A review by srikari
Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare

4.0

Honestly torn on what rating to give this book, but thinking too critically about it has me re-evaluating all the other ratings I’ve given and that’s too much effort so we’re sticking with four stars. It was a joy to return to the Shadowhunter world and Clare’s writing always makes me laugh. I also enjoyed the variety of sibling relationships and the nuances of characters like Grace, Alastair and Christopher. However, this was the fourth series I’ve read by her and it’s started to get a little repetitive, especially with personalities- the one who doesn’t believe they’re worthy of love, the one that’s too full of themselves and everyone’s a little bit snarky. I know this is YA so love triangles should be expected, but having another parabatai love triangle was so unnecessary and took up way too much space in this book. Also typical in YA novels is to have the parents absent, but it was especially frustrating to have the parents (and Magnus!!) written out of the plot when they were the main characters in the Infernal Devices. And the amount of secrets, gosh. If only the characters could have honest conversations with themselves and their parents. (Spoiler alert!!) killing Christopher was so unnecessary and it made me mad mostly bc he was the only main character who didn’t have as much time dedicated to his romantic interests so that makes him expendable?