Just Finished Reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I was doing my usual wandering-around browsing thing in Books-a-Million the other day when I turned down the "young adult" aisle of fiction.  There was a series, The Mortal Instruments, as well as other books by Cassandra Clare.  Inside the first book, titled City of Bones, was a rough map of New York City with various scenes from the story marked as to their location.  I decided to check it out, and just finished reading it.  The protagonist is Clary, a Manhattan teen, just turning 16, whose father had earlier mysteriously died and whose mother is suddenly very secretive about something.  On a lark of disobedience, Clary one night goes with her best friend, nerdy video-game enthusiast Simon, to Pandemonium, a local night club where teens are allowed.  She witnesses what appears to be the murder of a blue-haired boy by two other boys...and who is that mysterious girl who accompanied him to that back room where the killing occurred?  Incredibly, although Clary sees it all, no one else...including Simon...sees any of the people or events she describes.  The three perpetrators see her, though, and eventually reveal themselves as Jace, Alec, and Isabelle...Shadowhunters, whose mission as descendants of the Biblical angelic Nephilim is to seek out and destroy demons, of which that blue-haired "boy" was one.  And there is a reason for Clary's ability to see them while others can't...but that's later and I'm not giving away the story.  Instead, let me describe my general reactions to this book...

In at least this first book of the series, I suspect that the author was trying to capitalize on the success of the Harry Potter series, while using themes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Wars. Valentine, the name of the villain here, sounds like Potter's nemesis Voldemort: starts with V, nine letters, three syllables, stress on the first one.  Plus,Valentine, like Voldemort, stresses the need for "purity" of paranormal beings...an allegory to racial bigotry.  As for Buffy, the combat is on as it's open season on those nasty demons.  And regarding Star Wars, remember all that convoluted stuff about whose father was who and who was brother and sister?  City of Bones is loaded with that sort of intrigue, which to me got quickly annoying.  For a young adult level of reading, though, I liked the story and want to see what happens to the various characters in the series...so I've already begun reading the next book, City of Ashes...

Later...I get home after writing this, turn on the TV, and what's on the Sy Fy channel?  Nothing other than the movie adaptation to City of Bones!  I'm not watching the whole thing, but it seems to me that they did a pretty impressive job with the beginning...