Date of Completion: 29/04/2021
‘Chain of Iron‘ was one of my most anticipated books of 2021. Before reading it, I had absolutely no doubt that this book would be anything less than spectacular. Not once did it cross my mind that I may end up bored or disinterested given how much I loved the first book of this series. My only concern was whether I would be able to tolerate the emotional anguish I knew Cassandra Clare would dole out.
Betrayal and pain are facts of life
It initially seemed like this book would live up to my considerably high expectations. The stunning cover had me captivated, and I could not get enough of it. Then, the prologue arrested my attention with its vivid descriptions and promise of impending chaos.
However, shortly after the prologue disappointment began to set in as the first third of this book was rather uneventful. There is the standard introduction to the Shadowhunter world and characters, but this is not subtly merged into the story. Instead, we are given chunks of information which make for a slow, tedious start.
Besides this, I quickly became frustrated with at least half of the characters – Matthew, James, Grace, Alastair and, above all, Cordelia. You see, Cordelia was my favourite character from the preceding book where she is presented as fierce and strong. Yet, in this book, her character settles for pretence and misery in the name of love. This frustrated me to no end and turned Cordelia into a character with no self-respect in my eyes.
Contrary to what your beloved poets say, unrequested love doesn’t last forever. And being treated badly by someone doesn’t make you love them more.
My frustration with Cordelia and the other characters only increased throughout this book. Not only were they all keeping secrets from each other, but these secrets drove them to make reckless choices. The ensuring miscommunications and anguish simply became tedious rather than entertaining. I certainly missed the continuous banter and candour of the previous book.
One thing I did about this book is that it includes more scenes with Anna who had been another favourite of mine from the previous book. Unfortunately, her character is not given much of an arc or depth; she is simply present more often in the book. There is also a lot more about Grace’s character in this book. However, while I felt some sympathy for her, it is clear that she is not a victim as she is driven by personal reasons.
Characters aside, perhaps I would have enjoyed this book more if the storyline had been much stronger and compelling. Sadly, this is not the case as the plot drags thinner than a crepe! The storyline is also packed full of predictable and clique events. Even so, I kept reading all the way to the very end as I could not put out my hope that things would pick up and finally satisfy my expectations.
So, if this book was so bad why give it 2 stars instead of 1 or less?
Well, in the final chapters Cassandra Clare creates numerous loose ends which I’m curious to see tied up. Pretty much all the main characters are facing some type of predicament and this has me intrigued enough to pick up the next book in this series.
Our lives rarely turn out the way we expect them to
In short, ‘Chain of Iron‘ went from one of my most anticipated books of the year to one of the most boring books I’ve read this year – a considerable feat! While I certainly won’t be rushing to get the next book, I am still fairly interested in how loose ends from this book will be resolved.
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