** spoiler alert ** 
 In this latest installment of The Mortal Instruments, Jace finds himself in a predicament. We last saw him being tricked by Sebastian into some creepy ceremony. Turns out that this ceremony has bound the two together. What Sebastian wants, Jace wants. Prick one of them, and the other bleeds. This proves to be a problem for the Shadowhunters, who want to kill Sebastian but can't do so without killing Jace as well. And off we go... 
 Where to start? First of all, CC's weaknesses as a writer haven't improved any. She still goes for purple prose, and she still spends an inordinate amount of time describing what everyone looks like and what they're wearing. Hey, I bet you didn't know that Jace has gold hair and gold eyes and that he smells like salt! I bet you didn't know that Sebastian has white hair and pale skin and black eyes! Cassie Clare apparently doesn't think you know, either, because she goes to the trouble of reminding you every other page. 
 ...Okay, that's an exaggeration, but she seriously does mention it in every scene they have. This is a holdover from the previous books. No wonder Stephenie Meyer likes this series so much; both she and CC give you the impression that they fantasize about their male characters nightly (if you know what I mean), considering the way they constantly go on about how stunningly gorgeous and hot and beautiful they are. It's like bad fanfiction, which would be fitting in CC's case. 
 Cassie Clare is also a master of the cop-out ending, and she does it again here. (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, DON'T COMPLAIN IF YOU READ FURTHER) You might have heard that one of the main characters dies. That character happens to be Jace. But let me put your mind at ease by telling you that she brings him back to life immediately afterward. If you're getting a sense of deja vu, that could be because CC has done this before. In City of Ashes, she kills Simon only to bring him back as a vampire (and then she *almost* kills him again at the end of the same book, but then we got the reveal that he was a Daylighter, ta da). In City of Glass, she kills Jace and then has Clary wish him back to life. And in City of Lost Souls, she kills Jace AGAIN and brings him back to life AGAIN. 
 It's getting tiresome. CC brags about how she's not afraid to kill off her characters, but it doesn't count if the death hardly ever sticks. What's supposed to make death so awful is the permanence of it. CC takes that permanence away, so why should we care when these characters die? 
 To be fair, there *are* characters who have died "permanently", but they're not main characters and readers obviously don't care about them as much. I'm not saying that I WANT all of the main characters to die or anything, but CC should either put up or shut up. And she needs to stop killing her characters and bringing them back. Either kill them or don't, but don't try to have your cake and eat it, too. 
 Another problem with this book is that Clary, as the main protagonist, is rather unlikable and incredibly self-centered. Everything she does has to do with what she wants, and what she wants is Jace. Unlikable protagonists by themselves aren't necessarily an issue; there are plenty of books featuring unlikable characters. But the issue here is that we're not supposed to see Clary that way. She's stupid and runs into danger without thinking, disregarding what anyone else tells her, but we're meant to think that she's headstrong and fiesty. She's also selfish when it comes to Jace - she actually sells him out and betrays him to Sebastian to keep him from turning himself into the Clave, even though doing so would save countless lives. Fortunately, she apologizes later and does in a sense make up for it when she is willing to put a sword through Jace to cut him off from Sebastian. It's still troubling that she goes there in the first place, but, of course, we're meant to see this as an indication of how true her love is for him. 
 And Clary's selfishness isn't a new development, either. In City of Glass, Clary is granted one wish when she summons an Angel. What does she wish for? To have Jace back. She tries to justify and rationalize it by saying that maybe it's not right to wish for something like world peace (fair enough), but all I could think was: What about Max, who was, you know, brutally murdered not all that long ago? The one who, as Isabelle points out to Clary, was NOT a solider, unlike Jace, but an innocent 9-year-old child? What makes his life more forfeit than Jace's? Oh, right, because Clary didn't have a thing for Max. 
 The reason I'm giving this book two stars instead of one is because, unlike the previous book, things at least happen in this book. City of Fallen Angels was basically nothing but Clary and Jace angsting and mooning over each other. Here, there's more action, although I agree with other reviewers that the pacing was terribly slow; there was no reason for the book to be as long as it was. 
 Another plus: although Clary might be a frustrating character, the good thing about this book is that we don't spend as much time with her as we have previously. CC spreads the wealth a bit as we spend a lot more time with people like Isabelle, Maia, and Simon. I always liked Isabelle and Maia more than Clary; I hated Simon in the first book, but since then he's turned into a decent character. So, all things considered, I figure that's worth an extra star, but my standards might be low.