City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Goodreads Description: "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."

My Review: I. Am. Exhausted. There, I said it: I'M EXHAUSTED WITH THIS SERIES. Cassandra Clare has disappointed me immensely by choosing to continue this series. We all know that the Mortal Instruments was originally supposed to be a trilogy---and I wish it still was! City of Glass ended perfectly; we could have just imagined the rest of their lives, and it would have been great. But---and no offense, Ms. Clare---I feel like the success went to Clare's head and she just started adding on more books. This ruined the series, in my opinion, because the plots she has now are dry and not very interesting. She used up all of her good ideas in her first 3 books...because she had intended for them to be the ONLY Mortal Instruments books. So obviously the newer ones read more like afterthoughts and not full novels. They seem weak and tired. And, quite frankly, boring. 

          Now, I'm not unreasonable or unfair. I will admit that City of Lost Souls was pretty interesting, especially compared to the AWFUL mess that City of Fallen Angels was (no offense to Cassandra Clare, again, but we all know it's true; that book sucked). So compared to CoFA? Yeah, this book was much better. The plot flowed much more smoothly and quickly, we found out much more about this evil, dastardly plot (although we still don't know much of anything), and there was a lot more action. It kept me interested enough to keep turning the pages, but honestly...

         I hate Clary and Jace now. They're worse than Bella and Edward, worse than Patch and Nora. How much idiotic crap can they go through? How many serious issues is Cassandra Clare going to put them through? I'm really sick of Jace ALWAYS having some problem or another: he's Clary's brother! Oh no, wait, he's not! Oh no, wait, he's still EVIL inside, though, even though he's not her brother! Oh no, he's possessed by Lillith! Oh no, he's being controlled by Sebastian! 

         ENOUGH ALREADY. No one cares about Jace's problems, honestly! And Clary is starting to seem so lovesick and desperate that it makes me sick. Instead of getting smarter and more independent, she seems to be becoming even more foolish and foolhardy. I'd been hoping for some bittersweet character maturation, like the kind that Gemma Doyle had achieved by the end of The Sweet Far Thing---I mean, she even gave up her true love for the greater good---but Clary is getting more idiotic. She continuously puts people in danger just for Jace's sake. She even puts JACE in danger, for his sake! Like, for example---SPOILER---when she screams for Sebastian, even though it will mean ruining Jace's soul. Come on, girl. How selfish and weak are you? 

         I like the secondary characters FAR more. Izzy and Simon, Magnus and Alec, Jocelyn and Luke, even Jordan and Maia (although these 2 are pretty irrelevant and unnecessary if you ask me...why are they even HERE?). Their stories were much more interesting and not so barf-worthy to read about. Can I please just get a separate book about Simon and Izzy? Thanks. 

         I did like how Cassandra Clare takes us to Europe for a little while; it was a nice change of scenery and pace from New York City, and it made things more interesting. And I did like the battle at the end of the book, and I admit: I loved when they summoned Raziel again. The angel mythology in this book has always fascinated me. But it still didn't really make up for the confusing, random plot (seriously, WHAT is the point of Sebastian trying to take over the world? He's creepy, incestuous, and not nearly as scary as Valentine was!) and the basic pointlessness of THIS WHOLE BOOK. 

        So yeah. That about sums this book up: better than CoFA, vaguely amusing and entertaining, but tired and pretty pointless. 

        I'm going to read the next---and last, THANK GOD---book with a heavy heart, just because I need to know what happens. But I strongly urge new Mortal Instruments fan to STOP AFTER READING City of Glass. There's no need to go any further. It was supposed to end there, and it should have. 

Cover: The one good thing about this book is, I actually like the cover. That guy looks the most like what I always imagined Jace to look like. The girl looks a little too much like Amy Adams to properly seem like Clary to me, but whatever, it's a cute cover.

Overall Grade: C+