Oh Cassie Clare. The bitter and petty fandom wank against her is quite something. Her journey from Lord of the Rings fanfiction writer (that's how I know her; I never read her Harry Potter fanfic) to best-selling published author is quite impressive. Apparently a lot of City of Bones was lifted from her Harry Potter fanfiction - if that is indeed the case, it was very obvious what parts of the book take place in the Harry Potter universe, with names hastily changed. The rest of the book was very derivative. Very, VERY derivative. Clare's writing style actually is not bad but her imagination is obviously limited, at least in the case of this book. For example, covering up the Harry Potter references. (view spoiler)[And the climax was totally lifted from Star Wars but I actually enjoyed that part, hahaha. (hide spoiler)] 
 I did not care too much for the Mary Sue (Clary=Clare!) until about two-thirds into the book, where it began picking up for me. But I did enjoy it overall and found City of Bones entertaining. I'll read her other stuff. 
 PS. I am crazy over the color of shiny metallic chartreuse they used for the cover, omg.