Review: City of Lost Souls - Cassandra Clare

Release Date: May 8th, 2012
Hardcover: 534 Pages
Publisher: McElderry Books (impring of Simon & Schuster)

The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace has been freed from her captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive to rescue him, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.
No magic the Clave can summon can locate either boy, but Jace cannot stay away—not from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s dying magic has wrought—Jace is no longer the boy she loved. He and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become what he most feared: a true servant of Valentine’s evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Will the Shadowhunters hesitate to kill one of their own?
Only a small band of Clary and Jace’s friends and family believe that Jace can still be saved — and that the fate of the Shadowhunters’ future may hinge on that salvation. They must defy the Clave and strike out on their own. Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle must work together to save Jace: bargaining with the sinister Faerie Queen, contemplating deals with demons, and turning at last to the Iron Sisters, the reclusive and merciless weapons makers for the Shadowhunters, who tell them that no weapon on this earth can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. Their only chance of cutting Jace free is to challenge Heaven and Hell — a risk that could claim any, or all, of their lives.
And they must do it without Clary. For Clary has gone into the heart of darkness, to play a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing the game is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she even still trust him? Or is he truly lost? What price is too high to pay, even for love?
Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.

What can I say? It seems to be impossible for Ms. Clare to write a bad novel. It's no surprise for me, since both of her series certainly are two of my favorite series ever. However I do have to say that City of Lost Souls wasn't by far the best in this series.

I can't say that I didn't enjoy the plot. It was full of twists and surprises that certainly left me begging for an instantly release of City of Heavenly Fire but it certainly wasn't as good as the first 3 novels since nothing REALLY bad and electrifying happened. But as usual, as I was completely enthralled while reading this one.

About the characters I have NO complaints. I love every single character and I really enjoyed that Clare gave other characters more attention in this one. We got to experience more of Magnus and Alec's & Isabelle and Simon's relationships and that was very pleasant and a nice change. Clary and Jace's relationship was as always its usual self: complicated!

Overall, City of Lost Souls was a wonderful read (as usual when it comes to Clare's novels). Certainly it wasn't her best work but I'm still amazed that after five books I'm still so hooked on this series. I'm sure that many of you won't enjoy this one as much as the others but I, for one, am satisfied and eagerly waiting the release of the last novel!

Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old. Website  / Twitter