City of Bones: The Mortal Instruments, Book 1

i love love love LOVE this book. best ever. the characters suck you into the story and keep you guessing till the very end, and even after that. there is just enough romance to get tweens interested but not so much that they're lying awake thinking about terrible things. the blood is no big deal because THERE ISN'T THAT MUCH. great book, i highly reccommend

This book about the hidden world where good and evil are at war is action filled and has it's moments. That said it contained LOTS of sexual innuendo, homosexual romance (more in the next books with an adult male with a teen male), some graphic violence, and the adults in the books are generally not good or iffy at best. The teens in the book are on their own to solve their problems and break rules or deceive the adults in charge to do it. The underground world is full of drinking, sex and violence for both the "good" and "evil" characters. Very little separates one group from the other in some aspects.

It's hard for me not to review this novel independantly of the second and third book in the trilogy - which reader's of the first novel will be compelled to read. They are fun books with lots of references to demonology and angels - most of which are based in Judeo-Christian mythology. The books, in my opinion, neither support nor directly contradict a reader's faith (or lack of faith) - and reader's will likely put these books down entertained and with their world-view unimpacted. There are no explicit sexual encounters, but there are numerous scenes with lots of sexual tension and kissing. Many of these scenes are between two characters that believe they are biological siblings. Two supporting characters have a homosexual relationship. Teen characters drink at parties. There are almost constant and graphic descriptions of demon-killing. The adults in this novel are almost all negligent, untrustworthy, or evil. I read these on the recommendation of a ninth-grade student. I think they will appeal to teens and will likely interest boys much more than the Twilight phenomenon has. However, due to the content and the teens behaving solidly as teens, I'd put the age limit a bit higher than the main review and reserve them for high schoolers.

This series, as a whole, is too sexual to be appropriate for kids 12+. There are multiple scenes implying sex, especially later in the series. A girl is described as having her shirt unbuttoned displaying her bra while kissing a boy.