CITY OF BONES Read-Along: Chapters 4 & 5

In honor of the movie coming out in theaters on August 21st, I have decided to join the City of Bones Read-Along. If you haven't read this book, now is the perfect opportunity! Especially if you're planning to see the movie. If you would like to join, click here for more info. NOTE: If you haven't read the book, please beware of spoilers in the Read-Along posts. There will be quotes and chapter summaries, as well as my own thoughts on certain events that occur within the story and I don't plan on holding back.


Because I didn't get to post Chapter 4 yesterday, today's post is going to be a two chapter post. Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Ravener

Short Summary:

Clary is running back home after the strange phone call from her mother. She still had Jace's Sensor and attempted to use it as a phone to call her mother but soon realized it is in fact not a phone. She sees the light in the windows and hopes that everything is okay. She has a brief conversation with Madame Dorothea before climbing the staircase to her apartment and seeing the door unlocked and open, a clear sign that something is wrong. Everything was a mess: windows wide open, cushions strewn across the floor, paintings ripped out of their frames. Even the bookshelves had been tipped over and the piano flipped on its side. She goes through the entire house looking for her mother, but coming up empty. The only room seemingly left untouched was Jocelyn's room. And then Clary hears a noise in the doorway. A demon which attempts to kill her. She grabs the Sensor out of her pocket, which is now buzzing, and shoves it in the demons mouth. The demon begins to twitch violently and Clary makes her way to the door only to be hit in the back of the head. When she awakes she finds herself outside with Jace in horrible pain. Jace explains that the Ravener demon stung her in the back of the neck and that if she doesn't go to the Institute with him she will be dead in an hour with the venom in her veins. After coughing violently, Jace grabs her arm and puts a rune on her wrist to temporarily hide her from the other demons who have congregated at the scene. It was then that Clary fainted.


Quotes:

"Valentine will never know. He said nothing about a girl. Valentine will not be angry." Its lipless mouth twitched as its jaws opened, slowly, a wave of stinking breath hot in her face.


Thoughts:

In this short amount of time, Clary has been through a lot. Between seeing things she should be seeing to her mother disappearing to being attacked by a demon, it's very surprising that Clary even has any sanity left. This chapter foreshadows a little bit about what is coming later on in the book with just one word: Valentine. If you remember in the first chapter, the demon with the blue hair mentions Valentine, knowing where Valentine is located to which the Shadowhunters laugh saying that Valentine is dead. In this chapter, the Ravener demon also mentions Valentine and from the statement he made about Valentine saying "nothing about a girl" it is clear that this demon was acting on Valentines order, meaning that Valentine isn't actually dead like the Shadowhunters believe. However we still don't know who Valentine is, just that he seems to be rather powerful from the two scenes where Valentine is mention. This chapter also shows that Jace has taken an interest in Clary. He could have just shrugged his shoulders after Clary runs off and went back to the Institute rather than following her back home, however he didn't. He followed her and helped her out of the apartment and away from the other demons.



Chapter 5: Clave and Covenant

Summary:

Clary hears conversations about her having been asleep for three days but she can't wake up. The sleep has its hold on her. Dreams of her mother, Luke, Jace, Isabelle and Simon. She finally wakes up to see Isabelle sitting on the next bed over. A small conversation arises between the two in which Isabelle admits her doubt about Clary killing the demon herself and tells her that she left some clothes in the bathroom for her. Isabelle then goes to tell the others that Clary is awake. Clary cleans up and puts on Isabelle's clothes which were far to big on her tiny body. She walks out of the infirmary into the hallway and following the sound of a piano walks down the corridor. She finds Jace sitting at a grand piano. He takes her to the library to find Hodge who is sitting behind a desk with a raven named Hugo perched on his shoulder. He is impressed that Clary killed the Ravener demon, but Alec doesn't believe the story. They then discuss what a demon could be doing searching for a mundane and that the Clave must be notified of one residing in the Institute. To this, Jace responds that Clary is not a mundane and tells Hodge of his placement of a rune on her wrist the night of the attack, showing them the mark. Both Alec and Hodge express their outrage-Covenant marks can kill and turn mundanes into Forsaken. Jace continues to explain that there's no way Clary is a mundane, otherwise she wouldn't be able to handle the marks upon her skin. They then discuss explanations as to why Clary doesn't know of her Shadowhunter blood. They allow her to call Luke who bluntly tells her not to call him again. Stunned, Clary stares at the phone trying not to cry. Hodge then asks to speak with Clary alone, discussing what happened the night she was attacked and what the demon said to her. Hodge then tells Clary that Valentine is not a demon, but a Shadowhunter-or at least, he was. But he has been dead for sixteen years. Hodge explains to Clary what Shadowhunters and Downworlders are and tells her of the Accords and the uneasy peace they have between them. He talks of the Mortal Cup and Valentine and the Circle, giving Clary a lesson on Shadowhunter history, then tells her that he will contact the Clave and the Silent Brothers to see if they can discover just what Clary and her mother have to do with the Shadow World. It is agreed that Clary can go back home to retrieve her things, but only if Jace agrees to it and goes with her. The view then shifts to Hodge, who is scene writing a letter and folding it into a cube. He recalls events from long ago; events stained with blood, towers of the Glass City. He gives the bird the letter, and then begin writing once again on another sheet of paper.


Quotes:

"What happened to my clothes?"
"They were covered in blood and poison. Jace burned them."
"Did he?" asked Clary. "Tell me, is he always really rude, or does he save that for mundanes?"
"Oh, he's rude to everyone," said Isabelle airily. "It's what makes him so damn sexy. That, and he's killed more demons than anyone else his age."

"Not everyone wants you all the time, Jace," he said.
"Don't be ridiculous."

"My mother wasn't peculiar. She was the most normal person in the world."
"Normal people don't generally find their homes ransacked by demons."


Thoughts:

As you could probably tell, this is the longest chapter so far. It covers the time of three days (most of which are spent with Clary asleep from having been stung by the Ravener demon. She wakes up finally to Isabelle sitting near her. We get a sense of Isabelle's attitude towards mundanes right from the start: she clearly doesn't like them and thinks less of them. As does her brother Alec. And while reading I thought "what is wrong with these two? They've got to be spoiled." Once Clary has cleaned up she goes to see Hodge who is very interested in her and wants to know what happened the night she was attacked. But it isn't until Clary mentions Valentine that we learn about him and just how powerful he was. Even though we haven't gotten the full story on Valentine we now know enough to see that Valentine wasn't a good guy. The ending to this chapter leaves off on a question: who is it that Hodge wrote to? Why did he write two letters? Is it two letter that he wrote or is he writing something else? And why did he send the bird? That small scene is very important to the plot but can very easily be overlooked the first time reading through it.


Do you have any thoughts to add/share about this chapter? Maybe your favorite quote?
Feel free to leave a comment!

Happy Reading!

Comments