Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Chain of Iron

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 and it’s what got me into reading. When I found out that Cassandra Clare has written a series about the kids of the infernal devices, I was so excited! This first book did not disappoint, so I was really excited for the second book in the series.

This book mainly follows Cordelia Carstairs who we met in the first book. She seems to have everything she ever wanted. She’s engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has loved since childhood and London’s most eligible bachelor. She has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie Herondale and James’s charming friends, the Merry Thieves, she is also about to be reunited with her father who is now healthy again and she has her legendary blade of Cortana. But the truth is a bit different. James and Cordelia’s marriage is a lie, arranged to save Cordelia’s reputation. James is in love with Grace Blackthorn whose brother, Jesse, died years ago in a terrible accident. Cortana burns Cordelia’s hand when she touches it and her father has grown bitter and angry at the community that has shut him out. To make matters worse, there is a serial murderer that is targeting the Shadowhunters of London and then vanishing without a trace. Together with the Merry Thieves, Cordelia, James and Lucie must follow the trail of the killer through the city’s most dangerous streets. All the while, each are keeping a dangerous secret – Lucie plans to raise Jesse from the dead, Cordelia is sworn to a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power and James is being drawn further each night into the dark web of his grandfather, the arch-demon Belial. And that he himself might be the killer they seek.

This book hurt my heart, I didn’t like the tension or the secrets in this book. I like the gang working together against a bad guy, not the gang working alone and hiding their secrets. I hated the tension. I didn’t like love triangle aspect in this book being Cordelia, James and Grace and Cordelia, James and Matthew (thought for the second one I am now rooting for Matthew based on the end of this book not James!). I just really, really want Cordelia and Alastair to be happy they both deserve it. I enjoyed the storyline in this book and I know the next book is going to hurt my heart, I can feel it and I'm not ready for it, but at the same time, so ready for it.

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.

Content Warnings

rasberry's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The book has A LOT of miss understandings and miss communications and if you’re into that and the suspense it brings it would be great but it just tired me out. I just felt like I lost interest after awhile because it was too much of it. Also a lot of reusing of tropes that cassandra has used a lot and they feel done.

But don’t get me wrong, I liked a lot of it. I liked getting to know Grace some more, and if not starting to like her, at least starting to understand why she is the way she is. I think she is the character that developed the most during the book, in my eyes. And i liked the mystery element and i think it was wonderfully done. I didn’t suspect a think, and that could just be me not using a lot of critical thinking while reading, but still. And i liked the realtionships, i loved the Merry Thieves. They are found family in the best way and every moment at the Devil Tavern just warmed my heart. How they accept and fight for each other no matter what and how they deeply do care about everyone, even newbies Lucie and Cordelia.

Also special tribute to all the queer characters and the surprisingly good representation. There’re a handful of them and i love all of their stories and that they are all unique and not stereotypical. They are not only their queerness, they are fully fleshed put characters with millions of problems, their queerness never being the biggest one. And lastly i love how they are accepted, even though that was rarely the in those times, and it is not a big deal to those around them. Kiss on the forehead to Anna from me.

Content Warnings

the_true_monroe's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.0

Content Warnings

deedireads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Chain of Iron was a fine sequel to Chain of Gold, but I mostly just want the third book. I love the trilogy’s characters and premise, but this book’s reading experience was pretty slow and frustrating.

For you if: You have read Cassandra Clare’s other Shadowhunter books!

FULL REVIEW:

Chain of Iron is the second book in Cassandra Clare’s The Last Hours trilogy, which began with Chain of Gold. It’s the 14th book she’s written in the (core) Shadowhunters universe, which started with City of Bones. Timeline-wise, this trilogy takes place after The Dark Artifices, featuring Tessa and Will’s children. Our main character, Cordelia Carstairs, is a wielder of Cortana and Emma’s ancestor.

I thought CoG was pretty good, and I was excited for the premise (and trope) it set up for CoI. But I’m glad I waited until the month before the last book in this trilogy is coming out, because unfortunately I think that’s the book I was really waiting for. CoI was fine, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a pretty frustrating reading experience. All the tension and conflict in this book relies on the fact that every character is keeping secrets from everyone else, and so we as the audience know everything and are just waiting, waiting, waiting for the characters to FIGURE IT OUT already. And then she loves to give you what you want only to introduce some conflict that delays the payoff. So there was a lot of melodrama and nearly nothing was resolved, lol. Plus, I thought this book was way too long — all her books are massive, and I think she’s just gotten used to it, but this one could have used an editor. Nothing moved the plot forward in the first like 100 pages, lol.

Anyway, it sounds like I hated this book, which I didn’t. Once it finally picked up, the pace was pretty good. She writes great battle scenes and (of course) romantic scenes. But I’m going to need to wait and see whether the third book gives us enough of what we want before I decide how I feel about the trilogy overall.

Content Warnings