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A review by magikspells
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
1.0
Lately I feel like I've been reading a lot like how I watch tv, I've been going back to stories that I'm familiar with (either through the setting or characters) because it means that I don't have to give it my full attention. That's definitely what happened with this book. The short version is that all the kids of the characters from the Infernal Devices series are now teenagers and fighting their own demons, literal and figurative.
To be honest, there's a lot of issues with this book. The main issue is that Clare seems to think every character needs to be the main character. I'm all for fleshing out side characters, but I cannot possibly keep up with every single one of them. This was such a problem that there was a real lack of plot for most of the first part of the book. And to be honest, it was the end of the book before I could vaguely tell Matthew and Thomas and all of the boys who were not James apart. And I really tried.
I will say that one thing I appreciate about this book is that Clare is at least more willing to write more outwardly diverse characters. Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of white characters, which is an issue she attempts to solve with one or two token non white characters (out of like 30 other people). Notice I say attempts, this is not diversity.
And I know her willingness to write more openly queer characters is a direct response to criticisms of Alec and Magnus' relationship in the Mortal Instruments series, but sometimes all of this feels like a bandaid. Especially here, in the time period this book takes place in which is arguably a more conservative period of history. It's like she's throwing in all these different people to try to make up for what she didn't do before. I mean damn, there's been like 15 books now, why did this take so long?
By the time I got halfway through the book, all I could think was 'why was this book written?' The story is ok, but it won't affect anything when you already read the story before and the stories after. She's already said who all of these characters marry and their various children play roles in later stories, so there's very little intrigue when you know who someone ends up with.
As usual, I'm probably overthinking things, especially for a series I don't consider to be very dear to me. Will I keep reading? I might, at this point I feel like fan fiction might be more entertaining, at least then I can skip the characters that don't interest me.
To be honest, there's a lot of issues with this book. The main issue is that Clare seems to think every character needs to be the main character. I'm all for fleshing out side characters, but I cannot possibly keep up with every single one of them. This was such a problem that there was a real lack of plot for most of the first part of the book. And to be honest, it was the end of the book before I could vaguely tell Matthew and Thomas and all of the boys who were not James apart. And I really tried.
I will say that one thing I appreciate about this book is that Clare is at least more willing to write more outwardly diverse characters. Don't get me wrong, there's still a lot of white characters, which is an issue she attempts to solve with one or two token non white characters (out of like 30 other people). Notice I say attempts, this is not diversity.
And I know her willingness to write more openly queer characters is a direct response to criticisms of Alec and Magnus' relationship in the Mortal Instruments series, but sometimes all of this feels like a bandaid. Especially here, in the time period this book takes place in which is arguably a more conservative period of history. It's like she's throwing in all these different people to try to make up for what she didn't do before. I mean damn, there's been like 15 books now, why did this take so long?
By the time I got halfway through the book, all I could think was 'why was this book written?' The story is ok, but it won't affect anything when you already read the story before and the stories after. She's already said who all of these characters marry and their various children play roles in later stories, so there's very little intrigue when you know who someone ends up with.
As usual, I'm probably overthinking things, especially for a series I don't consider to be very dear to me. Will I keep reading? I might, at this point I feel like fan fiction might be more entertaining, at least then I can skip the characters that don't interest me.