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adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wanted to read this book because I absolutely love Cassandra Clare. The Infernal Devices is my favourite series to date, and I loved the Mortal Instruments, it’s one of the series that got me into reading when I found out that Cassandra Clare was writing a trilogy of the series about the children of the Infernal Devices, I was so excited! All of these books in the series didn’t disappoint.
Cordelia Carstairs has lost everything that matters to her. In only a few shorts weeks, she has seen her father murdered, her plans to become parabatai with her best friend, Lucie, destroyed, and her marriage to James Herondale crumble before her eyes. Even worse, she is now bound to an ancient demon, Lilith, stripping her of her power as a Shadowhunter. Cordelia is feeling powerless so she flees to Paris with Matthew Fairchild, James’s parabatai. Cordelia is hoping to forget her sorrows in the city's glittering nightlife. But reality intrudes when shocking news comes from home: Tatiana Blackthorn has escaped from the Citadel, and London is under new threat by the Prince of Hell, Belial. Cordelia returns to a London riven by chaos and dissent. The long-kept secret that Belial is James and Lucie’s grandfather has been revealed by an unexpected enemy and the Herondales find themselves under suspicion of dealings with demons. Belial’s plan is about to crash into the Shadowhunters of London like a deadly wave, one that will separate Cordelia, Lucie, and the Merry Thieves from help of any kind. Left alone in a shadowy London, they must face Belial’s deadly army. If Cordelia and her friends are going to save their city – and their families – they have to muster their courage, swallow their prides, and trust one another again. For if they fail, they will lose everything.
Like with the second book, this book hurt my heart I didn’t like the tension or the love triangles or the secrets within this book. I like when the gang are all together and no one gets hurts, and we don’t lose anyone. Throughout this whole series, I just wanted for all of them to be happy and the fact that CHRISTOPHER – the golden retriever of the group didn’t get to go off and see how his experiments happened, just drove me up the wall and that Matthew ended up alone just broke me slightly. I still love the dynamic of Will and Tessa and the lightwoods. I love seeing the children being EXACTLY like their parents. It made me laugh especially the running joke of Herondales hating the ducks. And that the children disobey their parents, like their parents did.
Cassandra Clare manages to do it Every. Single. Time - you don’t have to read any of the other series to know what’s going on, some immortal characters make an appearance, but you could read this series on its own without having to read The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices or The Eldest Curses. And I don’t know what I'm going to do now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Murder
Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pregnancy
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Murder, Pregnancy
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Outing
Minor: Confinement, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very fun and lighthearted for when you need to be engrossed in something. Very loveable characters that are fun to follow. However NOT even close to being the best Cassandra Clare book. The plot and villains are quite dull. Many emotional moments seem rushed and lifeless. The book could have been written much better, considering how good her other pieces have been.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Homophobia
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After QoAaD (which was admittedly a good ending but also...weird), I was hesitant to start this, seeing as TLH had the potential to become my favourite TSC series — and it is now!
Yes, it's a very long book and the beginning was very long-winded. Especially the whole love triangle thing, imo, we could've done without.
I enjoyed most of the other plot times a lot, though. We have a visit to Edom again (another good place for CC to be weird) but it isn't weird! Yay. There are a lot of redemption arcs, mainly for Grace and Alastair, and all of those were all believable and well done.
There is one character who dies and it was just such a cheap cop out. I truly don't think last books need to have tragic deaths to become tragic, there was already enough tragedy in this book. It felt like a "gotcha!" moment but a really cheap one.
We got some cute moments for the TID generation but through smart plot lines there were good reasons for them to not be available for most of the drama — this was their kids time to save the world (or...just London).
Overall, I'm still really happy with how this story ended and it was a quite satisfying ending to the TID/TLH story 🤍
Also: Shoutout to our ret-con queen Esme Hardcastle, wtf
Yes, it's a very long book and the beginning was very long-winded. Especially the whole love triangle thing, imo, we could've done without.
I enjoyed most of the other plot times a lot, though. We have a visit to Edom again (another good place for CC to be weird) but it isn't weird! Yay. There are a lot of redemption arcs, mainly for Grace and Alastair, and all of those were all believable and well done.
There is one character who dies and it was just such a cheap cop out. I truly don't think last books need to have tragic deaths to become tragic, there was already enough tragedy in this book. It felt like a "gotcha!" moment but a really cheap one.
We got some cute moments for the TID generation but through smart plot lines there were good reasons for them to not be available for most of the drama — this was their kids time to save the world (or...just London).
Overall, I'm still really happy with how this story ended and it was a quite satisfying ending to the TID/TLH story 🤍
Also: Shoutout to our ret-con queen Esme Hardcastle, wtf
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Violence, Grief, Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, War
Minor: Miscarriage, Death of parent, Pregnancy
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The first two hundred pages were so hard to get through, super boring. Then the plot picked up but the overall ending was just meh. I absolutely hated the death, that was my favourite character. Overall, just super disappointed in this series, I had such high hopes too.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
usually i love the shadowhunter chronicles, just couldn't get behind this one for some reason. the last fifth of the book was just kind of a let down. everything seemed... too easy? it felt in many ways that the book was almost solely to connect it to The Dark Artifices and not enough to it's own trilogy. but maybe im just growing out of YA
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Murder, Lesbophobia
Minor: Death, Miscarriage, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Chain of Thorns was a fine conclusion to a fine trilogy — entertaining, yes, but definitely not my favorite set of Shadowhunters books. The trilogy-long miscommunication trope was too much for me.
For you if: You like YA fantasy books with character D R A M A.
FULL REVIEW
Chain of Thorns is the third and final book in The Last Hours trilogy, which represents books 13–15 of Cassandra Clare’s (core) set of Shadowhunter novels. They take place a few years after The Infernal Devices and follow Cordelia Carstairs (wielder of Cortana) and James Herondale (Tessa and Will’s son).
I mainly read this trilogy because, well, I can’t get 12 books into a universe and then just stop lol. But while these books were certainly entertaining — Cassandra Clare knows how to write a good central mystery — it was my least favorite Shadowhunters series so far. (The Dark Artifices reigns supreme. IYKYK.)
Thing is, The Last Hours is one big (BIG! These books are like 800 pages long! Where is her editor!) miscommunication trope. Throw a love triangle in for good measure. They are about D-R-A-M-A, but it was just too drawn out for my taste. I understand why she did it, given the book’s central theme about letting others in and not carrying a burden on your own, because when you hurt yourself you hurt the ones you love — but still. It stopped being fun for me at like, the end of book one.
As for this book in particular, I thought it was better than book two, but it still fell a little flat for me. There was a character death that didn’t feel like it was given enough weight, James made me roll my eyes, and Cordelia got frustrating. The ending was good, but I don’t know if it was I’ve-been-waiting-three-books-for-this-and-I-hope-it-saves-the-trilogy-for-me good.
It sounds like I hated these books, lol, which I didn’t. They were fast-paced and entertaining and kept my eyes glued to the page. But I know Cassandra Clare can (and has) given us better.
TL;DR REVIEW:
Chain of Thorns was a fine conclusion to a fine trilogy — entertaining, yes, but definitely not my favorite set of Shadowhunters books. The trilogy-long miscommunication trope was too much for me.
For you if: You like YA fantasy books with character D R A M A.
FULL REVIEW
Chain of Thorns is the third and final book in The Last Hours trilogy, which represents books 13–15 of Cassandra Clare’s (core) set of Shadowhunter novels. They take place a few years after The Infernal Devices and follow Cordelia Carstairs (wielder of Cortana) and James Herondale (Tessa and Will’s son).
I mainly read this trilogy because, well, I can’t get 12 books into a universe and then just stop lol. But while these books were certainly entertaining — Cassandra Clare knows how to write a good central mystery — it was my least favorite Shadowhunters series so far. (The Dark Artifices reigns supreme. IYKYK.)
Thing is, The Last Hours is one big (BIG! These books are like 800 pages long! Where is her editor!) miscommunication trope. Throw a love triangle in for good measure. They are about D-R-A-M-A, but it was just too drawn out for my taste. I understand why she did it, given the book’s central theme about letting others in and not carrying a burden on your own, because when you hurt yourself you hurt the ones you love — but still. It stopped being fun for me at like, the end of book one.
As for this book in particular, I thought it was better than book two, but it still fell a little flat for me. There was a character death that didn’t feel like it was given enough weight, James made me roll my eyes, and Cordelia got frustrating. The ending was good, but I don’t know if it was I’ve-been-waiting-three-books-for-this-and-I-hope-it-saves-the-trilogy-for-me good.
It sounds like I hated these books, lol, which I didn’t. They were fast-paced and entertaining and kept my eyes glued to the page. But I know Cassandra Clare can (and has) given us better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Homophobia
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Grief
Minor: Pregnancy
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this was underwhelming to say the least, I mean...it was nothing compared to previous shadow hunters third books, city of glass? letal, queen of air and darkness? soul devouring and I won't even mention the other one bc y'all know
I guess I was expecting so much more and as you can see it took me almost two month to read this one and I usually read tsc books so fucking fast, three stars bc of herondaisy (my beloveds) and all the other characters who I truly love (specially my baby kit)
I guess I was expecting so much more and as you can see it took me almost two month to read this one and I usually read tsc books so fucking fast, three stars bc of herondaisy (my beloveds) and all the other characters who I truly love (specially my baby kit)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death
Moderate: Violence, Grief
Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pregnancy