City of Bones

This is my first time reading a YA novel in years. Figured i should give this best-seller everyone raves about a chance. What a big mistake. The writing is just bad as bad the author of Twilight, but this time I won't make the same mistake I made in middle school where I would force myself to read an entire series once I started it, no matter how much I disliked it. I thought it was the only way my opinions or reviews could be valid.

The author also copied from a ton of popular stories, Harry Potter to name one of them. I know there's really no such thing as an original idea but the similarities were way to similar and literally everything was predictable. There just wasn't enough deviation from borrowed texts. Dropped hints were more like spoilers. JK Rowling did a much better job with this. Impressive, really. This book is once again proof that as long as you follow the common YA plot formula, it doesn't matter how poor the writing is and if the idea is original or not, you'll have a successful book. Anyone can become a published author at this point. At least I recognize I should leave the writing to other people.

I ended up skimming the last third of the book. Needless to say, I won't be finishing this series. The first book was a waste of time. I'll go back to the non YA fantasy books that tend to have far better writing, well developed worlds, and better plots (I recommend Wheel of Time, The Kingkiller Chronicles, and the Stormlight Archives). Seriously, once you try a fantasy novel, you will rarely go back to YA except for that diamond in the rough.

I have heard this author has improved significantly so I'm considering trying another novel from her but I'm honestly not sure if it's worth my time and effort. I would need to know someone with the same opinion I had of this book to actually likes her newer ones.