Chain of Thorns (The Last Hours #3) by Cassandra Clare

Cordelia Carstairs has lost everything that matters to her. In only a few short weeks, she has seen her father murdered, her plans to become a 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. After fleeing to Paris with Matthew Fairchild, Cordelia hopes to forget her sorrows in the city’s glittering nightlife. But reality intrudes when shocking news comes form home: Tatiana Blackthorn has escaped the Adamant 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. Cordelia longs to protect James but is torn between a love for James she has long believed hopeless, and the possibility of a new life with Matthew. Nor can her friends help - ripped apart by their own secrets, they seem destined to face what is coming alone.

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The conclusion to The Last Hours trilogy and the cause of all of my current stress and heartache. I waited very impatiently for this to come out and, like every Cassandra Clare finale, I wasn’t disappointed. I did, however, feel much more “sickening” heartache throughout the first half of this one than I did in any of her other books so if you’re not great with the teen angst, this might not be for you. I will forever love the way Cassandra Clare builds character arcs. I get so attached so quickly and no matter what happens in the plot, I am completely invested in the characters. This, in my opinion, is the most important part of getting readers to like and be invested in a story. The plot of this was intricate and it not only perfectly tied together all of the threads from the previous books, but also weaved in plots and characters from prequel and sequel series in this same world. I especially think it ties into The Dark Artifices quite nicely. My only complain in this book is that Clare went a little to hard on the miscommunication trope this time around. I hate this trope but I usually just deal with it in these books because they’re handled pretty delicately but in this one, it got to ridiculous levels of miscommunication for a group of such supposedly “tightly” bound friendships. I rated this 4 stars because of that, otherwise it would have been an even 5 star read.

We start of the book with all these broken threads as, in the previous book, not one single character ended on a happy note. Now they’re scattered to the wind and miserable. The stress has set in early on this one. I do like how quickly it all came together, however, as our group was back solving problems together within the first 10 chapters of the book (I hate books that drag separations on for too long). This book had small climaxes scattered throughout on the buildup to the finale that it kept me hooked and it was hard to put down. On top of that, with so many characters in the ensemble that we already love, having alternate POVs made for quick chapters with lots of mystery and suspense threaded throughout. I both love and hate when we get small glimpses into drama and then immediately switch to a new POV where we again get a small glimpse into the drama. It makes it hard to pick a point where you have to stop and go to bed.

One thing Clare is able to do extremely well, and which sells me on every single one of her books, is the character development. She has a way of bringing these flawed and damaged characters to life in such a vibrant way that we can’t help but absolutely love them. They drive the story no matter how intricate the plot and that’s what I love about this book as well. However, in comparison to some of her other series, I do think something fell short. Our main character, Cordelia, was the only character who’s development seemed very rushed. For most of the book she’s stagnant and then her growth happens much later than hoped and because of that, it felt unrealistic. Some other characters, however, characters that I did not like going into this book, had great character arcs (whether good or bad, they were brilliant). I also love that the more we get into the shadowhunter world, the more diverse the characters become. Half the cast of main characters were queer, 3 were biracial, and there was a good mix of gender as well. I feel like this book did the best in representing a much wider range of character and went to great lengths to make their stories the most interesting and loveable. I will say, however, that there was a bit of a plothole in the fact that there could be so many gay Lightwood’s DURING Magnus’ time with the London Enclave without him EVER sharing that information with Alec to make him feel less alone is ridiculous. Everything else, however, was great!

Another thing I think this author does extremely well is express how important different types of relationships are. In a lot of teen fantasy novels, the romantic relationships are always put first, above all else but in the shadowhunter universe, friendships and familial relationships are equally as important as the romantic relationships. I loved how this book showed that in so many different ways. Not only between former enemies who become friends, but even in old friendships that have gone through obstacles. That platonic connection is portrayed as extremely important to each characters personal growth.

My biggest pet peeve in this was the miscommunication. As is built up in the last book, there is a love triangle in this one. A trope that I hate above all others, with miscommunication coming in a close second. I can usually deal with it as the triangles/miscommunications are “fake” in her other books but in this one, I had real fears about what this plot direction was leading to and it made me sick to my stomach as it made the three characters involved act EXTREMELY out of character from what we know about them in the previous two books. I think at this point, after 4 series featuring this trope, it’s time for Clare to drop it and find a new trope to fall in love with. This was my only and biggest ick out of this book but it managed to be a big enough issue for me that it knocked off an entire star.

Overall, a fantastic read and great for any shadowhunter lover. Great plot, great characters, unnecessary angst tropes, it has everything in it. I think it was a lovely conclusion to this series and to the “prequel” family and it set up the future series’ (TMI & TDA) very well if you’re a chronological reader. 4 stars for this one!