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A review by literalottie
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
5.0
I'm IN LOVE.
This is my new favourite Shadowhunter book. Is it too early to say that? I don't care. I'm so happy.
I went into this feeling a bit nervous - I was very disappointed by the conclusion to The Dark Artifices, and I enjoyed but didn't adore my recent reread of The Infernal Devices so I was a bit apprehensive on how I would feel about this one... then it arrived in the mail and I saw how beautiful it looked and I forgot about all that and immediately jumped in and devoured it because it was just too good.
This is by far the best cast of characters in any Cassandra Clare novel, as well as the largest (I think). While I think the official advice is that you can go into this book without having read any other Shadowhunter books, I strongly recommend having read The Infernal Devices or at least understanding the relationships that are endgame in that series because this new series follows allllll the children of those couples (and I do mean all) and without that initial understanding I think I would've had a much harder time keeping track of all of them (as it is I had my moments of "wait who is this and how do they fit into the family"). Despite the large cast of characters, they all have a lot of depth and are all interesting to read about. I also liked how the book kept on a small number of main POVs rather than jumping around between a bunch of smaller ones. One of the issues I had with both TDA and TID was the expanded number of POVs so I'm hoping this series won't repeat that mistake and it'll keep its focus.
Aside from my recommendation of having read TID, I think this book is remarkable accessible to people less familiar with the Shadowhunter world. These characters have technically been previously introduced in some of the novellas found in The Bane Chronicles, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy and Ghosts of the Shadow Market, and I have seen some people say you should read those before this book, but I disagree. I haven't read any of the novella bindups (well, I have technically read The Bane Chronicles, but that was years ago and I couldn't tell you a single thing that happened in them), and I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. There are maybe a few references to events in those books, but they are fleeting and inconsequential. There wasn't a moment that I felt like I was lacking some important information or understanding about the characters. Absolutely do read them if you want to - but don't listen to anyone who tells you that you HAVE to in order to understand Chain of Gold.
The plot is probably the weakest link in this book for me; even though I did enjoy it, I wouldn't say it's the strongest. Honestly, my love for this book predominantly comes from getting to spend time with all these amazing characters rather than reading about what they were actually doing. I felt like this was more of a "set up" book for the rest of the trilogy - even though I didn't care much for the core plot, there were a lot of really intriguing threads placed for the next books in the series to pick up on which I am really looking forward to.
And on a final note (on the romance),Matthew and Cordelia are the superior ship and I am HOLDING OUT HOPE for this to be canon. I know that my heart is likely going to be in pieces at the end of this series because of my feelings on this but I said what I said.
This is my new favourite Shadowhunter book. Is it too early to say that? I don't care. I'm so happy.
I went into this feeling a bit nervous - I was very disappointed by the conclusion to The Dark Artifices, and I enjoyed but didn't adore my recent reread of The Infernal Devices so I was a bit apprehensive on how I would feel about this one... then it arrived in the mail and I saw how beautiful it looked and I forgot about all that and immediately jumped in and devoured it because it was just too good.
This is by far the best cast of characters in any Cassandra Clare novel, as well as the largest (I think). While I think the official advice is that you can go into this book without having read any other Shadowhunter books, I strongly recommend having read The Infernal Devices or at least understanding the relationships that are endgame in that series because this new series follows allllll the children of those couples (and I do mean all) and without that initial understanding I think I would've had a much harder time keeping track of all of them (as it is I had my moments of "wait who is this and how do they fit into the family"). Despite the large cast of characters, they all have a lot of depth and are all interesting to read about. I also liked how the book kept on a small number of main POVs rather than jumping around between a bunch of smaller ones. One of the issues I had with both TDA and TID was the expanded number of POVs so I'm hoping this series won't repeat that mistake and it'll keep its focus.
Aside from my recommendation of having read TID, I think this book is remarkable accessible to people less familiar with the Shadowhunter world. These characters have technically been previously introduced in some of the novellas found in The Bane Chronicles, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy and Ghosts of the Shadow Market, and I have seen some people say you should read those before this book, but I disagree. I haven't read any of the novella bindups (well, I have technically read The Bane Chronicles, but that was years ago and I couldn't tell you a single thing that happened in them), and I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. There are maybe a few references to events in those books, but they are fleeting and inconsequential. There wasn't a moment that I felt like I was lacking some important information or understanding about the characters. Absolutely do read them if you want to - but don't listen to anyone who tells you that you HAVE to in order to understand Chain of Gold.
The plot is probably the weakest link in this book for me; even though I did enjoy it, I wouldn't say it's the strongest. Honestly, my love for this book predominantly comes from getting to spend time with all these amazing characters rather than reading about what they were actually doing. I felt like this was more of a "set up" book for the rest of the trilogy - even though I didn't care much for the core plot, there were a lot of really intriguing threads placed for the next books in the series to pick up on which I am really looking forward to.
And on a final note (on the romance),