Cassandra Claire - making good?

[dangermousie]

The other day in the bookstore, right outside the cafe where I was bound with my haul of books, I noticed a copy of Cassandra Claire's City of Bones and, driven by morbid curiousity, picked it up

Comments

[bennet_7]

shamefully swayed by the fact that in the meantime I found out that at one point the heroine and her OTP believe they are brother and sister with much angsting.

That's what got me interested. I'd heard people compare it to Twilight and that put me off but having such low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised. Unlike Twilight it has an actual plot and an interesting mythology (not overly original but still, it's better than *sparkling*). I did get quite sick of CC's pretentious references (describing scenes by comparing them to paintings) and characters' physical perfection but the latter is practically a given in urban fantasy these days.

[dangermousie]

Yeah, I have no expectations at all - I usually don't, either for YA or fantasy, so this was a pleasant surprise.

[village]

Plagiarism is one of the things I absolutely loathe the most so I can never fully enjoy a writer once I know they've partaken in it. As far as I know, a lot of people enjoy CoB so definite kudos to her for that but while I believe an entertaining book is an entertaining book, I will never buy anything she writes.

Also, I heard that someone bought the rights to her trilogy. So it may be coming to a theatre near you.

[dangermousie]

It would make a ridiculously entertaining bad movie :)

[main_hoon_emily]

I started reading City of Bones a while ago and then put it down when I realized it wasn't the book I thought it was -- I had it confused with that Melissa Marr series about fairies so I kept thinking, "What is all this nonsense about Nephilim? Where are the fairies?" I might give it another chance one of these days when the reserve list at the library gets down to a manageable length.

I'd heard about her plagiarism in HP fanfiction but could never figure out what it was all about. I guess as long as she's not doing it in her published work who really cares?

[meganbmoore]

I shall randomly drop in to say that, if you haven't read them yet, the Marr books (or at least the first 2) are quite good, though dark and sometimes uncomfortable, and it takes a while for most of the characters to get interesting in the first.

[walkwithheroes]

Speaking of her having plagiarism in her novels - quite recently someone did a "study" of her Draco fics and her first published novel - she lifted from her Draco fics for her novel. It seems she took descriptions and lines.There's nothing wrong with that, but it makes me lol to think that she "stole" material from herself.

[dangermousie]

Ahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[tlace]

Just last night I was picking up Blood Promise (from the Vampire Academy series) at B&N and discovered City of Bones which COMPLETELY intrigued me, mostly from the description on the back cover. I was already spending money on a book I KNEW I wanted so I left it there but added CoB to my mental list for later. So your post hints of fate :)

It is very interesting to hear the story of the author AND to hear that you are enjoying the book. I'll definitely have to read CoB now :)

[dangermousie]

Yeah - it's not a great book, but it's entertaining.

[ancarett]

Sadly, her books don't entertain me. I still find her characters very derivative. It's almost as if I squint and see Spike, you know? I read through the first three chapters of a friend's copy and remained rather cynical so I decided I'm not buying it.

Plagiarism is one of those authorial crimes that really bugs me so I'm not at all inclined to give her any more of my time. I'll read the work of someone whose politics is quite different from mine without a thought, but a plagiarist really rankles me as an academic and researcher/writer, myself.

[dangermousie]

I don't see Spike but I do see her fanon Draco in Jace from CoB. Ehhhh, it entertains me so all is forgiven :)