City of Lost Souls

"Great book in a great series!"

"Book 5 - Jace has been bound to evil so she must save his soul from her evil brother Sebastian "

"This series is my favorite hands down!"

"I've liked the series for the most part minus a few things, but this one has to be my favorite. I liked that you get more of a glimpse into the side characters' lives."

"👍🏽 definitely"

"content warnings for this book (let me know if there are any I need to add, I plan to put content warnings in every book in my future classroom library): aphobia, attempted rape, death, gore, incest, injury, past loss of loved one, sexual assault, war"

"I looove these series. Love. I'm so happy for that day at Wal-Mart when I picked up City of Bones and bought it. What an awesome journey it has been! Jace is just my favorite. Clary though, sometimes I want to smack her. ;)"

"<i>City of Lost Souls</i> picks up directly where <i>City of Fallen Angels</i> left off, with Jace on the rooftop and the ensuing plot thickening. For those of you who don't know, <i>The Mortal Instruments</i> series was originally intended to be a trilogy. Cassandra Clare decided to extend the series to six novels, so the last three book are a sort of quasi-second-trilogy. I bring up these possibly confusing and seemingly pointless facts because I was somewhat concerned <i>City of Lost Souls</i> would suffer from middle-book-itis, wherein the plot and character development serve only to drive the overreaching arcs forward and set us up for the final run.<br/><br/>I am pleased to say that I did not get that feeling from this book. Although it does serve its purpose to set the story up for the finale, the novel does so much more. We see new sides of characters we've either never seen or only caught glimpses of before. Sebastian, although he is clearly supposed to be the bad guy, is so much more interesting than just a stock villain figure. The changes in Jace are intriguing and cause quite a quandry for Clary. Clare also plays with the characters and their relationships. And I don't mean just Clary and Jace. While this book is about them, it is just as much about the secondary characters. I particularly enjoyed the developments between Isabella and Simon, Jordan and Maia, and of course, Alec and Magnus. <br/><br/><i>City of Lost Souls</i> dredges up lots of character development through dealing with tough issues. Isabella must come to terms with being vulnerable if she wishes to experience love, Alec must come to terms with his mortality and Magnus's lack of same, and Clary must repeatedly decide between her principles and the love of her life (though not just in the way that first comes to mind). Self-discovery through trial-and-error, angst and sundry tribulations is something that young adult fiction is exceedingly good at and well known for. <i>City of Lost Souls</i> is a great and enjoyable example. There are so many feelings in this book, and I love it. If you've enjoyed the previous <i>Mortal Instruments</i> novels and/or <i>The Infernal Devices</i>, I would not hesitate to pick up this book. I can't tell you much about it without giving major plot spoilers, but I can tell you that Clare has written a solid novel here, and I await <i>City of Heavenly Fire</i> with much eagerness to see how it all ends."

"content warnings for this book (let me know if there are any I need to add, I plan to put content warnings in every book in my future classroom library): aphobia, attempted rape, death, gore, incest, injury, past loss of loved one, sexual assault, war"

"Ngl, I skimmed the last twenty pages of this book because I had been reading it for like three months and just wanted to finish it."