Last year, I found myself in some kind of Shadowhunters slump. I’ve read both Queen of Air and Darkness and Chain of Gold and struggled with both of them. They ended up with a 3-star rating, whilst other books in this universe got 4 or 5 stars. This made me somewhat hesitant to continue reading in within this world Cassandra Clare created. I didn’t dare picking up Chain of Iron for a long time. It took me nearly a year before I felt the urge to do so eventually and I have no regrets. This is a book within the Shadowhunter universe like I used to enjoy.

About the book

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• Title: Chain of Iron
• Author: Cassandra Clare
• Series: The Last Hours #2
• Publication date: March 2, 2021
• Publisher: Walker Books
• ISBN: 9781406358100
• Number of pages: 591
• Genre: Young adult, Fantasy

The Shadowhunters must catch a killer in Edwardian London in this dangerous and romantic sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling novel Chain of Gold, from New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Cassandra Clare. Chain of Iron is a Shadowhunters novel.

Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She’s engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has loved since childhood. She has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie Herondale and James’s charming companions, the Merry Thieves. She is about to be reunited with her beloved father. And she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero’s blade.

But the truth is far grimmer. James and Cordelia’s marriage is a lie, arranged to save Cordelia’s reputation. James is in love with the mysterious Grace Blackthorn whose brother, Jesse, died years ago in a terrible accident. Cortana burns Cordelia’s hand when she touches it, while her father has grown bitter and angry. And a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters of London, killing under cover of darkness, then vanishing without a trace.

Together with the Merry Thieves, Cordelia, James, and Lucie must follow the trail of the knife-wielding killer through the city’s most dangerous streets. All the while, each is keeping a shocking secret: Lucie, that she plans to raise Jesse from the dead; Cordelia, that she has sworn a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power; and James, that he is being drawn further each night into the dark web of his grandfather, the arch-demon Belial. And that he himself may be the killer they seek.

My review

Before picking up this book, I still was quite hesitant. It is a huge one and I felt myself getting into a reading slump when reading Chain of Gold. In fact, it took me about a month to finish it and that’s very long when looking into my reading habits. i was afraid that the same would happen with Chain of Iron and that I was facing a Shadowhunters bore-out – which is not that impossible knowing the amount of books in this universe. When I actually started reading, I really felt like this reading experience was going to be the same, but this book picks up eventually. I managed to finish it way sooner than a month.

When looking into the characters, they have grown since the events of Chain of Gold. Some lost loved ones, some found new love. Others have to face their troubles and fears, and others do dangerous things. It all leads to character development to a certain extend, each in their own way. Some characters turn out to be more dislikeable than i already thought and others we get to know better because of revelations in this book. However, all characters in this book are supportive of eachother and they help one another out even if they made a stupid decision.

The writing is not perfect, but that doesn’t really matter in this case. Clare has a way of sucking you in from start to finish, although I have to admit that it took me a little while this time. All books in this world are told through multiple points of view and in my opinion this still works well. Many characters are in diffferent places, have different thoughts and feelings about certain events. By telling their story from multiple points of view, we get the full picture. Furthermore, there are many smaller storylines woven into the main storyline, but they all come together in the end. This also provides a glimpse of several familiar characters which is great to see as well.

Why did it took me a while to get into the book then? Well, that has everything to do with the first part of the story. It takes a good 25 to 30% for it to pick up. the first part follows up on some of the revelations and events from Chain of Gold and act up on these. After a certain event is done however, the murders occur and a murderer has to be caught. Other secrets still linger and all of these events make the plot interesting, exciting and intriguing. I never expected to want to know how things develop and characters evolve and I definitely never expected myself to care about the final few chapters and the cliffhanger that marks the end of this book.

As you can see, I’m glad I picked up Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare, allbeit a little hesitantly because of my reading experience with Chain of Gold still fresh in mind. However, I found this book more intriguing as the plot is more action-packed. The first part felt a little dragging to me though. Furthermore, the characters have grown up and we get to know them better. The secrets and revelations in this book, combined with the major cliffhanger at the end, makes me curious for Chain of Thorns. I’m still in doubt whether to pick it up soon or if I should wait a while to avoid the feeling of hitting a slump.