Have your YA-fantasy cliche bingo cards at the ready folks, this is going to be a busy ride.

Having gotten that out of the way, it's not a bad ride (unless said cliches send you running for the hills). The writing style was pretty smooth. Everything flowed well, even if there were one or two events that felt like filler.

The weakest aspect of the book would be the main characters and their awkward relationships. Clary is a Little Miss Average with a penchant for geeky things who gets thrown into a shadowy world of supernaturals along with her puppy-dog best friend Simon. Naturally, she hasn't noticed that he's making moon-eyes at her. They meet Jace, the classic YA handsome bravado-meister who's probably hiding some deep trauma with his snark. Siblings Alec and Isabelle are the nasty "shun the outsider" brigade. Add in Hodge as the wise mentor figure and sole adult for the most part of the book along with rumours of a not-so-dead baddie named Valentine and there's a distinct whiff of Harry Potter. While I'm not the biggest fan of the boy wizard, this book could learn a lot on subtlty and character interaction from Ms Rowling. The love triangle(s) are obvious a mile off, as is the shock "reveal" towards the end of the book.

It's an alright start to a series, paving the way for more supernatural goings on. However it being such a long series, I fear the pacing will be a drag if it continues to focus in on the characters more than the events they're involved in. I'm going to continue with an open mind and hope that the cast do get the time to mature.