Want to learn the ideas in City Of Lost Souls better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of City Of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare here.
Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.
Video Summaries of City Of Lost Souls
We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on City Of Lost Souls, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Cassandra Clare.
1-Page Summary of City Of Lost Souls
Overall Summary
City of Lost Souls is the fifth book in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series. The first book, City of Bones, was published in 2007 and centers around a young girl named Clary Fray who discovers she is half-angel and joins forces with a group called Shadowhunters who fight evil. In this installment, Clary discovers that Lilith has magically bound her boyfriend Jace to her brother Sebastian. If Clary tries to destroy Sebastian without killing Jace as well, she will fail to save him from Lilith’s evil spell. So either way—she will lose Jace forever or kill him by destroying his bond with Sebastian.
The novel starts with Clary’s friend Simon, who was once a normal human but is now a vampire. He tries to get into his house, but his religious mother has barricaded the door and thinks he’s dead.
Clary tells Simon that Jace is missing, but there’s no way to trace him. Clary and friends ask the Seelie Queen for help. In return, they agree to deliver two Faerie rings that allow telepathic communication between the wearers. Clary researches these rings in a Shadowhunter library and sees Jace enter and speak with Sebastian, her evil half-demonic brother who she believes killed their mother when he was born. She stays hidden and later reports on this conversation to her companions Alec, Simon, and Izzy; it disturbs them because Jace seems like someone else entirely—someone not acting as if he were an enemy of his own brother (Sebastian).
Clary wakes up one night. She’s in bed with Jace, and he tells her that he still loves her. Then Sebastian enters the room, and Clary asks them to leave. Her mother Jocelyn awakes from a nightmare and screams when she finds Sebastian standing there. Luke fights him but gets injured in the process, telling Clary to run while he holds off Sebastian so she can escape.
Jocelyn decides that to protect herself and Clary, she should move in with Magnus Bane. She tells Clary that Jace isn’t a good partner for her and may be evil like Clary’s father, Valentine. However, Clary won’t listen to her mother. Instead of moving out, she uses magic to teleport herself into Simon’s room so they can discuss the situation further.
Clary realizes that Jace is acting strangely because Sebastian is possessing him. That’s why they’re friendly, and why Jace is acting as if he’s evil. Clary and the others need to find a way to kill Sebastian without killing Jace as well.
Izzy and Jocelyn ask the Iron Sisters for help. They learn that they can sever the link between Jace and Sebastian with an angel blade, which Simon suggests they summon. The others say he should do it because he has a mark of Cain on him, meaning no one can kill him. Any attempt to kill him backfires sevenfold on whoever tries to hurt him.
Clary continues to spy on Sebastian and Jace, who are now living together. During this time, she learns that Sebastian is trying to use Lilith’s blood in a Mortal Cup to create an army of evil Shadowhunters. He also plans on turning himself into the Clave (the governing body for Shadowhunters) so they can kill him before he does anything else bad with his powers. He thinks it’s better than being possessed by Sebastian. However, Clary doesn’t want Jace killed because she loves him and wants him back as soon as possible. So she tells Sebastian not to do it because if he does then there will be no one left for her but Valentine—her father who was responsible for killing her mother and sister years ago when Clary was just a child herself. She feels like there’s nothing else left in life except revenge against Valentine for what he did to them all those years ago, which is why she needs Jace back too much right now or else everything will be lost forever—including any love that might still exist between them someday someday down the road after all their problems have been resolved once and for all along with getting rid of Valentine once and for all at last somehow someway somehow some day.
