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A review by jazmin
Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare
4.0
SPOILERS do not proceed unless you have finished chot !! also warning: RANT ahead lol
⇢The Characters
Okay, please tell me what happened in this book. No seriously, tell me what happened. Sure, the whole point of the last book in a trilogy is that the plot gets wrapped up and whatever, but what makes this series so great is the characters and their development, and this book was lacking in the department.
WAY too much of what the characters went through was told to us, and not shown on page. And I’m talking SIGNIFICANT things, things that have been LITERALLY major plot points since BOOK ONE. MATTHEW’S ALCOHOLISM and dealing with it is a huge part of his journey, and you’re telling me we never see him have a full and proper conversation about what happened at the market with Charlotte and Henry?? And what about Wessa finding out about the bracelet?? And where were the reactions to *** dying? I’m so confused.
I get that this book was already huge, but some parts could have been cut out for the sake of necessary meaningful interactions.
I will say that thomastair and anna and ari were done well and I was super happy with their interactions, though. I never thought I would see the day where all four of them survived this trilogy and I’ve never been happier to be wrong.
other random points abt the characters:
- also I loved James in this book, I’ve loved him since book one though so nothing changed. James supremacy
- oh also I loved Jem, he never misses though because cc obviously loves him too HAHA
- Lucie and Jesse were cute as usual but I wish they got more scenes together, I mean they did have quite a few but nothing unexpected happened. I get it though, the largest part of their story was Jesse coming back to life lol
- I am happy with how Grace's journey went, could have been a bit more of an arc but it was good
- ari's character arc was amazing, i wasn't expecting it but it was both sad and hopeful...?
- kinda charles redemption arc?? I CALLED IT YALL i knew he wasnt gonna completely suck in the end
- i wish we got to see more of cordelia besides her freaking out about the james/grace situation or freaking out about lilith or belial, but i get that she's the main character so she had stuff to do lol
- im so sad no more will herondale content :( and im not even a will stan but herongraystairs gets me everytime i love them so much
⇢The Death
Now, to get back to that last criticism, all I have to say is, literally what was that death. WHAT WAS THAT?? I am a “no one dies except the irrelevant character even though it’s unrealistic” enthusiast so let me say i was MAD. (slightly joking) okay, to be fair, I would have been COMPLETELY fine if it was done well, but it was NOT. it felt like an afterthought, like the easy way out, GOD i’m so mad ARGHHHH
For me, if you’re going to kill off a character, make it realistic. I need it to be somewhat significant, unless the point is that the character died for nothing (but that wasn’t the case here), and at least give me some reactions to the death?? And some time to process? You can’t just throw in a paragraph here or there and be like oh that person died, BYE. IM SO???
Also having him start all of that work and not being able to complete it himself???????? HUH
⇢Miscommunication
Miscommunication is my mortal enemy. Going into this, I expected there to be some herondaisy drama, what, with fairstairs in Paris and all, but to say i was STRESSED for the whole beginning of this book would not be an exaggeration. I was ANNOYED.
(james should have been the centre of the triangle, whoever said that was so right because i don't know if cc was trying to create another herongraystairs or what but it did NOT work. she just didn't put enough effort into proving each of their relationships imo, like i get that they all matter to each other but she didn't prove it the same way that she did in TID if that makes sense...)
Anyway back to my point, there were so many opportunities for herondaisy to reconcile and I don’t get why it was delayed until so late. Remember all those missing scenes I mentioned earlier? If she had given us herondaisy earlier maybe there would have been space for some of those scenes instead of all the back and forth nonsense we got…
⇢TID Characters
People who said that cc doesn’t know how to write good parents are kinda right, because I feel like she just didn’t know what to do with any of the adults in this book. We got some nice Will and James scenes, sure, but if you’re going to have them play a role, just SEE IT THROUGH, DON’T GIVE UP HALFWAY.
Maybe I’m still bitter over what she did to Charlotte and Henry and Matthew’s relationship LOL and now don’t even get me started with Gabriel and Cecily’s reaction to *** ***** not even being shown…
⇢I promise I did like this book LOL
Okay I know that I basically just ranted a TON but I promise I did enjoy this book. I love these characters and so I just had some complaints because I’m sad that we’re not getting more books for them < / 3 Anyway I promise this was still a fun read, not nearly as good as chog which remains the loml but still
anyway I love thomastair and herondaisy and I’m glad that at least the former was done right… (cough cough why no herondaisy marriage runes scene cough cough)
my alastair playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5TZskot2Bu4j3yxmrzQDJY?si=9833ed45a02745ac
my cordelia playist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3NBgc2zV8guwqUkncHeNFE?si=2113e7600ee44e35
my carrd ❦
⇢The Characters
Okay, please tell me what happened in this book. No seriously, tell me what happened. Sure, the whole point of the last book in a trilogy is that the plot gets wrapped up and whatever, but what makes this series so great is the characters and their development, and this book was lacking in the department.
WAY too much of what the characters went through was told to us, and not shown on page. And I’m talking SIGNIFICANT things, things that have been LITERALLY major plot points since BOOK ONE. MATTHEW’S ALCOHOLISM and dealing with it is a huge part of his journey, and you’re telling me we never see him have a full and proper conversation about what happened at the market with Charlotte and Henry?? And what about Wessa finding out about the bracelet?? And where were the reactions to *** dying? I’m so confused.
I get that this book was already huge, but some parts could have been cut out for the sake of necessary meaningful interactions.
I will say that thomastair and anna and ari were done well and I was super happy with their interactions, though. I never thought I would see the day where all four of them survived this trilogy and I’ve never been happier to be wrong.
other random points abt the characters:
- also I loved James in this book, I’ve loved him since book one though so nothing changed. James supremacy
- oh also I loved Jem, he never misses though because cc obviously loves him too HAHA
- Lucie and Jesse were cute as usual but I wish they got more scenes together, I mean they did have quite a few but nothing unexpected happened. I get it though, the largest part of their story was Jesse coming back to life lol
- I am happy with how Grace's journey went, could have been a bit more of an arc but it was good
- ari's character arc was amazing, i wasn't expecting it but it was both sad and hopeful...?
- kinda charles redemption arc?? I CALLED IT YALL i knew he wasnt gonna completely suck in the end
- i wish we got to see more of cordelia besides her freaking out about the james/grace situation or freaking out about lilith or belial, but i get that she's the main character so she had stuff to do lol
- im so sad no more will herondale content :( and im not even a will stan but herongraystairs gets me everytime i love them so much
⇢The Death
Now, to get back to that last criticism, all I have to say is, literally what was that death. WHAT WAS THAT?? I am a “no one dies except the irrelevant character even though it’s unrealistic” enthusiast so let me say i was MAD. (slightly joking) okay, to be fair, I would have been COMPLETELY fine if it was done well, but it was NOT. it felt like an afterthought, like the easy way out, GOD i’m so mad ARGHHHH
For me, if you’re going to kill off a character, make it realistic. I need it to be somewhat significant, unless the point is that the character died for nothing (but that wasn’t the case here), and at least give me some reactions to the death?? And some time to process? You can’t just throw in a paragraph here or there and be like oh that person died, BYE. IM SO???
Also having him start all of that work and not being able to complete it himself???????? HUH
⇢Miscommunication
Miscommunication is my mortal enemy. Going into this, I expected there to be some herondaisy drama, what, with fairstairs in Paris and all, but to say i was STRESSED for the whole beginning of this book would not be an exaggeration. I was ANNOYED.
(james should have been the centre of the triangle, whoever said that was so right because i don't know if cc was trying to create another herongraystairs or what but it did NOT work. she just didn't put enough effort into proving each of their relationships imo, like i get that they all matter to each other but she didn't prove it the same way that she did in TID if that makes sense...)
Anyway back to my point, there were so many opportunities for herondaisy to reconcile and I don’t get why it was delayed until so late. Remember all those missing scenes I mentioned earlier? If she had given us herondaisy earlier maybe there would have been space for some of those scenes instead of all the back and forth nonsense we got…
⇢TID Characters
People who said that cc doesn’t know how to write good parents are kinda right, because I feel like she just didn’t know what to do with any of the adults in this book. We got some nice Will and James scenes, sure, but if you’re going to have them play a role, just SEE IT THROUGH, DON’T GIVE UP HALFWAY.
Maybe I’m still bitter over what she did to Charlotte and Henry and Matthew’s relationship LOL and now don’t even get me started with Gabriel and Cecily’s reaction to *** ***** not even being shown…
⇢I promise I did like this book LOL
Okay I know that I basically just ranted a TON but I promise I did enjoy this book. I love these characters and so I just had some complaints because I’m sad that we’re not getting more books for them < / 3 Anyway I promise this was still a fun read, not nearly as good as chog which remains the loml but still
anyway I love thomastair and herondaisy and I’m glad that at least the former was done right… (cough cough why no herondaisy marriage runes scene cough cough)
my alastair playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5TZskot2Bu4j3yxmrzQDJY?si=9833ed45a02745ac
my cordelia playist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3NBgc2zV8guwqUkncHeNFE?si=2113e7600ee44e35
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
my carrd ❦