Monday 22 August 2016

City of Lost Souls

*Disclaimer* This is the fifth book in “The Mortal Instruments” series so if you haven´t read the other four books yet, please be aware of spoilers. I would not advise reading if you want to start this series without being spoiled, but if you don´t mind feel free to continue on, just be warned. However if you have read City of Fallen Angels, this review won´t spoil the book.   

Title: City of Lost Souls
Author: Cassandra Clare
Pages: 554
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Rating: 4/5 Stars

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?

Cassandra Clare has done it again. Even though The Mortal Instruments is certainly not the best series I have ever read, Clare manages to make each book better, which is something I am in awe of. City of Lost Souls is my favourite instalment in this series so far. As some of you might know by now, I don´t particularly love how Cassandra Clare constructs her plots. I find them to be a bit too slow building to grab my full attention right away. But with this book it was a bit different. Clare uses multiple POVs to showcase different story arcs that at the end come together beautifully to build the finale, which to be honest wasn´t as great as the previous one in City of Fallen Angels. Still I found the overall plot in this book, to be probably the strongest in all of her books I have read so far. 

This book also gives the reader more of a background knowledge of different characters, which I very much appreciated. Once again Clare highlights a certain character, in the last one it was Simon, in this one it is Alec. We haven´t seen as much of Alec as other characters, so it was nice getting to know him and the way he thinks more.  But where this books really shines is in Jace´s character development. We see him and Sebastian being melted and separated and melted and separated over and over again, so I wasn´t quite sure how much of the real Jace was left. But in the epilogue we see how much he has grown due to this circumstance. I reckon if I would reread this book, I would be able to pick up on a lot more subtle hints that point in this direction.

So what else is there to say? Well the classic things that Cassandra Clare is known for. It is a really funny book, I am a fan of all the relationships (seriously I ship them all) and I LOVE the nudges to the Infernal Devices, those are so great. Also it was really fun seeing bits of every city they went to.
What is your favourite ship from TMI? Let me know in the comments down below!
Read on xx

Lena

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