Chain of Iron

Chain of Iron. For those of you who have been following me for roughly the last year, you’re likely familiar with my feelings on Chain of Gold – and how badly I have been resisting a reread until closer to the Chain of Iron release date, because my TBR list is much too long for two rereads between my first read of Chain of Gold and my reading of Chain of Iron. For those of you who haven’t, it’s been [shocking, in my opinion] how frequently I’ve wanted to pick up Chain of Gold again, and have been forced to talk myself out of it. I’ve loved the Shadowhunters world for a long time – I was reading the original series, The Mortal Instruments, as it was released, and it was actually the series that had begun my old rule of only reading completed series. The wait for City of Heavenly Fire was particularly brutal, and I decided I didn’t want to deal with that again.

Yet, here we are. [I’m looking at you, Mister Kristoff.]

My reread of Chain of Gold didn’t go as expected, unfortunately, but it did, finally, happen. Because of how it went down, I likely won’t be doing a “reread review” of it, but I may do one for both Chain of Gold and Chain of Iron once Chain of Thorns comes out. [Yes, you read correctly – the last book’s title is already announced, and has been for a bit. The planning that seems to go into Cassandra Clare’s books is awe-inspiring, I think. Also, if you have an opinion either way – I’m doing a poll in my bookstagram stories, so head over there to cast your vote on whether you want reread reviews, or just a review of Chain of Iron!]

Before continuing on, I feel I should mention that I went into Chain of Iron completely blind. All I knew was that it continued the story that began in Chain of Gold, and, honestly, that’s all I needed to know. I didn’t know what was going to happen, what the characters I loved so much in Chain of Gold were in for, what they would face. While getting into my non-spoiler-y thoughts, though, I’ve gone back to Goodreads for a guideline on what is considered “common knowledge” and will use that to help me determine where to “draw” the spoiler line.

This book honestly left me considering adding a “my personal opinion” section, similar to my “my recommendation” section, as I consider them to be a little different. I’ll dive into that in a moment, but I will say this as my vague impression now – while I do normally suffer from insomnia occasionally, the thought of finishing this book was what pushed me to decide to abandon trying to sleep and instead finish the book. I was less than 100 pages from finishing, and decided to just do it. I know I’ll pay for it later, but I’m not sorry I did it, to be honest. While the beginning of the book decidedly felt slow and didn’t hook me, I was definitely invested and hooked after Part One ended. For now, I’ll leave it at that – after all, that’s what the area after my spoiler warning is for, isn’t it? Onto my recommendation!

Recommendation: To get the obvious out of the way – if you enjoyed Chain of Gold, you’ll likely enjoy Chain of Iron. While, as I mentioned, the beginning is slow and it takes over half the book to “pick up”, it’s worth it. You learn so much more about everyone, you get to see more of their stories continue to unfurl, and, once it grips you, you’ll likely not want to put it down.

So, what’s the difference between that and “my personal opinion”? Well, it really boils down to this: once it picked up, I didn’t want to do anything else; while I don’t think the characters themselves were lacking, the lack of “pick up” in part one led to it taking me longer than Chain of Gold did to finish; and I have a particular attachment to Cordelia, which I’ll get into why that plays quite that big of a role in Chain of Iron after the spoiler line. [If you’re dying to know but don’t want spoilers, feel free to come back once you’ve read to find out!] All that, and I had to legitimately struggle not to just flip to the end [or flip ahead, just a bit] to find out how certain things ended up before the inevitable cliffhanger. [I don’t know that I’ve ever felt the desire to flip ahead this badly before – I’m rarely even tempted to begin with! I’m not that sort of reader. Seriously, ever.] When I reached the last 50 pages, I realized this book was certainly heading for the type of cliffhanger that would leave me dying for Chain of Thorns, unlike a lot of middle-series books have for me lately.

I wasn’t wrong. [A bittersweet thing, really.]

To begin my non-spoiler-y thoughts that don’t go beyond what Goodreads lists as the book’s summary, Cordelia, as always, is my favorite part of the book. While I was expecting this book to be heavily focused on Lucie, it wasn’t. [While I do think it involved more Lucie content and POV than Chain of Gold, I haven’t actually done an in-depth comparison, so that may just be how I was left to feel in the end. I’d also like to add that, as much as Cordelia is, in fact, my favorite, I was perfectly fine with the idea that Chain of Iron focused more on Lucie, mainly because her power was so intriguing!] In my opinion, Cordelia’s struggles and development had me hooked the most, though all of it was rather riveting [after Part One]. Cordelia struggling to wield Cortana was not an issue I thought she would end up having, but it makes sense, since struggling to wield Cortana would be something that would wound Cordelia deeply and cause a lot of internal turmoil. That, coupled with her struggles with her father, leads to Cordelia dealing with a lot of stuff to work through when you add to it that she’s married to the boy she’s in love with – who, to her, seems wholly in love with Grace.

Just like in Chain of Gold, James’s struggles are equally as important, but didn’t grip me quite as much – with the exception, of course, of his struggles with his feelings for Cordelia – and, of course, by extension, Grace. And, just like in Chain of Gold, it’s not because his struggles are lesser, in any way from execution to content, just that, with her being my favorite, I’m more inclined to her storyline. That said, I do think the twists and events of James’s storyline was enjoyable!

Lucie. She undergoes so much in this book! Her and Cordelia seem to have the biggest changes in this book, and I was so here for it! While Lucie does go through a lot, and it’s not all good, I really love her development thus far, and I’m excited to see what Chain of Thorns will bring to complete her story and where it will leave everyone from the conclusion of Chain of Iron, to the conclusion of The Last Hours. I can’t wait to see where the conclusion of Lucie’s – and Jesse’s – stories will take them!

The writing overall isn’t crazy amazing, and I’m not sure I can give this book a star rating. I’m working on it, but maybe a 4.5/5? The star system frustrates me a little. There’s so much that goes into the quality of the book – I’m not sure a 5-point [or even a 10-point] scale does it justice. But that’s the closest I can get, at the moment.

**SPOILERS BELOW! IF YOU WANT TO READ CHAIN OF IRON UNSPOILED, STOP NOW! I DON’T HOLD BACK BECAUSE THE ENDING OF THIS BOOK WAS JUST . . . WOW! I CAN’T WAIT FOR CHAIN OF THORNS!**

CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT HOW EASY IT WOULD BE TO SOLVE THIS IF CORDELIA HAD JUST STOPPED TO TALK TO JAMES? I get that’s a big complaint with YA novels, but it bares remembering that YA books are usually designed to teach some sort of lesson [actually, all books typically do, YA or not], and the biggest lesson most YAs need to learn is the importance of communication. I won’t rant about this for long, but it always drives me crazy when most people’s #1 complaint with YA book is the lack of communication between the characters and how many headaches and problems could have been solved if they, “had just talked to each other”. But they forget – that’s usually the point.

The difference between well done and poorly done “had they just talked to each other” is usually how invested you are in it and how much you care. I care very much about Cordelia’s and James’s relationship [if you guys didn’t already know, I’m 100% a Cordelia and James shipper], and, while I hope Matthew finds his happiness, I don’t want it to be with Cordelia. With Matthew having short-lived romantic “fancies”, I’m hoping that’s what Cordelia ends up being for him. Not that I think Cordelia is only worth that, but more because I think Matthew’s match isn’t Cordelia. James and Cordelia work together in the same way that best friends tend to make the best romantic couples, if the attraction is there.

And, boy, is the attraction definitely there.

I don’t know, I just love James’s and Cordelia’s chemistry, their dynamic.

I’ll move on. Lucie. This poor girl. I’ve also been 100% shipping Lucie and Jesse, so oh my goodness, that ending! She did it! But what did it cost her? Maybe she’s lost the ability to command the dead? Maybe she’s sacrificed that power, or maybe that part of her? Could the price of that act somehow be the removal of her demon blood from her system somehow? I can’t wait to find out!

I will admit, though, that Belial feels a bit worn-out and overused in terms of villains. Convinced he’s the smartest man in the room, that his plans are impossible to beat, unbelievably conceited, etc. – that said, I guess that’s possibly in the same vein as the communication bit. And I would agree, except I think maybe Belial isn’t as well done as the communication issues between James and Cordelia. As annoying as their communication issues are, it’s all plausible. It isn’t tired and overused, at least from my reading history, but Belial feels a little that way. Not unbearably, but I think that’s the biggest flaw in James’s storyline.

Also, I just want to take a second to gush about these characters. They aren’t perfect, they could definitely be better, but I love them, regardless. I already want to reread the currently published books of The Last Hours, but that would be a torture I don’t need to sign myself back up for. At least, not just yet, eh? Let’s wait until I have the final, concluding book in my hands before subjecting myself to that!

My next read is still undetermined, but I’m trying to work on some previous book reviews that I had started and not finished, so you might see one of those before one for my next read! As always, stay safe, read on, and be kind to one another!