A review by sarahshams
Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare
2.0
Most people who know me know that Cassandra Clare is my comfort author, and that although I’ve grown out of YA, I will always be the first person at the bookstore every time Cassie releases a new book. The world of the shadowhunters feels like home to me, and I always love returning to it in every iteration.
Not so with this book.
Oh, my dear Cassie. The expectations were so high. This series, after all, centres around the children of three greats: Will, Tessa, and let’s add Jem as well, because we know he’s an honorary parent to these exasperating little children. And let’s not forget Magnus, the Shadowhunter’s in-house babysitter, who just wants a break from all this drama!!!!
Anyhow. This is perhaps the first time I’ve been truly disappointed by a Cassie Clare book. It lacked a coherent plotline, depth, characterisations, and carried through with the same problems of the first book. The ‘Gracelet’ situation was ridiculous and should have been resolved in book one, as was the Mathew-Cordelia-James-Lucie-Jesse love triangle? Love web? At this point everyone is in love with each other and I dont know what is what. Although I did enjoy the murder mystery, Jame’s situation with Grace and her bracelet was extremely contrived, and furthermore, his relationship with Cordelia read like a glorified domestic AU, except the miscommunication between the two was not “slow-burn” as Cassandra Clare would like us to think, it was just ASININE. And it did not even get a proper resolution! You expect me to believe that James couldn’t be bothered to clear the air with Cordelia at the train station before he left to save Lucie?? And that his inability to do so conveniently allowed for Cordelia and Mathew to run off to Paris so that we could get another domestic AU in the third book, just this time set in a different city? Colour me shocked.
Similarly, miss Lucie Herondale, who happens to grace the very cover of this book, is a pale shadow of what she was in the first book, and spends the entirety of this story chasing after some ghost d*ck. Forgive my use of crass language, but there’s really no other way to put it. Lucie literally risks not just her own life and reputation, but also that of her FAMILY’S, to resuscitate her ghost boyfriend, whom I believe she has known for less than a year. I'm sure the intention was to make her issue seem whimsical and vaguely Gothic, but it really did not deliver in either of those categories. Perhaps this plot line would have worked better if Lucie had known Jesse as a child, and had truly felt the loss of his death- but as it stands, her obsession with reviving Jesse seems immature, and furthermore a little too eerily similar to the entire plotline of Meg Cabot's The Mediator series. (The ghost boyfriend in question even share the same name.)
Not only did this reflect badly on Lucie, but it also detrimentally affected her relationship with her supposed “best friend” and future parabatai Cordelia. I use best friend in air quotes because although were repeatedly told about the closeness of Lucie and Cordelia’s relationship, Cassie does nothing to actually demonstrate it. I can say the same thing about James and Mathew, but the central issue with Lucie and Cordelia is the amount of lies and miscommunication between them, which, by the way, is only necessary to keep the plot moving forward. In fact, if any of these characters would deign to tell each other the truth about their situations, the plot will quite literally unravel before our very eyes, and this, to me, is just poor writing.
I could go on, but I’ll stop here before I tire myself.
As for the good parts: Alastair is my sweet dispossessed wayward son who I will love and protect at all costs, Anna and Ariadne had a beautifully expanded on and complex love story, and the killer reveal was actually quite decent. Still, however these paltry moments of quality material fail to save the book, and for this I grant it a measly 2 stars. I’m sorry, Cassie, I really, really wanted to like this book but at almost 600 pages, it was sort of a bust compared to the stunning masterpieces you’ve given us in the past :/
Not so with this book.
Oh, my dear Cassie. The expectations were so high. This series, after all, centres around the children of three greats: Will, Tessa, and let’s add Jem as well, because we know he’s an honorary parent to these exasperating little children. And let’s not forget Magnus, the Shadowhunter’s in-house babysitter, who just wants a break from all this drama!!!!
Anyhow. This is perhaps the first time I’ve been truly disappointed by a Cassie Clare book. It lacked a coherent plotline, depth, characterisations, and carried through with the same problems of the first book. The ‘Gracelet’ situation was ridiculous and should have been resolved in book one, as was the Mathew-Cordelia-James-Lucie-Jesse love triangle? Love web? At this point everyone is in love with each other and I dont know what is what. Although I did enjoy the murder mystery, Jame’s situation with Grace and her bracelet was extremely contrived, and furthermore, his relationship with Cordelia read like a glorified domestic AU, except the miscommunication between the two was not “slow-burn” as Cassandra Clare would like us to think, it was just ASININE. And it did not even get a proper resolution! You expect me to believe that James couldn’t be bothered to clear the air with Cordelia at the train station before he left to save Lucie?? And that his inability to do so conveniently allowed for Cordelia and Mathew to run off to Paris so that we could get another domestic AU in the third book, just this time set in a different city? Colour me shocked.
Similarly, miss Lucie Herondale, who happens to grace the very cover of this book, is a pale shadow of what she was in the first book, and spends the entirety of this story chasing after some ghost d*ck. Forgive my use of crass language, but there’s really no other way to put it. Lucie literally risks not just her own life and reputation, but also that of her FAMILY’S, to resuscitate her ghost boyfriend, whom I believe she has known for less than a year. I'm sure the intention was to make her issue seem whimsical and vaguely Gothic, but it really did not deliver in either of those categories. Perhaps this plot line would have worked better if Lucie had known Jesse as a child, and had truly felt the loss of his death- but as it stands, her obsession with reviving Jesse seems immature, and furthermore a little too eerily similar to the entire plotline of Meg Cabot's The Mediator series. (The ghost boyfriend in question even share the same name.)
Not only did this reflect badly on Lucie, but it also detrimentally affected her relationship with her supposed “best friend” and future parabatai Cordelia. I use best friend in air quotes because although were repeatedly told about the closeness of Lucie and Cordelia’s relationship, Cassie does nothing to actually demonstrate it. I can say the same thing about James and Mathew, but the central issue with Lucie and Cordelia is the amount of lies and miscommunication between them, which, by the way, is only necessary to keep the plot moving forward. In fact, if any of these characters would deign to tell each other the truth about their situations, the plot will quite literally unravel before our very eyes, and this, to me, is just poor writing.
I could go on, but I’ll stop here before I tire myself.
As for the good parts: Alastair is my sweet dispossessed wayward son who I will love and protect at all costs, Anna and Ariadne had a beautifully expanded on and complex love story, and the killer reveal was actually quite decent. Still, however these paltry moments of quality material fail to save the book, and for this I grant it a measly 2 stars. I’m sorry, Cassie, I really, really wanted to like this book but at almost 600 pages, it was sort of a bust compared to the stunning masterpieces you’ve given us in the past :/