A review by geofrog
City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

3.0

When Jace and Clary meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that the demon Lilith’s magic has bound her beloved Jace together with her evil brother Sebastian, and that Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is out to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. As Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabelle wheedle and bargain with Seelies, demons, and the merciless Iron Sisters to try to save Jace, Clary plays a dangerous game of her own. 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? Content warning for incest, sexual assault and drug use. I never realized, until this book, just how much of a beautiful human being Simon is. He was ready to sacrifice himself for his loved ones, even if it meant dying in the process. Even if he has his own turmoils going on in his personal life, with his mother and Becky, he stayed strong and tried to be there for everyone every single time. That's what I adore about him in this book. You can cleary see the character development Simon has going on since book one. Really, compare Simon Lewis from City of Bones to the Simon Lewis of this book. He has grown so much, and learned and lost so much, these things are bound to change you. But Cassandra Clare has done it so naturally, so periodically, that you feel as he hasn't changed at all at the same time. It's the beauty of writing, you feel as if you're growing up right alongside with them. The rest of the characters are also characterized well, and you can really feel them start to grow compared to their characterization in the first three books in the series. I think one of the reasons I enjoyed City of Lost Souls so much is because it’s told through so many perspectives, some of which we’ve never seen before. This writing style made the story feel much more cohesive and compelling. There was a reputable plotline, with a lot of intricate things happening and playing into each other, and I thought it was filled with notable twists and turns. I know some found this book slow – which I can definitely see, especially with the repetitiveness of Clary’s chapters – but it surprisingly didn’t feel like that for me. I enjoyed this book for what it was.