City of Lost Souls is the fifth book in Cassandra Clare’s series, The Mortal Instruments. I didn’t want to put it down. This series just continues to get better and better.
Because this if the fifth book in The Mortal Instruments series, there may be spoilers for the first two books.
As the story begins, Jace is missing. Along with Sebastian’s body. The Clave is looking for them, but other, more pressing matters pop up, and the search for them loses priority. Clary and her friends are not going to give up on him, however. Especially Clary.
We find out that a demonic force has bonded Jace with Sebastian. If one is hurt, then so is the other. Even though Sebastian has evil plans in mind, he can’t be killed without Jace being killed. The search turns into a quest to separate the two and eliminate Sebastian.
I love the relationship development in this book. Jace and Clary make this series for me. Although Jace isn’t quite himself for the majority of this book, they still love each other and have some great scenes together. Simon and Isabelle seem to be working their relationship out as well, which is nice to see. I also like to see Jordan and Maia, a couple of newer characters in this series, as they work towards rebuilding a relationship that they once thought was over. Alec and Magnus are having difficulties in this book, but that’s pretty typical for real relationships.
Sebastian has nice character development in this book. We know that he’s evil, but evil people usually don’t think that they’re doing wrong. His mind was obviously twisted by his father and by his demonic blood, but we also see that he’s a lonely boy who is trying to do good (although he’s going about it the wrong way). He also seems to have a strange fixation with his sister. While Jace and Clary fought against their attraction when they thought that they were siblings, Sebastian seems to disapprove of Jace and Clary and seems to want Clary for himself.
Clary also develops as a person in City of Lost Souls. She has to make some difficult decisions throughout the book. Jace asks her to go with him in the book, and she chooses to go with him. She sees it as the only way to save him, even though she knows it might be dangerous. Later on in the book, she makes a selfish decision that could have turned out disastrous. In the end, she chooses to put someone else’s wishes above her own, even though it might not have worked out for her best personal interest. It was also great to see her developing skill as a fighter.
I loved reading City of Lost Souls, and can’t wait to read the final book in the series.