Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

The Book

City of Bones is the first in a series of books that merges the mundane world of 21st century America with that of the fantastical - werewolves, vampires, demons, fairies etc. They live amongst us but with a veil of glamor that shades them from discovery.
The setting is not an unfamiliar one, but the pace never lets up and by the end as Clary and Jace flew over New York, I was almost convinced that these creatures might just live amongst us too. Clare doesn't dwell too much on lengthy background or exposition, but leaks out explanations and back story gradually over the action, which helps keep the pages turning.
The main characters were interesting and a whole range of teen situations were explored - unrequited love, family loss, adoption, homosexuality and trying to get a sense of who we want to be as an adult.

 The dialogue was witty and had some great retorts to situations (asking the werewolf if he wanted to hang his head out the car window as they drove along for example).

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

The Book

This is the second in the Percy Jackson series, and not having read the first I was basing my previous knowledge on the first Percy Jackson film - the Lightning Thief. The general conceit is that the Gods and monsters of Greek legend are real and still live amongst us, albeit having to adapt to 21st Century civilisation.
Percy is the half-blood son of Poseidon and together with Annabeth (of Athena) and Troy (a Cyclops), they head of to the island of Polyphemus to rescue their satyr friend Grover and recover the Golden Fleece.

As the book is a sequel, it is clear that the original film played about with the plot removing a connecting strand about the evil Kronos. Having seen the trailer for Sea of Monsters I can tell that this part of the story has now been included, but quite a lot has been altered.

The film does seem to make the story more adult and sensible, however - not a bad thing. I found quite a lot of the humour a bit childish and ill-judged.