fictionalkajsa 's review for:

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

3.0

---

Reread 2025: I understand /why/ we spend so much time with Clary and Jace but unfortuntely I still don’t care about them. Their relationship is slightly more interesting in this one than in earlier books, but only slightly. I’m still so confused on how these books are so long yet I can’t remember what we’ve spent so much time doing. Alec is being a stupid idiot but I also feel like his story could have been so much more interesting to read if we had gotten more time with it? Like he really is so insecure and doesn’t know how to communicate with his boyfriend that he feels like his only option is to go to Camille for relationship-advice, just because she is the only one that knows Magnus in the same way Alec does? It’s such an interesting storyline and it would’ve been so fun to really get to dig in to Alec’s brain and why he does that, what is it actually he’s so insecure about, what is it that makes it so hard for him to talk to Magnus, but because we don’t really get to spend enough time with him he just comes across stupid and annoying. It’s not surprising that Magnus breaks up with him, but I also feel like we deserved more of Magnus’ thoughts and feelings before that happened. Izzy is making some strange choices in this, I do really like the portrayal of her feelings toward Simon, but also the whole scene when she goes to Jordan feels so out of place. I hate Sebastian but his character is so clear and gross I have to be impressed (his sexual comments toward Clary are vile but they’re great characterization). I also feel like this is the book where we finally get some action in the end, we get an actual fight scene instead of just talks about it one, which I appreciate. Also appreciate the small glimpses we get of Aline and Helen, more sapphics please!