City of Bones vs Sarah Bishop

Authors Note: This is a comparative essay I wrote about the two books I’m reading, City of Bones and Sarah Bishop.

Would you believe that a book about highly equipped teenagers trained for slaughtering demons (City of Bones) and one about a 15 year old living on her own during the revolutionary war (Sarah Bishop) could have any similarities? They actually can, in fact they even share the same main theme of survival, of course in their own ways. So in many ways they are alike, but I’d say they’re more different. For example, City of Bones is so futuristic and takes place in modern day New York. This thrill ride of a book has to do with shadow hunters and downworlders, while the much slower pace Sarah Bishop is all about her living on her own during the revolutionary war. However, these novels are both about teenagers that are fighting for their lives every day. So as you can see, just by this quick summarization these books both share a main theme of survival.

Although these books are very different, a theme for both of them is survival. For Sarah it is living out doors and adapting to her new lifestyle. Living outside can be really tough, especially when there’s a bitter winter coming up. For the teens in City of Bones however, they have to survive in a completely different way. Life can’t be easy when you have possessed demons coming after you for a chalice you don’t even have.

Another thing that these books have in common is both of them have to deal with death, whether it’s killing something themselves, or someone dying around them. Clary’s grandparent’s and her so called “dad” died, but that’s no match for the amount of demons Jace has slaughtered. He is a demon hunter of course. While in Sarah Bishop, Sarah only uses her musket for threats and hunting for food. The only reason she has to kill animals, though, is because her dad has been killed and her brother died a prisoner of war.

On the other hand, Sarah bishop is all about a teenage girl living on her own and trying to find her way through life, while City of bones has a group of kids that will always have each other’s backs. Obviously they’d have to though, because in a world of blood sucking down worlders and man eating “forsaken” if you let your guard down, you better have someone looking out for you. For Sarah it isn’t that important for her to have someone. The worst thing that could happen is an animal attack, and it’s not like having a “cave mate” could really stop the creature’s assault.

In final analysis you can see how these books share the same theme, but yet still have many differences. Of course when you think of surviving in New York you’d probably just think of fitting in and not going bankrupt, and when you visualize surviving during in the revolutionary war, it probably occurs to you that that would mean a soldier trying not to get killed. Either way though it is clear to see that the characters in these books have to survive in their own ways, and life will always be a challenge for all of them.