katekintailbc | City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare (Reply)

City of Lost Souls
by Cassandra Clare

(Audio)

This is the 5th (of 6) books in the Mortal Instruments series. It was originally supposed to be two trilogies, so this would have been the middle book in the second. Typically, middle books lack something that a beginning book or ending book has. And I've felt like this series has kind of been going downhill lately anyway. BUT I'm happy to report that I actually liked this one a whole lot more than I thought I would.

The characters definitely went in disappointing directions for where I wanted them. Not surprising--characters need to be in bad places in order for things to get better and end up in wonderfully satisfying places. Still, I could have kicked almost all of them throughout for what was happening. I was most scared about Jace, but I was glad for the complications to be explained as they were--he wasn't responsible for his actions exactly.

There were lots of scary and heartbreaking moments. It was mostly interpersonal relationships and a quest to find and rescue Jace. With such a simple almost non-existent plot, it's amazing how many serious, important, life-changing things happened! I really enjoyed the story with all its twists and turns. And I cheered when the big bad Sebastian was planning didn't come to pass. Yay! Though the end actually made me feel even sadder than the end of book 4. It's going to be a tough time cleaning it all up in the last book. I just hope my favorite characters make it through!

Another neat thing is that I read a few excerpts of this book, available on Clare's journal and site, a year or so ago. It was delightful to come across those passages in the context of the book. And though they had confused and surprised me when I read them as excerpts, they made perfect sense when they presented themselves to me this time.

Oh, and the reader of the audiobook is, I think, one who has read them before. So the voice and pronunciations were familiar. And there was only one reader. A much more pleasant experience that the past few Clare books I earread. Thank goodness!

I can't wait for the first one to be made into a movie... and I can't wait for the final book in this series!