City of Lost Souls

Characters:

       This is the fifth book of the City of Bones series. The main character of the book is a seventeen year old girl named Clary. Another very important character is Jace- a skilled ShadowHunter. Clary and Jace have been in love since the first time they saw each other, but when they first admitted this to each other in the first book, they are told that they are siblings. Thus, they had to hide their feelings for each other and act as sisters and brothers do. Finally in the third book, it is revealed that Clary and Jace are actually not related. So now, they can officially date. All is well, but in the end of the fourth book, Jace, is possessed by the demon queen who is trying to revive Sebastian- a dead boy who is like her son. Jace and Sebastian are mortal enemies because Sebastian had hurt so many people in Jace's family. Clary and her other ShadowHunter friends are able to kill the queen, but in the end, Sebastian comes back to life because he was able to control Jace's mind to let him have some of Jace's blood. Now, these 2 enemies are bound to each other, which means that if one gets hurt, the other gets hurt, or if one dies, then the other dies as well. Sebastian, with mind control, is able to get Jace to act according to his every wish. This shows that through the course of 2 books, Jace had turned from a person who loved being his own person and voicing his opinion to someone who can only act as someone else tells him to.



       Clary, who was living the life of a normal teenage girl for 17 years, finally figures out the truth about her identity. And within days, her life had turned upside down. Her mother was in a deep sleep and couldn't be awoken, she had to face mythical creatures in battle, has to fight against her father so he doesn't kill the ShadowHunter population,and she has to choose between her best friend or the possible love of her life- Jace. In the fifth book, she starts off very worried about Jace because he had disappeared from where she had left him just 5 minutes ago. Also gone from the room is a mass murderer named Sebastian. So inevitably, Clary assumes that Sebastian probably hurt Jace.
       "Then you tell me why [Sebastian's] body isn't there, because it isn't,"[Clary] said, her voice finally breaking. "There's nothing up there but a lot of blood and broken glass. They're both gone, Simon. Jace is gone."
       As days go by, Clary's despair grows. Jace still cannot be found, and his best friend says that he has a bad feeling about what is happening to Jace. However, then she sees him and talks to him. It is then that she realizes that the Jace she's talking to is no longer the Jace she loves. Although she still wants to help Jace, she is a little scared of him and no longer trusts himi with her life as she did before. This shows how Clary changed from a carefree teenager to one who had to deal with the pressure of fighting demons, saving the ShadowHunter population, and losing the love of her life.


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So now that I finished the book, I have a more detailed understanding  of how the characters have changed throughout the story. First off, Alec, who was initially very jealous of Magnus Bane- his boyfriend- has slowly learned to overcome this. At the beginning, he was considering to take away Magnus's immortality so that he couldn't love anyone besides him. Alec was very new to the concept of love and felt that it could only be true if one person was the only thing on the others mind. However, by the end of the book, Alec realizes that true love is when you will do whatever just to see the person you love be happy. He understands that you cannot expect love to work how you want it to. It's going to take the course it wants to take and you have to be the one to adapt to it.

       Clary, who from the beginning to late end of the book, could not imagine ever hurting Jace physically or mentally does the former with full intentions. "Glorious sank into [Jace's] chest, and she felt her bloddy hand slide on the hilt as the blage ground against the bones of his rib cage, driving through him until her fist thumped against his body and she froze. (490)."She transforms from a girl who cared almost solely for her boyfriend and his well being into one who is able to do something she hates for the well- being of her friends and family. This shows that she has learned to prioritize and is more mature and less selfish by doing only what she wants. She is now more capable of making decisions and considering later consequences.


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