Title- Chain of Iron
Author- Cassandra Clare
Series- The Last Hours (Shadowhunter Chronicles)
Published- 2021
Page Count- 656 pages
Publishing House- Simon&Schuster
Genre- YA Urban Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Rating- 4/5 stars
To read my review of Chain of Gold, click here.
About the Author
Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old.
Taken from Cassandra's website.
Plot
The Shadowhunters must catch a killer in Edwardian London in this dangerous and romantic sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Chain of Gold, from New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Cassandra Clare. Chain of Iron is a Shadowhunters novel.
Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She’s engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has loved since childhood. She has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie Herondale and James’s charming companions, the Merry Thieves. She is about to be reunited with her beloved father. And she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero’s blade.
But the truth is far grimmer. James and Cordelia’s marriage is a lie, arranged to save Cordelia’s reputation. James is in love with the mysterious Grace Blackthorn whose brother, Jesse, died years ago in a terrible accident. Cortana burns Cordelia’s hand when she touches it, while her father has grown bitter and angry. And a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters of London, killing under cover of darkness, then vanishing without a trace.
Together with the Merry Thieves, Cordelia, James, and Lucie must follow the trail of the knife-wielding killer through the city’s most dangerous streets. All the while, each is keeping a shocking secret: Lucie, that she plans to raise Jesse from the dead; Cordelia, that she has sworn a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power; and James, that he is being drawn further each night into the dark web of his grandfather, the arch-demon Belial. And that he himself may be the killer they seek.
Taken from Goodreads.
Opinions
I was very excited to be back in this world. I needed this book as my uni life has been very stressful and I couldn't wait to be back with my favourites. I reread Chain of Gold in preparation for Chain of Iron. I'm glad I did as I had forgotten most of what had happened. It has put me in the mood to reread all the Shadowhunter books again. These books are special to me and I hope I'll always be excited for them.
Something I spotted about this series in particular that I don't remember being as prominent in Cassie's other books is how character driven it was. I am a character reader mostly. I like caring about characters, even if the plot is a bit lacking. However, this leaned too heavily on character based storylines. I felt like the main plotline was interesting, however it wasn't explored as much as I would have liked it to be. I also figured out very early on who the murderer was, which meant it wasn't as surprising. It's been about a month since I read this and I can't remember much about what happens in it. This did end up relying a bit too heavily on the love triangle/whatever shape it is at this point for my liking. I would have liked more plot to have been weaved through.
I think part of the reason I struggled with this book was because I read it in three days. Looking back, I regret this, as I feel it demanded a bit more attention. I felt the same way when I read Chain of Gold. I will most likely reread both books before the final one comes out and I'm going to take my time. I might even tab them, which is something I started doing with Lord of Shadows (which remains the last Shadowhunter book that truly shocked and destroyed me) and I think it might help me connect with the story.
So far in this review, I have been very negative, which I don't like, so it's time to talk about some things I did like. The romance between Alistair and Thomas. We all saw it coming in Chain of Gold and it was done so well. I like that it hasn't been rushed, that they are two men taking their time. It feels like a very genuine relationship and one I'm excited to see explored more in the final book. Now, I know I said I didn't want to be negative, but I can't not mention it in this section Anna and Ariadne's relationship. I'm not sure why they started using their relationship in such a toxic way, but when we know both of them clearly love each other, it felt wrong to their characters. This was something Cassie talked about in the UK event (virtual event) I went to and I hope it's discussed more in the final book. Cassie always handles her relationships really well, which is something I admire about her writing.
This section is hard to talk about as it does have spoiler links to The Dark Artifices, however I'm imaging that most people reading this have read TDA, but I'm still going to be as spoiler free as possible. I'm very interested in the plot line with Lucie, Grace and Malcolm. I didn't see that coming and is possibly the thing I'm the most interested in reading in the final book. It was a nice link to TDA, providing us with some solid backstory while being key to this storyline.
I plan on rereading this book at some point and I'll be reading it slower as to absorb the story better. I felt this way with Chain of Gold that it felt too rushed. So far, The Last Hours hasn't really made an impact on me. The Infernal Devices remains my absolute favourite series by Cassie and I thought I'd love being back in London with their children, but these books just haven't wowed me. This could be because my tastes as a reader have changed significantly. I look forward to seeing where this story goes and will probably reread all the books at some point in one big year long reread like I did back in 2018. I think I'm in a minority as I've seen a lot of people gushing over this book.
What did you think of Chain of Iron?
Carenza x :)
