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A review by kaulhilo
Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare
4.0
ahh, it's been long enough, i'm gonna bring down the rating. in my head. i physically cannot do it, actually, because the absolute and total hold this universe has on me should be studied in a biology lab. i rated chain of gold & chain of iron 5 stars each, when looking back (and probably at the moment i was rating them, too) i knew they were far from books i loved, and told a story i did not like as much as i'd wished i had. chain of thorns, sadly then, is much of the same - except there were 2 years in the making of this, the book borrowed very heavily from the mortal instruments, with a microdose of the dark artifices, (and naturally, the infernal devices) to the point where i don't know where nostalgia and my personal enthusiasm for the other series' ended and the merit of this book itself started.
the plot was considerably well-adjusted for what the precursors had set it out to be - i was expecting more rabid fantasy, illogical sequences, and while there's still a lot of suspending contempt, this book wrapped the plot arc in quite literally the "cleanest" way possible. was this what i wanted out of the series? no. did it live up to exactly a decade of background grail and anticipation? a bigger no. it's a letdown, all things considered, and i don't know if i'm someone who can be objective about it: how much is it my expectations being thwarted, and how much is it the book just being plain bad?
i wasn't a fan of the jamescordeliamatthew love triangle. simply put (and i said this with the last book), i don't understand the need for another love triangle when grace had already been a part of their story. is that not enough? i don't understand what cassie was trying to pull with this, save that she hadn't thought of a plot for matthew aside his alcoholism, and she needed whatever flimsy excuse to keep jamescordelia apart for just that bit longer. which i understand, but god, what happened to good old-fashioned kidnapping? (or something. just saying!)
i do think this trilogy would've benefited from a more distinct, demarcated cast list. 11 main characters is too much for any author to do well, and it comes off as almost ridiculously inadequate in a series as plot-centered as this. a more focused approach on james, cordelia, matthew, lucie, and grace, with the other 6 as supporting characters might have fleshed out the book more, in my opinion. as it is, i felt like we barely touched upon characters i've spent more than 3 years reading about, obsessing over. i wish there had been more about grace, she's easily one of the most interesting characters i've read from cassie; same with matthew, while there was a lot of suffering and customary self-loathing involved, i feel like this series left him almost exactly where we found him, when the original novella started. i would've really liked reading him finding his happy ending too, whatever that may be.
the lore of the family tree, of course, is another ridiculous, messy retcon of a set-up. years of foreshadowing and baiting, and for barely two characters. imagine thinking i'd care. i feel like overall, this novel has left a very nicely built space for yet another novella series; and i wish i could say it's very telling, and annoying, and i hate it! but i don't. if true, i am unbelievably excited, and want it in my life, and cannot wait at all.
now for the good stuff: i adored, ADORED luciejesse here. i started the book a little hesitant about them, i didn't know where they were going, and if the first two books had been worth what this book was going to cement. but, they were written so well, so beautifully, that i fell in love with them from the very first scene. jesse quickly escalated up my list of favorite tsc characters, same with grace and cordelia; while the others affirmed an already adoring affection. i liked how jamescordelia were written together, finally saved from everything else, and while they won't be a couple on top of any list for me, i really see and value what cassie was trying to do with them. if the execution had just been slightly more well-written, i do think they could've easily toppled some of my favorite ships. i loved anna/ari, and thomas/alastair (they were so cute!!) and i'm so very glad to see alastair's character come to a close like this. i adored christopher and grace, even more so, and i wish i'd had more of them before. before. well, ever see something written in just for the useless sake of it. no reason, no point, just sure, whatever. i did love how this novel ended on a happy note though; i know a lot of people were looking forward to "heartbreaking" which is... not something achievable in my opinion, as this book was obviously a second closer to the overarching series. i loved jem's talks with grace, i loved how everything in this book was written with so much care and almost reverence - it's not a lot, but it's more than i'd expect from a young adult novel, but almost every story was touched with so much respect, it took me back to the start of shadowhunter chronicles, and how much this same writing had scoped almost all my teenages, and a very major part of my life. i adored the relevance malcolm fade had in this book, which is something i feel would've worked even better had tlh alternated with tda as intended. there were so many will (and sometimes, even with tessa) parts! i learned he likes ship's biscuits (whatever that is), he snores (no one is perfect), and he has grey hair now!!!! (see when you're perfect?). i loved the minor herongraystairs mentions, and all of them being so much in love with each other after all this time. now i'm thinking about how james and lucie will never know about their younger siblings, kit and mina, and i'm absolutely heartbroken. i really hope twp has tessa telling stories about them!
god, i thought i wouldn't have much to say, but apparently i did. this is probably going to be the last of cassie's full historical novels/trilogies, and i know i should be missing it already, but i just don't. i'm extremely glad it's over, even as i'm slightly sad i won't have to them to look forward to anymore. this story was not written in a way that i could stand behind or vouch for, and nostalgia is doing a lot of the work keeping it running. my real rating would be somewhere near 2.5 stars, but well, for sentimentality's sake. 4 stars.
the plot was considerably well-adjusted for what the precursors had set it out to be - i was expecting more rabid fantasy, illogical sequences, and while there's still a lot of suspending contempt, this book wrapped the plot arc in quite literally the "cleanest" way possible. was this what i wanted out of the series? no. did it live up to exactly a decade of background grail and anticipation? a bigger no. it's a letdown, all things considered, and i don't know if i'm someone who can be objective about it: how much is it my expectations being thwarted, and how much is it the book just being plain bad?
i wasn't a fan of the jamescordeliamatthew love triangle. simply put (and i said this with the last book), i don't understand the need for another love triangle when grace had already been a part of their story. is that not enough? i don't understand what cassie was trying to pull with this, save that she hadn't thought of a plot for matthew aside his alcoholism, and she needed whatever flimsy excuse to keep jamescordelia apart for just that bit longer. which i understand, but god, what happened to good old-fashioned kidnapping? (or something. just saying!)
i do think this trilogy would've benefited from a more distinct, demarcated cast list. 11 main characters is too much for any author to do well, and it comes off as almost ridiculously inadequate in a series as plot-centered as this. a more focused approach on james, cordelia, matthew, lucie, and grace, with the other 6 as supporting characters might have fleshed out the book more, in my opinion. as it is, i felt like we barely touched upon characters i've spent more than 3 years reading about, obsessing over. i wish there had been more about grace, she's easily one of the most interesting characters i've read from cassie; same with matthew, while there was a lot of suffering and customary self-loathing involved, i feel like this series left him almost exactly where we found him, when the original novella started. i would've really liked reading him finding his happy ending too, whatever that may be.
the lore of the family tree, of course, is another ridiculous, messy retcon of a set-up. years of foreshadowing and baiting, and for barely two characters. imagine thinking i'd care. i feel like overall, this novel has left a very nicely built space for yet another novella series; and i wish i could say it's very telling, and annoying, and i hate it! but i don't. if true, i am unbelievably excited, and want it in my life, and cannot wait at all.
now for the good stuff: i adored, ADORED luciejesse here. i started the book a little hesitant about them, i didn't know where they were going, and if the first two books had been worth what this book was going to cement. but, they were written so well, so beautifully, that i fell in love with them from the very first scene. jesse quickly escalated up my list of favorite tsc characters, same with grace and cordelia; while the others affirmed an already adoring affection. i liked how jamescordelia were written together, finally saved from everything else, and while they won't be a couple on top of any list for me, i really see and value what cassie was trying to do with them. if the execution had just been slightly more well-written, i do think they could've easily toppled some of my favorite ships. i loved anna/ari, and thomas/alastair (they were so cute!!) and i'm so very glad to see alastair's character come to a close like this. i adored christopher and grace, even more so, and i wish i'd had more of them before. before. well, ever see something written in just for the useless sake of it. no reason, no point, just sure, whatever. i did love how this novel ended on a happy note though; i know a lot of people were looking forward to "heartbreaking" which is... not something achievable in my opinion, as this book was obviously a second closer to the overarching series. i loved jem's talks with grace, i loved how everything in this book was written with so much care and almost reverence - it's not a lot, but it's more than i'd expect from a young adult novel, but almost every story was touched with so much respect, it took me back to the start of shadowhunter chronicles, and how much this same writing had scoped almost all my teenages, and a very major part of my life. i adored the relevance malcolm fade had in this book, which is something i feel would've worked even better had tlh alternated with tda as intended. there were so many will (and sometimes, even with tessa) parts! i learned he likes ship's biscuits (whatever that is), he snores (no one is perfect), and he has grey hair now!!!! (see when you're perfect?). i loved the minor herongraystairs mentions, and all of them being so much in love with each other after all this time. now i'm thinking about how james and lucie will never know about their younger siblings, kit and mina, and i'm absolutely heartbroken. i really hope twp has tessa telling stories about them!
god, i thought i wouldn't have much to say, but apparently i did. this is probably going to be the last of cassie's full historical novels/trilogies, and i know i should be missing it already, but i just don't. i'm extremely glad it's over, even as i'm slightly sad i won't have to them to look forward to anymore. this story was not written in a way that i could stand behind or vouch for, and nostalgia is doing a lot of the work keeping it running. my real rating would be somewhere near 2.5 stars, but well, for sentimentality's sake. 4 stars.