Tuesday 8 May 2012

Book Review: City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Title: City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments #5)
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Walker/ Margaret K. McElderry
Pages: 540
Release Date: 8th May 2012
Read in: May 2012

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*Spoilers for previous The Mortal Instruments books*
Jace is now a servant of evil, bound for all eternity to Sebastian. Only a small band of Shadowhunters believe he can be saved. To do this they must defy the Clave. And they must act without Clary. For Clary is playing a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing is not just her life, but Jace's soul. Clary is willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost? What price is too high to pay, even for love?
I love The Mortal Instruments series and I love it still. This book is a fine addition to the series and I am eager to see how it concludes. Apologies for the vagueness of the review, but I am trying to remain as spoiler free as possible.

“”But Sebastian was dead. He’s dead, Clary –“
“Then you tell me why his body isn’t there, because it isn’t,” she said, her voice finally breaking. “There’s nothing up there but a lot of blood and broken glass. They’re both gone, Simon. Jace is gone…””


City of Lost of Souls may not be knee deep in action but that doesn’t make it any less of a page turner. It is all about the characters and what they are going through. This is Book 5 we have been with these character for a while now and I am more interested in what they get up to than the style or pace of the book.

At the end of City of Fallen Angels, Jace and Sebastian have disappeared. When the summary was released and it said that they were bonded, my imagination started spinning. What did Cassandra Clare mean by that? The bond between Jace and Sebastian was perfectly executed. I saw straight away how it was affecting Jace, how it was changing him. It was creepy. Jace was Jace and yet not Jace. I loved it. I didn’t want him to stay that way but I enjoyed reading about it.

As for Sebastian, way to put me at war with myself. We know from the beginning Sebastian has issues. That much was evident in City of Glass. However this book made you see a different side to him, or a mask? I think he is interesting as a character and I hope to see more of his character in City of Heavenly Fire.

I love how Clary grows in this one. Yes she is still reckless, but I feel the purpose behind it. Even when she was acting friendly with Sebastian there was a reason. I also thought her conflict over Jace was really realistic. Cassie could have messed this up and make it seem that Clary was acting the way she was for a different reason. Thankfully it made sense.

Let’s not forget everyone else. So many characters get a point of view in this book; Clary, Alec, Isabelle, Simon, Jordan, Jocelyn. They have all got relationship problems. Magnus and Alec’s relationship was the one I was most interested in. They are my favourite couple! They do, however, have issues. Magnus’ immortality being the main one. They have some hurdles to jump still. We also see development in Izzy and Simon’s relationship too. Oooh, I’m really starting to like them as a couple.

This may seem small in comparison to the rest of the other points but it is big to me. Brother Zachariah is one of the character that is shrouded in mystery. We want, well I want, to know his connection, possibly to The Infernal Devices. Before I had a mild curiosity but, after seeing a lot more of him here, my curiosity has turned into all out theory making. Who is he?

I couldn’t put this book down. I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen to each of the characters. However the main question for this book was: What is Sebastian up to? I will let you find that out for yourself. 



 Becky

1 comment:

  1. I've enjoyed this series so far. But this book was way to busy in the sense that there are way too many characters, way too many story lines, and the ending was just so abrupt between magnus and Alec. I hardly remembered half the characters. Perhaps if I had read book four again before jumping into this one it would have been a bit better. But I found myself speed reading through most of it as I didn't see a lot of as being important to the whole of the book. Maybe this is just a "filler" book to get to the good stuff in book 6. Let's hope.

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