monster.
p21 Have you had dealings with demons, little girl? Walked with warlocks, talked with the Night Children?
p25 “Hi, I’m one of the knife wielding hooligans you met last night in Pandemonium? I’m afraid I made a bad impression and was hoping you’d give me the chance to make it up to–”
p27 Jocelyn recognized reading as a sacred pastime and usually wouldn’t interrupt Clary in the middle of a book, even to yell at her.
p33 “Jesus!” Luke exclaimed.
“Actually, it’s just me,” said Simon. “Although, I’ve been told the resemblance is startling.”
P42 “Come my faux juggernaut, my nefarious loins! Slather every protuberance with arid zeal!”
P43 “You’re not gay, are you?”
Simon’s greenish colour deepened.” If I were, I would dress better.”
P44 Pretty name. Like the herb, clary sage. In the old days people thought eating the seeds would let you see the fair folk.”
P45 “I was laughing at you because declarations of love amuse me, especially when unrequited,” he said. “And because your Simon is one of the most mundane mundane I‘ve ever encountered.”
P45 I may be a killer, but I know what I am… Can you say the same?”
P59 She’s not pretty enough to be a pixie, though.”
Well, nobody looks their best with demon poison in their veins.”
P61 “…Is he always rude, or does he save that for mundane?”
‘Oh, he’s rude to everyone…It’s what makes him so damn sexy.” That and he’s killed more demons than anyone else his age.”
P69 “Isabelle hails from one of the greatest Shadowhunter dynasties in history,” Alec said dryly. “This girl, on the other hand, hails from New Jersey.”
P75 “I don’t want tea,” said Clary, with muffled force. “I want to find my mother. And then I want to find out who took her in the first place, and I want to kill them.”
“Unfortunately, “said Hodge, ‘we’re all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it’s tea or nothing.”
P76 “Normal people don’t generally find their homes ransacked by demons,” Hodge said not unkindly.
P82 Magic is a dark and elemental force, not just a lot of sparkly wands and crystal balls and talking goldfish.”
“I never said it was a lot of talking goldfish, you—“
Jace waved a hand, cutting her off. “Just because you call an electric eel a rubber duck doesn’t make it a rubber duck, does it. And God help the poor bastard who decides they want to take a bath with the duckie.’
P83 “How did you know I had Shadowhunter blood?..”
“I guessed.’…
“You guessed? You must have been pretty sure, considering you could have killed me.”
“..I was ninety percent sure.”…
“Her hand cracked across his face, a slap that rocked him on his heels…
“What the hell was that for?”
“The other ten percent.”
P84 “.. Those girls on the other side of the car are staring at you.”
…”Of course they are…I’m stunningly attractive.”
“Haven’t you ever heard that modesty is an attractive trait?”
“Only from ugly people,” Jace confided. “The meek may inherit the earth, but at the moment it belongs to the conceited. Like me.”
P97 “I figured all your classes were stuff like Slaughter 101 and Beheading for Beginners.”
p98 “Get it through your head: Human beings are not magic users…
…””But I’ve seen you use magic. You use enchanted weapons—“
…The marks are only part of it. There are tests, ordeals, levels of training..Stay away from my blades In fact, don’t touch any of my weapons.”
“Well there goes my plan for selling them on eBay.”
“Selling them on what?”
A mythical place of great magical power.”
P98 “If you were half as funny as you thought you were, my boy, you’d be twice as funny as you are.”
P101 “I see violence in your future, a great deal of blood shed by you and others. You’ll fall in love with the wrong person. Also you have an enemy.”
“Only one. That’s good news.”
P146 Jace. Is he really a terrible liar?. ..He’s not a liar at all. Not about important things He will tell you terrible truths, but he won’t lie…That’s why it’s generally better not to ask him anything unless you can stand to hear the answer.”
P184 “Sed lex dura lex.” The law is hard, but it is the law.
P147 “I kind of doubt he sent a Ravener Demon to her house because he wants to get back together.”…” It wouldn’t have been my first move.. First the candy and flowers, then the apology letters, then the ravenous demon hordes. In that order.”
P158 “ It seems to me,” Clary said with an edge to her voice, “that no one the Clave thinks is dead is ever actually dead. Maybe they should invest in dental records.”
P169 Nephilim: Facilis Descensus Averno
“It means Shadowhunters looking better in black than the Widows of our enemies since 1234. (The descent into hell is easy.)
P176 “Is this when you start tearing strips off your T-shirt to bind up my wound?” she joked. She hated the sight of blood, especially her own.
“If you wanted me to rip my clothes off, you should have just asked…It would have been a lot less painful. And next time you’re planning to injure yourself to get my attention, just remember that a little sweet talk works wonders.”
P182 “Clary fought the urge not to sneeze. She’d never understood why some girls felt the need to smell like dessert.”
p183 They kill demons..So if they don’t bother us we don’t bother them…Like letting spiders live because they eat mosquitos.
P188 “you must understand—“
“You keep saying that, “ Clary said crossly. “I don’t see why I must understand anything. You tell me the truth and I’ll either understand or I won’t.”
P190 “Do all the girls you meet fall in love with you…”
“It’s not love …”
“You could try not being charming all the time..It might be a relief for everyone.’
P191 If only Simon were here he could probably bore you to sleep.
P193 The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed.
P199 Even half in demon hunter clothes …he looked like the sort of boy who’d come over to your house to pick you up for a date and be polite to your parents and nice to your pets…Jace on the other hand, looked like the sort of boy who’d come over to your house and burn it down for kicks.”
P202 “Last time I left you alone, a demon attacked you.”
“Well, I’d certainly hate to interrupt your pleasant night stroll with my sudden death.”…
“There is a fine line between sarcasm and outright hostility and you seemed to have crossed it. What’s up?”
…This morning, weird creepy guys dug around in my brain. Now I’m going to meet the weird creepy guy who originally dug around in my brain.”
P202 Wouldn’t you always want to know the truth?”
Absolutely always”
P204 Come in. And try not to murder any of my guests….Even if one of them spills a drink on my new shoes?”
“As for this…keep it in your pants, Shadowhunter.”
P215 “All my life I’ve felt there was something wrong with me. Something missing or damaged…”
“Every teenager in the world feels like that, feels broken or out of place, different somehow, royalty mistakenly born into a family of peasants. The difference in your case is that it’s true.” “When I was ten my father tried to drown me in the creek. When I found out what I was really, only half a human being. I hated myself.”
“I don’t care if I’m different… I just want to know who I really am.”
“If there was such a thing as terminal literalism, you would have died in childhood.”
“Gray is short for Gramarye. It means ‘magic, hidden wisdom.”
P219 If you insist on disavowing that which is ugly about what you do…you will never learn from your mistakes.”
“Now if we’re done here, I’d like to get back to my party before any of the guests eat each other.”
P222 She fought down a feeling of revulsion-she’d never liked rats, with their yellowy squared off teeth all ready to bite. She wished he’d been turned into a hamster.”p225
It wasn’t as if she had a pocket she could have tucked him in. Isabelle’s clothes didn’t allow for pockets; they were too tight. Clary was amazed they allowed for Isabelle.”
P227 Keep in mind that when your mother fled the Shadow World, it wasn’t the monsters she was hiding from. Not the warlocks,the wolf-men, The Fair Folk, not even the demons themselves. It was them. It was the Shadowhunters.
P234 “When the self-congratulatory part of the evening is over, maybe we could get back to saving my best friend from being exsanguinated to death.”
P238 “And when I saw him lying in a pool of his own blood, I knew then that I hadn’t stopped believing in God. I’d just stopped believing God cared.There might be a God, Clary and there might not, but I don’t think it matters. Either way, we’re on our own.”
P241 “Don’t …I’m not really in the mood right now.”
‘That’s got to be the first time a girl’s ever said that to me…”
Stick with me and it won’t be the last.”
P252 Clary wondered if there were any ugly vampires, or maybe any fat ones. Maybe they didn’t make vampires out of ugly people. Or maybe ugly people just didn’t want to live forever.”
P259 Now this is sa situation.
P273 I have a high pain threshold. In fact, it’s less of a threshold and more of a tastefully decorated foyer.”
p276 No wonder you’ve never killed a single demon because you’re too afraid…
He wouldn’t say that.
P279 My mom says you only need three people you can rely on in order to achieve self-actualization.”
P280 Then at the party I realised she was actually crazy.
P280 You’re an idiot
I’ve never claimed otherwise.
P286 He wouldn’t say that.
P292 “In future Clarissa…it might be wise to mention that you already have a man in your bed, to avoid such tedious situations.”
“You invited him into your bed…?”
“Ridiculous isn’t is..We would never have all fit.”
P293 “Pat his head and tell him he’s still your super special little guy.”
P294 “No I don’t like flat soda. I don’t like crappy boy band pop. I don’t like being stuck in traffic. I don’t like math homework. I hate Jace. See the difference.”
P295 You’re so stupid Clary. Can’t you see anything?
P296She wondered if it was actually possible within the space of a week to love everyone that you loved.
P298 Isabelle used her beauty like she used her whip.
P298 Words were weapons his father had taught him that had he’d wanted to hurt Clary more than he’d ever wanted to hurt any girl. In fact he wasn’t sure he had ever wanted to hurt a girl before. Usually, he just wanted them, and then wanted them to leave him alone.
P302 This has nothing to do with us and everything to do with your – your addiction to danger.
If you’re afraid of a few Forsake, by all means stay at home.
p304 I can handle a couple of Forsaken. They’re crazy, but not actually very smart.
P305 He has many things I haven’t got..Like near sightedness, bad posture and an appalling lack of coordination.
You know ..most psychologists agree that hostility is really just sublimated sexual attraction.
Ah…that might explain why I so often run into people who dislike me.
P306 Sorry, are you telling me that your demon-slaying buddies need to be driven to their next assignation with the forces of darkness by my mom?
P308 Where there is feeling that is not requited…there is an inbalance of power. It is an inbalance that is easy to exploit, but it is not a wise course. Where there is love, there is often also hate. They exist side by side.
Simon doesn’t hate me.
He might grow to over time, if he felt you were using him.
P311 That’s the van? It looks like a rotting banana.
P312 So what’s with the hey thing?…
Real men are terse. Laconic.
So the more manly you are, the less you say.
That’s why when major badasses greet each other in movies, they don’t say anything, they just nod. The nod means, “I am a badass” and I recognise that you too are a badass, but they don’t say anything because they’re Wolverine and Magneto and it would mess up their vibe to explain.
P314 I’d always hoped that when I finally said “I love you’ to a girl, she’d say ‘I know’ back like Leia did to Han in Return of the Jedi.
“No,’ he said, “You look, Clary. Look at me, and really see me. Can you do that.”
If she had to tell the truth, would she really say that she’d never known that he loved her. Or just that she’d never known what she should do about it if he did.
Seeing through glamour is easy. It’s people that are hard.
We all see what we want to see.
P315 You can see us because now you know the truth of what you’re looking at.
P318 Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?
…Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself. ..
At least …you don’t have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland…
Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting.
P321 It’s the Mortal Cup, Jace, not the Mortal Toilet Bowl.
P333 Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. (My own fault. My most grievous fault.)I thought you didn’t believe in religion.
I may not believe in sin…but I do feel guilt. We Shadowhunters live by a code and that code isn’t flexible. Honor, fault, penance, and those are real to us, and they have nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with who we are. This is who I am…I am one of the Clave…So tell me, if you’re sure this isn’t my fault, why it is that the first thought in mind when I saw Abbadon wasn’t for my fellow warriors but for you.”
P336 “I let my father die and now I’ve killed the only brother I ever had… What’s happening to me?
P343 The good things you do don’t cancel the bad ones.
P343 All that this angelic heritage has given us is a longer distance to fall.
P376 NYPD Fidelis ad Mortem – Faithful until death – motto where Luke staying.
P387 In Hoc Signo Vinces – By this sign we will conquer
P392 She remembered another poem from English class, something about how after the first death you saw, no other deaths mattered. That poet hadn’t known what he was talking about
P394 Why don’t you ever think?
P396 She remembered what Hodge had said about Valentine and his ability to tell charming and convincing lies. Is this something Valentine told you? Because he’s a liar Jace. Remember what Hodge said. If he’s telling you your father is alive, it’s a lie to get you to do what he wants.
P401 Morgernstern means morning star. As in How art thou fallen from heaven, o Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations.
P403 It’s my initials …J.C.
P405 You’re telling lies with a little bit of truth mixed in, is all.
P406 That sounds terrific…Just you, your comatose wife, your shell shocked son, and your daughter who hates your guts. Not to mention that your two kids could be in love with one another. Yeah that sounds like a perfect family reunion.
P409 They’re going to kill each other.
You don’t understand …This is how it’s done—
P414 Like you do… Shutting your eyes and pretending something’s not happening doesn’t make it not true, Jace.
P419 I have a suggestion.
Let me guess… It’s don’t kill me, isn’t it?
P421 She’s like her mother… Doesn’t like to do what she’s told.
P425 And this is how you repay the unquestioning loyalty you bought so cheaply, Lucian. By letting them die for you.
P431 Since I found out what. That he’s a killer-transvestite who molests cats?”
No wonder that cat hates everyone.
P437 …maybe Jace can behead a Du’sien demon from a distance of fifty feet with just a cork-screw and a rubber band, but sometimes I think he doesn’t know much about people.
P439 I kill demons because it’s what I’m good at and what I was taught to do, but it isn’t who I am.
Chapter summary The Mortal Instruments City -of Bones
Dark descent
1. Pandemonium-Clary sees Jace, Isabelle and Alec kill a demon in a nightclub. She comes home late.. and finds her mother is taking her away
2. Secrets and Lies -Jocelyn is taking Clary away . She argues with Clary who goes out with Simon.p27 box with JC onit.
3. Shadowhunter -Jace finds her. Clary gets a call.
4. Ravener- Clary races home, but it is ransacked. She is stung by a demon and Jace takes her to The institute.
5. Clave and Covenant- Clary meets Hodge. P73 Luke rejects her.
6. Forsaken-Clary and Jace go back to the unit and are attacked by a Forsaken.p91 Jace has star on his shoulder. Explains how marking can make humans go mad.
7. The Five Dimensional Door- Madame Dorothea reads their fortune. Cannot read Clary’s fortune- mind block.
8. Weapon of Choice p106- Clary goes through Portal to Luke’s house. Luke is with Blackwell and Pangborn who killed Jace’s father.
9. The circle and the brotherhood-Jace take Clary and Simon back to The Institute. Clary finds Jocelyn was married to Valentine
Easy is the Descent
10. City of Bones-They find out about The Circle and why Valentine wants the cup. Clary meets a Silent Brother. Clary goes with Jace to the City of Bones, the Silent City. She finds out Magnus Bane needs to undo the memory block.
11. Magnus Bane-Jace takes Clary to Taki’s, meet Simon, Alec and Is there. Hodge tells Clary more about the Circle and The Glass City. Jace is in her room looking at her sketch book. Jace tells the falcon story about Valentine. Details of Hodge’s curse for not leaving the Circle before the Uprising.
12. Dead Man’s Party p201 Magnus Bane’s party. Clary finds her mother paid Bane to erase her memory.
13. The Memory of Whiteness p212 Magnus shows Clary the runes to trigger her memory.Simon is turned into a rat.
14. The Hotel Dumort p234 Clary and Jace go to a church. Jace says he does not believe in Angels. Raphael helps them break in to rescue Simon. Lot of discussion of oath swearing.
15. High and dry p260 Werewolves attack Hotel Dumont. They escape on a vampire motorcycle and crash at sunrise.
16. Falling Angels p272 Alec and Clary argue about Jace. Simon comes to Clary’s room.
17. The Midnight Flower-p284 They go to the greenhouse for Clary’s birthday. Jace tells Clary his father would give him anything even a bath of spaghetti. Jace gives Clary witchlight. 289 Clary has star on shoulder. 290 first kiss. They go to her room – and see Simon. Simon tells Clary he loves her, says his mom had said she would break his heart. Clary draws the runes to take the cup out of the page.
18. The Mortal Cup p 298 (Raziel’s cup-angel) Clary tells Jace the cup is at Dorothea’s. Hodge tells Clary that Luke loves Jocelyn. Hodge warns RE Alec, Jace, Simon –unrequited love danger of hatred-dilemma of power. Simon discusses his archery skills. Explains why Simon can see them. Get t he cup from Dorothea.
19. Abbadon p321 Abbadon, the Greater Demon of the Abyss, Lord of the Fallen, comes through the portal and kills Dorothea. They fight Abbadon. Simon saves them by shooting an arrow into the skylight. Alec is badly injured and Jace tells Clary he blames himself. Hodge gets Hugin to attack Clary and takes the cup. Hodge uses Jace’s ring to call Valentine- who has a similar ring. Hodge and Valentine argue, and Hodge tries to protect Jace, though he is shown to be weak willed in the face of Valentine. Valentine lifts Hodge’s curse and takes Jace. Hodge leaves having trapped Clary behind a wall, does not call for help for Alec.
20. In Rat’s Alley- Clary uses Jace’s stele to make rune and break barrier. Clary chases Hodge, he throws Chakram at her, but wolf saves her. Clary realizes Luke is a werewolf. She finds out Luke had wolves following her which is why they attacked the Dumort.
The Decent Beckons
21. The Werewolf’s Tale-Luke tells of how they all knew Valentine, how he grew his power by exploiting weakness. Tells how they formed the circle because Valentine wanted to use the cup to make more Shadowhunters and the Clave said no because most humans would not survive the transition and because it was not for anyone to choose who could become a Shadowhunter. Valentine’s father killed in attack on werewolf encampment leading Valentine to propose attack against all Downworlders. Jocelyn helped Valentine get over grief. World for humans, not part demons. Circle hunted Downworlders who had committed slightest infraction. Valentine used torture. Jocelyn became pregnant with child- blond, Jonathan Christopher-and Valentine was going to cellars. Luke bitten and Valentine tells Luke to kill himself, but he kills the leader of the pack, and became clan leader. Jocelyn finds out Luke is alive and warns him Valentine knows. Valentine uses a demon and steals the cup. Jocelyn and Luke work with faeries, warlocks and vampires against Valentine. They attacked Circle on day Accords were signed. Valentine curses Luke and Jocelyn, takes her as hostage. Jocelyn escapes, but Luke and Jocelyn find the house destroyed by demon fire. Her mother and father were killed and they found Valentine’s amulet and the bones of a child. Jocelyn fled to Paris, said she would not return to Shadow World. She sold amulet and left Luke carrying another child. Told Luke Valentine was still alive. Luke returned to wolves, signed the Accords. Only members of Circle who survived were Lightwoods, Hodge – exiled to The Institute – and Michael Wayland. Michael hid himself with son and mourned wife. Lightwoods had connections- got lighter sentence than Hodge. Luke went after Jocelyn and found her and Clary in New York
22. Renwick’s Ruin-Clary finds Valentine is her father. Clary calls Simon to google Renwicks. When Jace was ten years old, Valentine killed Michael Wayland. Luke has been pack leader one week-killed packleader. They go to Roosevelt Island, fight Forsaken. Gretal killed. Luke in this chapter and last makes Clary realise she has been “racist’ about downworlders- like the Lightwoods. Find Jocelyn asleep and Blackwell and Pangborn. Jace tells Clary Valentine is his father.
23. Valentine-p398 has blamed Hodge. Jace finds out Clary is his sister. That Wayland died in the uprising and Valentine took his place. When Jace was 10, Valentine got a letter saying he would reveal his identity. So Valentine staged his own death with the help of Pangborn and Blackwell and sent Jace to the Lightwoods. Luke has killed Pangborn with the dagger Valentine told him to kill himself with. Jace rejects his mother, Clary her father. Luke tells Clary to go, and Jace stops her. Clary tells Jace about the box and that Jocelyn thought he was dead. Clary throws herself in front of Luke to protect him from Valentine, and Jace saves her. Clary accuses Valentine of murdering her grandparents and the Waylands in cold blood. Clary uses idea of letting father die to get Jace to save Luke. Jace accuses Valentine of leaving him alone. Valentine admits he killed Clary’s grandparents because they sided with Jocelyn against him. Alaric is killed saving Luke. Jace cannot kill Valentine who goes through the portal that looks to Idris.
24. Epilogue p427 Magnus cures Alec, Brother Jeremiah will not save someone who has willingly separated themselves from the Clave. A Fortuitous Occurrence. Isabelle and Clary become friends. Clary and Alec become friends.
Jace takes Clary to see Jocelyn in hospital on a flying motorbike.
READINGPOWER 