FINAL REVIEW:

People keep leaving me annoying comments about how if I have nothing nice to say about the new Mortal Instruments books, then I "don't have to read them!" With all due respect, that opinion is wrong; I really do have to read them. No matter how much my loathing for City of Fallen Angels made me disgusted with Clare's decision to write a second trilogy, I have to finish these books. I've invested my time, money, energy and love (yes, love) into them, and that is why I keep reading. Because I hope things are going to pick up and make the expansion of the series worth it, even if I don't really believe it's going to happen.

With that cynicism weighing down on me, I went to Walmart (because CostCo failed me) and bought City of Lost Souls. After reading the first hundred pages or so, my hopes rose a little bit; stuff was happening. There was an apparent plot and people were moving along with it; it was a definite improvement over the standing and talking and whining that made of the first three-fourths of City of Fallen Angels. I started thinking that maybe Clare hasn't lost her touch after all.

But the further I read, the more I realized that she has, at least with this series. City of Lost Souls felt like the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie; yes, there's a story, and no, it's not bad, but it just isn't as fun as it once was. In this one, the energy and adventure has been drained away.

Like Clockwork Prince, this book is significantly less funny than its predecessors. Unlike Clockwork Prince, it doesn't work to Lost Soul's advantage. The lack of humor seemed to be for lack of trying, like Clare didn't have the energy to make this book funny. The few lines intended to be humorous feel tired and haphazard (with the exception of one expertly-timed Star Wars reference). Instead, Clare tries to substitute humor for angst.

Lost Souls is absolutely angst-ridden. Clary's angry and manic, Alec's mopey and meditative, Isabelle is also mopey, as well as confused... Because I do actually care about these characters and their problems, more or less, the melodrama works to a certain extent. The Isabelle-Simon situation was particularly interesting and rather sweet. But overall, the excessive moodiness of the characters only weighed the book down and made it seem more heavy and depressing and boring than it should have been.

It also made once-likable characters seem more annoying than they should have been. Clary, in particular has really began to grate on me. I mean, sure she's determined to save the man she loves, but she's gone from impulsive to idiotic, making completely irrational decisions and being totally unreasonable when anyone around her questions them. The determination she had in the previous books has been blown up to a new and disagreeable extreme that makes me dislike her a little bit more with each passing page.

Another character who deteriorates before our eyes is Magnus Bane. It pains me to say it, but it's true. In Lost Souls, he's neither fun nor funny. All his glitter and panache seems to have melted into prissiness and irritability; he's more annoying than anything. And that's a tragedy, because he used to be almost as awesome as Jace Wayland himself.

Jace Wayland, not Lightwood. I think Jace got boring after his name changed. Remember the impossibly arrogant, beautiful, hilarious, butt-kicking Jace of the first three books? I haven't really seen him since the end of City of Glass. I know he's been kind of possessed since then, but that really doesn't change the fact that I, as a reader, miss his old character. Even when he's himself, his love for Clary seems to have sapped away his old wit and humor, and that ridiculously big ego is gone.

I have to mention that the Jace-Clary love thing has also grown rather stale. The more I read about it, the less I believe it. Clary says she'd die for Jace, she'd do anything for him, but I feel like she's more in love with the idea than the person. She's an average girl who suddenly has a hot, funny, smart, strong, awesome guy saying he's in love with her. What girl is going to say no to that? But when it comes down to it, I don't feel that it's the deep love it needs to be, more of a love of the concept of her having a guy like him as her boyfriend.

I dunno. That's just what it felt like to me. I was fine with their relationship when it was on the side, but now that it's in the limelight, it seems a bit more transparent.

Also growing increasingly transparent is the plot. Yes, it's existent, but the more I thought about it as I was reading it, the more it became rather ridiculous. Clary's running around trying to save Jace; Jace and Sebastian are plotting something bad; everyone else goes through relationship drama. And it's something, and it's substantial but it's... silly. And not fun. And pointless. Clare keeps attempting to incorporate the apocalypse and throw the entire balance of the world and mankind into danger, but it really doesn't work. I mean, Magnus makes vague references to visions about the world flowing with blood, but other than that...

I don't know. At the end of it all, the plot seemed meager, like an crime-show mystery, set up, worried over and then solved because that's just how these things go. The conflict seemed too contrived, and the resolution seemed too easy.

I'm sorry; I know I'm beating a dead horse, but the lack of a need for a second trilogy grows more painfully obvious with each chapter. After reading Lost Souls with little memory of CoFA, I realized how unnecessary the last installment was; all I need to know from that book is that Sebastian and Jace have now become bound. And that's it. 424 pages down to one brief sentence.

But it's not just that. There's a point in this book, towards the end, where I'm figuring out a way to wrap this entire series up within the next forty pages. And it's there; Cassandra Clare could easily do it, but she won't, she'll drag it out for a whole other book only to have it end the way it did in City of Glass, more or less, and if that's the case, then why bother with Lost Souls? But then when you think about it, why bother with the second trilogy? Why not just have it end at the beautiful place where it did?

I don't know. Actually I do; writing is like prostitution and she sold out to make more money. It's not as though the Mortal Instrument books are the only things she can write. She has talent as an author; her sentences have a generally nice flow to them and she can easily develop likable characters and decent or better plots. I feel that she has more to offer than half-baked revivals of a finished series.

Oh, well. It's her decision, and if she wants to keep writing MI books, then so be it. And because I am tied to this series, I will keep reading, if only to watch that which I once loved turn slowly to ashes.


(All the pre-reading reviews that I never delete for some reason)
UPDATE 5/2:

Less than a week to go and I am currently out of money and time for a trek to Costco, as well as the typical series recap where I go back and reread all the books for... what, the fifth time?

I dunno. I probably won't be reading City of Lost Souls before June.

I actually have a secret plan to avoid this book for as long as possible, preferably until next April, so when I finish it, I'll only have a couple months of waiting for City of Heavenly Fire. Plus I can continue to hope and believe that this is an excellent installment and that City of Fallen Angels was just a glitch, and that Cassandra Clare is still full of ideas and plots and creativity.

Do I really believe this? No. Not because I don't enjoy these books, but because I question the motives behind writing a second trilogy; in my opinion, it was over with City of Glass, and everything beyond that was published so she could make more money. It's kinda like if JK Rowling wrote that 8th Harry Potter book. You'd have to wonder why.

Oh, well. I'll carry on with this series until the end, bitter though it very well may be.

Please don't let it be.

UPDATE 1/4:

Ew... what's with the cover? Is Cassandra Clare so blatantly switching from writing fantasy to writing crappy romance? Because that's what the cover would suggest. This looks like one of those poorly written paperbacks they sell on a revolving wire stand for five bucks at Fred Meyers.

I mean, seriously. I can't believe this isn't just a teaser. Or fan-made. (Because some of those were better than this one) It's ridiculously cheesy, and quite frankly I'm kinda irritated with Clary right now and I don't feel that she deserves another cover. She's already had two; let's give some of the supporting characters a chance. I'm all for a Lightwood on the cover. Or Magnus. Or even a second Sebastian/Jonathan.

Anything but two annoying lovebirds staring sappily into each other's eyes while locked in a passionate embrace... If I want to look at that, I can just walk down the English hall of our high school.

Good grief.

I'm going to be embarrassed at the checkout stand while I'm purchasing this.

--

Oh, no.

This series was intended as a trilogy. That's why the books worked; because they were INTENDED to be a series, not just spinoffs.

I don't want this to turn into Pirates of the Caribbean, where the sequels are made just to make money, and then the creators get bored and start messing around and ruining things for everyone.

It's going to be like Mockingjay; all the major characters (Clary, Jace, Simon) will live, but all the cool side ones are going to die. RIP Magnus, RIP Alec, RIP Isabelle, RIP Luke...