City of Lost Souls: Mortal Instruments, Book 5

Mortal Instruments, Book 5

By: Cassandra Clare

Narrated by: Grant Cartwright, Eloise Oxer

Length: 17 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

Jace is now a servant of evil, bound for all eternity to Sebastian. Only a small band of Shadowhunters believe he can be saved. To do this they must defy the Clave. And they must act without Clary. For Clary is playing a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing is not just her own life but Jace's soul. Clary is willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?

©2012 Cassandra Clare LLC (P)2014 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic Reviews

"The Mortal Instruments series features a rare marriage of extremely intricate, fast-paced plotting with ample digressions into the emotional lives of characters we’ve come to care about deeply ... With a movie in the works, this is an excellent time for new readers to jump on board one of the most enjoyable series in YA. Smart, fun, and epic, these books are addictive for all the right reasons." ( Locus)

"The new queen of fantasy." ( The Wall Street Journal)

Amazing story but revolting narration

Any additional comments?

The story is so amazing but it has been horrendously ruined by disgusting narration. They overact everything. The woman has a boring voice to listen to but additionally you can hear the static noise in the background. Also the man... seriously? it is revolting to listen to someone swallow their saliva... I almost couldn't finish listening to the story and I grit my teeth while trying to hold back the bile.

Enjoyable romance with violence

This continues the story of Jace, Clary, Simon and Sebastian. Can't wait for what should be the series final.

Seriously good

I do not know how Cassandra manages to maintain the suspense through 5 books but she does it and more. She continues to build her characters who evolve and grow in complexity, inhabiting a world that is alive and vibrant and a little weird. Onward to book 6!

Eloise Oxer has ruined this for me.

What did you like best about City of Lost Souls: Mortal Instruments, Book 5? What did you like least?

Unfortunately I couldn't get more than twenty minutes in. Nothing to do with the writing, I wouldn't have got this far into the series if I didn't enjoy it, but the narrator is so painful to listen to, I'm going to have to wait until a better reading is found.

What was one of the most memorable moments of City of Lost Souls: Mortal Instruments, Book 5?

See above.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Grant was fine, though I preferred the gentleman from the previous book. Eloise on the other hand... Slow speaking, painfully slow. Dreary, stressing words seems more important than the story. The voice was so monotonous, I couldn't follow the story. She seems to breath words to attempt to make it more mysterious where it is just plain irritating. The last word in every sentence is breathed long, frankly weird.

Was City of Lost Souls: Mortal Instruments, Book 5 worth the listening time?

I may keep trying as I want to hear the book, but I certainly will avoid the narrator in future books.

Any additional comments?

Other ratings are based on previous books, and expectations for this book.

struggled with performance

love Cassandra Clare but really struggled with Eloise Oxer. Found her so grating that I nearly stopped listening ☹️

Eloise oxer ruined this book

Narration was so bad I ended up downloading the Simon and Schuster version that has a different narrator for this and city of heavenly fire I just couldn't listen to eloise over her voice just goes through me I would suggest finding somewhere you can download the simon and Schuster version don't waste your money on this. The story of course is fantastic I love all of Cassandra Clare's shadowhunter novels

Narrators were awful

I really enjoyed the story but only stuck with it cos of that. The Narrators were really painful to listen to Eloise is bland and boring, Grant was marginally better to listen to.

Good but tedious in parts

The whole series is amazing and the story has moved on however some of the clary and jace scenes are very tedious and quite boring in parts

Am looking forward to the next part :)

Loved it!!!

This one doesn't need a review as anyone who read the first book in the series will just want to keep reading and this one is no different!
Really like the narrators too, they read the story well together and it was clear which each character was as they read.

Let down by narration...

I really wish the same narrator(s) could be used for a series of books. It's so annoying to start the next title and find the style of narration has changed.
The guy on this one is OK but dull and a let down after the guy from the last one.
The woman is bizarre; I don't know why she needs to emphasise Every. Word. Of. A. Senteeeence. but it's really off-putting.
Also; I wish they'd decide at book one how to pronounce names of people/things and stick to it. Are runes drawn with a stell-ay or a steely? Is Mrs Lightwood called May-riss or MAURICE?!
The book itself is standard for the series; it'd be 20% shorter if we didn't have to listen to the description of what everyone's hair is doing or what the cold feels like on every characters' skin (except Simon who reminds us 8 times a book that he doesn't feel the cold) but otherwise I'm reasonably invested in whether it's all going to work out for these crazy kids.

Enjoyable

Was a bit concerned as I had read criticism over the narration. But I adjusted the speed made it slightly faster and found then the narrative was fine. I am probably a bit old for these books but must admit to enjoying them

Narrators are bad.

The last ones were much better. This woman has a weird whispering way of speaking, not enough emotion in her performance.

love it!

love, love, love this book series.
Not a fan of how the narrator's are reading this book though.