City of Lost Souls

core novel 2012 The Shadowhunter Chronicles

Record

First published	2012
Original language	EN
Work type	novel
Canon status	core
Reader rating	4.21 (504,135 ratings, collected 2026-08-27)
Page count	535
First-edition ISBN	9781442416864
Internal chronology	5

Synopsis

City of Lost Souls opens with Simon isolated from his family by his vampire nature and Jace missing under troubling circumstances, prompting Clary and her friends to seek the aid of the Seelie Queen, who agrees to help in exchange for a set of magical Faerie rings. When Clary glimpses Jace in the company of Sebastian, Valentine's son, she grows suspicious that something is deeply wrong with him. She soon learns that Jace has come under Sebastian's control as part of a scheme to build an army of corrupted Shadowhunters using demonic blood and the Mortal Cup. Torn between saving Jace and stopping Sebastian's plan, Clary goes undercover, using the Faerie rings to stay in secret contact with Simon and coordinate resistance to the growing threat from within Shadowhunter ranks.

Where it sits

• Universe: The Shadowhunter Chronicles
• Series: The Mortal Instruments core; position 5 of 6 in the series' recorded order
• Author: Cassandra Clare

Notes

• From the series record (The Mortal Instruments): The original six-book series that introduced the Shadowhunters.

Neighbouring works

Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.

• Reading order, within the series The Mortal Instruments: position 5 of 6: previous City of Fallen Angels (2011) · next City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

Sources

• Wikipedia: The Mortal Instruments
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Lost_Souls
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Lost_Souls_(novel)

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