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reachingforstardust's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Death, Grief, Racism, and Homophobia
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
humanmosquito's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.25
Once again Clare delivers a decent concept with sloppy execution.
To no one's surprise, a book that started with two solid chapters of casual racism and awkward exposition dump was terrible.
It suffered heavily from the usual Clareisms. (Such as comma splicing, overwritten descriptions weighing down scenes, flat protagonists, kissing scenes in place of actual romantic chemistry and cartoonishly ridiculous antagonists to name a few)
This book felt like Downton Abbey meets Bridgerton, an apt comparison given that the book manages to trot out almost every tired period drama cliche by chapter 5.
As is typical of The Shadowhunter Chronicles, the minor characters were genuinely interesting but never afforded enough page time. Some of the book’s 800 pages should have been spent on characters like Alastair Carstairs, whose coloured past the reader is constantly reminded of but never elaborated on; or the Lightwood cousins, specifically Anna and Thomas, the only ones with love interests. (This <i>is</i> a romance novel.)
At the two-thirds point I began to skip Cordelia and James' POV chapters as they completely lost anything compelling they'd had in the beginning.
So many plot details, character attributes and similar were informed rather than shown. Sometimes Cassandra Clare books feel like being forced to read a twitter thread of obvious misinformation but no one around you notices or cares. This is one of those times. Overall, it was unenjoyable but with a concept I would otherwise have been excited about (<i>Great Expectations</i> in the way of <i>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies</i>)
Random things that ticked me off in this book: (equal parts nitpick and criticism)
CoRsETS aRe EvIL and other tired clichés (corsets within <i>The Last Hours</i> render the poor women who wear unable to eat or breathe, yet shadowhunter women continue to not only wear them but train and fight demons whilst doing so.)
The lack of any kind of research into this era. (Edwardian)
That fact that Shadowhunters have a fucking social season? And it’s in London? Not the Shadowhunter country. (*shrek meme* They don’t even have a monarchy)
Being closeted, for the book’s three closeted queer characters, is framed as lying and as morally wrong despite it being 1903. This is also despite the society of the book being rife with casual queerphobia.
‘Brown girls can’t wear pastel’ every other chapter (It’s a fucking plot point).
No respect is paid to a character’s (Anna Lightwood) Word of God genderqueerness (but given that the writer made one post about it on her Tumblr six years ago, I’m not at all surprised.)
To no one's surprise, a book that started with two solid chapters of casual racism and awkward exposition dump was terrible.
It suffered heavily from the usual Clareisms. (Such as comma splicing, overwritten descriptions weighing down scenes, flat protagonists, kissing scenes in place of actual romantic chemistry and cartoonishly ridiculous antagonists to name a few)
This book felt like Downton Abbey meets Bridgerton, an apt comparison given that the book manages to trot out almost every tired period drama cliche by chapter 5.
As is typical of The Shadowhunter Chronicles, the minor characters were genuinely interesting but never afforded enough page time. Some of the book’s 800 pages should have been spent on characters like Alastair Carstairs, whose coloured past the reader is constantly reminded of but never elaborated on; or the Lightwood cousins, specifically Anna and Thomas, the only ones with love interests. (This <i>is</i> a romance novel.)
At the two-thirds point I began to skip Cordelia and James' POV chapters as they completely lost anything compelling they'd had in the beginning.
So many plot details, character attributes and similar were informed rather than shown. Sometimes Cassandra Clare books feel like being forced to read a twitter thread of obvious misinformation but no one around you notices or cares. This is one of those times. Overall, it was unenjoyable but with a concept I would otherwise have been excited about (<i>Great Expectations</i> in the way of <i>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies</i>)
Random things that ticked me off in this book: (equal parts nitpick and criticism)
CoRsETS aRe EvIL and other tired clichés (corsets within <i>The Last Hours</i> render the poor women who wear unable to eat or breathe, yet shadowhunter women continue to not only wear them but train and fight demons whilst doing so.)
The lack of any kind of research into this era. (Edwardian)
That fact that Shadowhunters have a fucking social season? And it’s in London? Not the Shadowhunter country. (*shrek meme* They don’t even have a monarchy)
Being closeted, for the book’s three closeted queer characters, is framed as lying and as morally wrong despite it being 1903. This is also despite the society of the book being rife with casual queerphobia.
‘Brown girls can’t wear pastel’ every other chapter (It’s a fucking plot point).
No respect is paid to a character’s (Anna Lightwood) Word of God genderqueerness (but given that the writer made one post about it on her Tumblr six years ago, I’m not at all surprised.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Racism
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