Review: Chain of Iron

Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

600 pages and a beautiful, beautiful cover? OMGGGGGGGG YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

As is normal when I see something new from Cassandra Clare.

Now, though...here we are at a point where I've completed a full reread of Clare's work to date, topped off with her latest, and here I am wondering...when will we actually get her upcoming trilogy conclusions? We don't have covers, let alone release dates, for The Black Volume of the Dead or Chain of Thorns yet, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Clare - and Wesley Chu too, naturally - made us wait an ungodly long time to finish these stories.

While The Lost Book of the White threw the stakes out of the atmosphere with the name-dropping of whom I suspect will be the final Big Bad of the Shadowhunters franchise, this book was a long, sometimes a little too drawn out (I think Piéra Forde in particular complained that this book had almost nothing happen till the last 15% or so, but don't quote me on that), and emotionally wrecking gap between the drama of Chain of Gold and a promising bloodbath finale in Chain of Thorns. A bloodbath because some of our hearts may still be lacerated by the revelations in that...well, I wouldn't say it was the last fifteen percent. This book was also pretty long in its conclusion, more like the last 18-20 percent or so given that it's about a hundred pages of wall-to-wall twists to both plot and heartstrings.

Yeah...let's just say Cordelia's grown on me way too well, and that I'm way too ridiculously invested in her. Not from the start like I was with Clary or Tessa or Emma, but Cordelia...wow, she's so subtle and complicated, and it really shows in how much Clare's grown in her now 14 years chronicling the world of the Shadowhunters.

My hope is that we at least get Black Volume in early fall if nothing else, because while I hope Clare takes all the time to perfect Chain of Thorns, the more material we have to tide us over in the meantime, from Clare and Chu both, the better...

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