Reviews with content warning for Murder - Chain of Thorns

First things first: I love this world and these characters. Which is why this was still an enjoyable book. And finishing this trilogy and saying goodbye to the longer Infernal Devices story was sad, too. But I had my gripes with it.

I thought the plot was too slow for the first part of the book, whereas in the second part it felt somewhat sloppy.

Christopher and Grace were very sweet and I was rooting for them. In light of that,

Christopher’s death was terribly done. The fact that the description of his death itself was cut could maybe be excused with the need for a shock factor. But then, no funeral scene, not much time spent with Anna & Thomas grieving and especially: no scene or mention of Cecily and Gabriel finding out? It made this feel like a cheap kill mainly done for the unpredictability of diverting from the family tree.

Tatiana’s death and even Belial’s felt very trivial as well.

The stakes were so high, but it didn’t really come across how meaningful this was.

The Paladin plot also felt weak. It didn’t seem like Cordelia was nearly scared enough of Lilith, or maybe it was that Lilith seemed quite bland all things considered?

The connections between books is always a joy. That said, I was a little sad to not see more of the Infernal Devices characters. The Clave drama scenes were fun, partly because they were more about them. (Yes, these books aren’t actually about them. But that makes me sad, okay?) And while the family tree excuse was quite funny, I did ultimately think it was a bit lazy. I don’t really care if stories are spoiled or predictable, as long as they’re good, and like I said, it often felt like she diverted from the tree just for the sake of it, without really pulling it off. It put somewhat of a damper on the Clockwork Princess ending that the family tree was suddenly false.

The love triangle didn’t really get me in the feels. I think in general, there were too many things happening off the page for this book to be as emotional as it could’ve been. There were some nice quotes and bits of wisdom though, especially around the Matthew situation and the value of supportive friends.

I’m also just tired of

sacrifice plots.

They feel so 2014 YA, and not in a good way.

All of this doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the book, but I enjoyed it less than I could’ve.

Content Warnings

corinth113's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Great series overall, after about halfway thru the third book I got a little bored. The epilogue especially felt unnecessarily long but did wrap up everything in a nice little bow. Love these characters and would still recommend this book!

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I wanted to read this book because I absolutely love Cassandra Clare. The Infernal Devices is my favourite series to date, and I loved the Mortal Instruments, it’s one of the series that got me into reading when I found out that Cassandra Clare was writing a trilogy of the series about the children of the Infernal Devices, I was so excited! All of these books in the series didn’t disappoint.

Cordelia Carstairs has lost everything that matters to her. In only a few shorts weeks, she has seen her father murdered, her plans to become parabatai with her best friend, Lucie, destroyed, and her marriage to James Herondale crumble before her eyes. Even worse, she is now bound to an ancient demon, Lilith, stripping her of her power as a Shadowhunter. Cordelia is feeling powerless so she flees to Paris with Matthew Fairchild, James’s parabatai. Cordelia is hoping to forget her sorrows in the city's glittering nightlife. But reality intrudes when shocking news comes from home: Tatiana Blackthorn has escaped from the Citadel, and London is under new threat by the Prince of Hell, Belial. Cordelia returns to a London riven by chaos and dissent. The long-kept secret that Belial is James and Lucie’s grandfather has been revealed by an unexpected enemy and the Herondales find themselves under suspicion of dealings with demons. Belial’s plan is about to crash into the Shadowhunters of London like a deadly wave, one that will separate Cordelia, Lucie, and the Merry Thieves from help of any kind. Left alone in a shadowy London, they must face Belial’s deadly army. If Cordelia and her friends are going to save their city – and their families – they have to muster their courage, swallow their prides, and trust one another again. For if they fail, they will lose everything.

Like with the second book, this book hurt my heart I didn’t like the tension or the love triangles or the secrets within this book. I like when the gang are all together and no one gets hurts, and we don’t lose anyone. Throughout this whole series, I just wanted for all of them to be happy and the fact that CHRISTOPHER – the golden retriever of the group didn’t get to go off and see how his experiments happened, just drove me up the wall and that Matthew ended up alone just broke me slightly. I still love the dynamic of Will and Tessa and the lightwoods. I love seeing the children being EXACTLY like their parents. It made me laugh especially the running joke of Herondales hating the ducks. And that the children disobey their parents, like their parents did.

Cassandra Clare manages to do it Every. Single. Time - you don’t have to read any of the other series to know what’s going on, some immortal characters make an appearance, but you could read this series on its own without having to read The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices or The Eldest Curses. And I don’t know what I'm going to do now.

Content Warnings

the_true_monroe's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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cait's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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ara02's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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frantically's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

After QoAaD (which was admittedly a good ending but also...weird), I was hesitant to start this, seeing as TLH had the potential to become my favourite TSC series — and it is now!

Yes, it's a very long book and the beginning was very long-winded. Especially the whole love triangle thing, imo, we could've done without.

I enjoyed most of the other plot times a lot, though. We have a visit to Edom again (another good place for CC to be weird) but it isn't weird! Yay. There are a lot of redemption arcs, mainly for Grace and Alastair, and all of those were all believable and well done.

There is one character who dies and it was just such a cheap cop out. I truly don't think last books need to have tragic deaths to become tragic, there was already enough tragedy in this book. It felt like a "gotcha!" moment but a really cheap one.

We got some cute moments for the TID generation but through smart plot lines there were good reasons for them to not be available for most of the drama — this was their kids time to save the world (or...just London).

Overall, I'm still really happy with how this story ended and it was a quite satisfying ending to the TID/TLH story 🤍

Also: Shoutout to our ret-con queen Esme Hardcastle, wtf

Content Warnings

emsavors's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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