City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Summary:
The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace freed from captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing, so is the boy she hates: her brother Sebastian, who is determined to bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.
The Clave’s magic cannot locate either boy, but Jace can’t stay away from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s magic has wrought-Jace and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other.
Only a few people believe that Jace can still be saved. Together, Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabell bargain with the Seelie Queen, contemplate deals with demons and turn at last to the merciless weapon-making Iron Sisters, who might be able to forge a weapon that can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. If the Iron Sisters can’t help, their only hope is to challenge Heaven and Hell-a risk that could claim their lives.
And they must do it without Clary. For Clary is playing a dangerous game utterly alone. 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? What price is too high to pay, even for love?
Review:
Okay, I’m starting to remember why I was such trash for this series when I was in high school. I’ve been rereading all of the Shadowhunter books now that I’m older and with the newly release Queen of Air and Darkness. Check out my review for the previous book here. I haven’t been loving the last few books, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. It might even be my favorite of the TMI series. I will let you know my thoughts once I finish listening to the final book, City of Heavenly Fire.
I think the best part of City of Lost Souls is the fact that Cassandra Clare has somehow made me actually care about Sebastian. Reading about Clary being around him and interacting with him and learning more about him, we somehow come to love him. I think this is really interesting because I can get behind a good villain, one that lets their humanity show and has a good backstory, but Sebastian doesn’t have any humanity. He does have a really good backstory, but the horrible things he’s done should make me not care about that. Somehow Cassandra Clare writes this book in such a way that I start to actually care about Sebastian and that’s crazy to me.
I also started to hate Clary a little less in this book. She sort of actually started to think about her actions before reacting. I started to appreciate the lengths she will go for those that she loves (READ: Jace). I think she really went through a lot in this story, had to think about a lot of hard things, make hard choices and was made better for it.
I think Jace’s story was the hardest for me. He really got the shit end of the stick. I felt so bad for him, being pulled into Sebastian’s world without the ability to make any choices for himself. I liked seeing him overcome this though.
Once again, I still loved the supporting characters more than the main characters. I was fully invested in Magnus and Alec and was super sad with the drama they were going through. I absolutely adore Simon and Isabell, I ship them so hard. I also ship Jordan and Maia. I like that they’ve overcome their past. I also really liked that we get to see more of Clary’s relationship with her mother. Jocelyn is an interesting character and I liked seeing her deal with Clary becoming involved with everything Jocelyn never wanted. Jocelyn and Luke are also goals. The best friends to lovers story ever.
Overall, the characters once again overcame some really hard and traumatizing things. I think there was so much growth with all of our favorite Shadowhunters and I really enjoyed this book. I’m interested to see if I like the final book better or not.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

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