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A review by deedireads
Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare
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.
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
Graphic: Death, Violence, Alcoholism, and Death of parent
Minor: Miscarriage