Jenn's Review: City of Lost Souls

Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Mortal Instruments #5
Publication Date: May 8, 2012
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's
Pages: 535
Obtained: purchased
Genre:  YA Paranormal
Rating: 5
Bottom Line: Maddeningly, frustratingly good...
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Blurb:  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.

Review:  There was no way I could leave things the way they ended in City of Fallen Angels.  I knew that would be the case before I started it.  This was hard to read; not because it was bad but because things have to get worse before they can get better, and oh, do they get worse!

For the two people out there (okay, maybe there's three) who don't like this series, the reason is usually Jace ~ his arrogance and narcissism.  But Jace isn't that guy; it's all a cover for his vulnerability ~or it was until now. Now it is hard to be around this Jace.  Actually, it's excruciating.  It is harder still to see Clary throw caution to the wind and run after him.  It is totally reckless and could have gone horribly awry.  The scenes between them are agonizing, because they are written so well and they are so very wrong.  It's brutal.

It was disheartening to see Alec loose sight of things.  He has always been the stable one, but love has turned him upside down.  I couldn't help thinking that if he talked things through with Isabelle, or even just said things aloud to himself, he'd hear what he was saying...  As devastating as it is to see Jace and Clary spinning out of control, at least I expected that.  This is worse.  I expected the plummet off the cliff, but this was loosing the tether.

The one bright spot is that Isabelle is finally starting to find her way.  I was unsure that there was anything that could crack that exterior.  It was nice to see some vulnerability from her, romantically.

The novel has more closure than I expected, on many levels.  So while I didn't read this immediately because I thought I wouldn't have been able to handle the wait for the last book, I found that I probably could have survived the wait.  Don't get me wrong the final chapter was chillingly foreboding.  But now that I have the opportunity to forge ahead, I'm not sure that I'm ready for it to be over.  There is a big battle coming and I know that not everyone can survive it... but I also know that I can't leave things where they are either... so City of Heavenly Fire, here I come...

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