FORM: Audiobook
SERIES: The Mortal Instruments
SYNOPSIS (from Goodreads): 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.
REVIEW: There were parts of City of Lost Souls that I loved. There are parts of this book I’m not overly fond of. If you don’t mind, I’m going to be completely honest - and I know that I may get a little bit of a backlash, considering the large amounts of Cassandra Clare/The Mortal Instruments fans. Just let me say this first; my current favorite series is The Infernal Devices, I am absolutely in love with this series. So I have no issues with Clare or her writing. I also loved the first 3 books of The Mortal Instruments – I couldn’t get enough and read them back-to-back more than once. I think what has happened, for me anyway, is this is one of those stories where you think you can never get enough…until you do.
We, as fans, never want books to end, we want to know what happens next, we want more story, more of our favorite characters. But the thing is, too much is almost always a bad thing. I quite honestly think this series should have ended two books ago. There is nothing really new going on that doesn’t make the book feel like a soap opera. There are more relationship dynamics – and lots of unsupervised teenagers. I was okay with this up to a certain extent, but it’s starting to feel a lot less like a young adult novel (even though the most graphic details are left to your imagination – which I think is a good plan).
What I do like is, take out the soap opera and all the relationship stuff and you’ve got a pretty good story. I enjoyed Jace and Clary and Sebastian dynamic (up until the end that is). I also enjoyed “Team Good,” and their trial and errors in trying to help Jace get back to normal. More than anything Magnus and Simon have carried this book for me. They both had witty things to say (to each other and in their various scenes) and just seemed to provide the most entertaining interludes between scenes. I am very, very, very thankful not to have a cliff hanger to the caliber as the last.
I will see this series to its end, and hope for a mostly happy-ever-after, but unlike Clockwork Princess – I’m not exactly waiting on pins and needles for it. I am looking forward to seeing Sebastian get what is coming to him. I’m hoping for no more threats or accusations on who has evil intentions (specifically for Jace and Clary, I think they have both proven themselves loyal and shown they are not sociopathic by now…). I guess I want a non-confusing, mostly without crazy twists that make you want to throw your book, good versus evil to finish this series out…finally. But I’m not the author, so I guess I’ll take what she gives! ;)
The book was fantastic. I've said it about all her books, but it's true every time. This book dealt more with magic and the history of shadowhunters than actual demon fighting like the previous books. I found this welcoming and enlightening-I've had a lot of questions. It made this book all the more intriguing. I've seen lots of comments about how people were upset that the author continued the books past the third. I was very skeptical at first. Even as I read the fourth book, which I did like, I still felt skeptical. But honestly, after reading this one, I'm really glad that continued. I didn't know how she was going to continue with the series and come up with more plot-but she did.
ReplyDeleteRomance. There was a lot of it in this book. Like I said, this book took somewhat of a break from the violence. That gave her plenty of time to focus on the love aspect. And I'm not just talking about Jase and Clary. She didn't great on theirs. I'm one of those people that tends to get bored with romance after a couple is finally together. But I'm still interested. There was romance between Simon and Isabelle, which I definitely want to keep my eye on-I have high hopes for them. Maia and Jordan probably had the most romantic development in the book. And of course Magnus and Alec. I like this aspect of romance, they seem more serious and in a way more realistic, if you will.