Book: City Of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Published May 2012 by Margaret K. Elderberry Books|397 pages

Where I Got It: nook store

Series: The Mortal Instruments #5

Genre: YA Paranormal/Angels

You can find City Of Lost Souls on goodreads & & Cassandra Clare on Twitter, Facebook and her website

Goodreads Summary: The New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments continues—and so do the thrills and danger for Jace, Clary, and Simon.

What price is too high to pay, even for love? When Jace and Clary meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that the demon Lilith’s magic has bound her beloved Jace together with her evil brother Sebastian, and that Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is out to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. As Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabelle wheedle and bargain with Seelies, demons, and the merciless Iron Sisters to try to save Jace, Clary plays a dangerous game of her own. The price of losing is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?

Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.

What I Thought:

Of the Mortal Instruments books I’ve read, this one is my least favorite.  I liked it, and there were some interesting things that happen, but it’s the one that’s the least memorable to me.

I really want to know more about the Iron Sister, who are a sister group to the Silent Brothers.  I doubt we’ll learn more about them in the last book (and it’s possible that they’ll pop up in one of Clare’s other Shadowhunter series), which is a shame, because they really are one of the more interesting groups we come across.

I get why Clary, Alec and Isabelle want Jace back, and are trying to find a way to get him back while killing Sebastian while also NOT killing Jace.  But I felt like they were a bit too whiny, especially Clary.  Considering this is something I tend to not pay attention to, or am generally willing to overlook if I do notice it.  And while I normally LOVE Magnus (he is probably my favorite character in the entire series), he seemed less like himself than normal, and he definitely doesn’t have the humor or flamboyance I’ve come to expect from him.

There’s something about this one that didn’t pull me in the way the other ones did.  I kept reading, because there is something compelling about this series, but for whatever reason, I just wasn’t as enthused as I was with other books.  Even though stuff happens, it somehow feels like this one is filler until we can get to the next book.  I know that it’s setting up what will happen in the last book in the series, but the story may be starting to wear on me a little bit.  And it’s getting so hard to believe that this entire series has happened over the course of a few weeks.  With the number of things going on, it seems like it should be happening over a longer period of time.

Let’s Rate It:

I don’t really have much to say about City Of Lost Souls.  It’s a fun and enjoyable, but also the least memorable in the series. City Of Lost Souls gets 3 stars.