#tessa got the better series but clary is

[nicollekidman]

abby babey your taste!! always knew you were a woman of culture but like. you never stop delivering.... clary defense squad right here! I read the books in my early 20s and I thought they were going to be so blah but I had sooo much fun actually. truly some people just don't get it

i haven't ever reread them tbh but clarissa adele fray fairchild morgenstern is a girlie of all time!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dayque]

Although I love the Shadowhunter characters, I can't forget their social context. I don't expect them to be perfect parents, perfect couples or perfect characters just because I love them, I think they have strengths and weaknesses (like Alec, who learns quickly but has been raised in a colonial world and must learn day by day not to replicate that violence, Julian used to lying rather than trying to dialogue because that was his only solution as a child or Tessa, who escaped from her family because she wanted to avoid the pain of loss).

Idealizing characters in a book series, that is precisely about learning to grow and accepting our past mistakes to learn from them, is forgetting the entire meaning of the books.

I think Robert is the best example of this. When he was young he made a lot of mistakes, he married a woman even though he didn't love her, he was strict with his children and lost their trust, he insulted his best friend for something he couldn't change about himself and it was nothing wrong. But over time he learned, apologized, was a better father, got divorced and reconciled with his emotions for Michael.

Jace probably has to fight not to be a controlling father and Clary has trust issues with her children and friends, Alec doesn't know how to have a non-white family, much less one of Downwolders, and Izzy can't trust her own partner. Emma spent years following a murderer who sat at her table, Julian dangerously borders on sociopathy, Ty LITERALLY got into playing necromancer, and Dru and Helen feel like strangers in their own home.

But they will learn, because that's what shadowhunters is all about.

It's okay not to know everything today.

@cassandrajean draws

[bi-disaster-kit-herondale]

The Mortal Instruments as Speak Now TV pt. 2/2

the original series just hits different, feeling the nostalgia now <3

Sparks Fly: Clary & Jace (i could literally put all the lyrics here)

“the way you move is like a full on rainstorm, and I’m a house of cards. you’re the kind of reckless that should send me running, but I kinda know that I won’t get far.”

Last Kiss: Izzy (& Simon) (I might cry)

“never imagined we’d end like this. your name, forever the name on my lips. so I’ll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep. and I feel you forget me, like I used to feel you breathe.”

Speak Now: Alec (& Magnus) (this one is 100% show malec, but I’ll give it to city of glass malec)

“there’s the silence. there’s my last chance. I stand up with shaky hands, all eyes on me. horrified looks from everyone in the room, but I’m only looking at you.”

Better Than Revenge: Simon (to Clary about Jace in city of bones fr)

“they didn’t teach you that in prep school, so it’s up to me. but no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity. she’s not a saint, and she’s not what you think. she’s an actress, whoa. he was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.”

Castles Crumbling: Jace (city of ashes era)

“smoke billows from my ships in the harbor. people look at me like I’m a monster. now they’re screaming at the palace front gates. used to chant my name, now they’re screaming that they hate me.”

Never Grow Up: Jocelyn & Clary

“oh darling, don’t you ever grow up. don’t you ever grow up, it could stay this simple. won’t let nobody hurt you, won’t let no one break your heart. and even though you want to, please try to never grow up.”

Superman: Simon & Izzy (rip to izzy’s heartbreaker reputation)

“tall, dark and beautiful. he’s complicated, he’s irrational, but i hope someday he’ll take me away. and save the day, yeah. something in his deep, brown eyes has me saying, ‘he’s not all bad like his reputation’.”

Electric Touch: Magnus (& Alec)

“still I know that all it takes is to get it right just one time. just one time. all I know, is this could either break my heart or bring it back to life. got a feeling your electric touch could fill this ghost town up with life. and I want you now, want to need you forever.”

Mean: Clary & Sebastian

“I just wanna feel okay again. I bet you got pushed around, somebody made you cold. but the cycle ends right now, ‘cause you can’t lead me down that road. and you don’t know what you don’t know.”

Foolish One: Lily Chen

“but then the voices say ‘you are not the exception. you will never learn your lesson.’ foolish one, stop checking your mailbox for confessions of love that ain’t never gonna come.”

Timeless: Jace & Clary (feat. Will & Tessa)

“that’s when I came upon a book covered in cobwebs. story of a romance torn apart by fate. hundreds of years ago they fell in love like we did. and I’d die for you in the same way, if I first saw your face in the fifteen hundreds off in a foreign land.”

part one!

[themimsyborogove]

are you still taking prompts/ideas for your little ficlets?? I may or may not have binged all of your shadowhunter fics in under a day, and I may or may not be slightly obsessed with them 💃

if you're willing, do you think you could do one for Ragnor and Jocelyn?? I remember their relationship being briefly mentioned in the books, and then you emphasizing that a bit within your Ragnor-centric series and I'd honestly love to see how you'd write them. Like maybe after he's officially renounced himself as living, Jocelyn comes along and wants to talk and catch up. I could see him being her favourite teacher while she attended the academy, and we already know that Ragnor's fond of her as well. Or maybe the Frays are celebrating Christmas, and she invites Ragnor as well as some other close friend (Magnus, his boys, the main gang, Tessa and Cat, etc).

oooorrr what if While Ragnor teaches at the academy, he notices something off with Jocelyn, and invites her into his office for tea — a nice chat between friends.

There are so many ways this friendship could go — I absolutely know Jocelyn has an unhinged side (her daughter's Clary for crying out loud 😭) and I could see her and Ragnor working together to prank Magnus for some special occasion. (They'd probably be the last 2 people Magnus would expect to get pranked from)

Thank you, I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying them ❤️

Ragnor and Jocelyn is an interesting dynamic I had some headcanons for but never really got a chance to write.

——

“If we want students to graduate prepared to enter the Scholomance, we need to keep the units on the history of High Warlocks and the hierarchy of the Seelie and Unseelie courts,” Ragnor said, shifting through the pile of lesson plans littering Catarina’s desk in her new office at the soon-to-be-opened Shadowhunter Academy.

“Most of them won’t be on track for the Scholomance,” Catarina reminded him. “Most of them will go straight to hitting demons with sharp objects, and won’t need to know more than that High Warlocks exist and that anything involving faerie politics should be handled by calling the Alliance.“

“They could at least be educated while they hit things with swords and seraph blades,” Ragnor grumbled.

“The time those units would take up would be better spent on reinforcing deescalating strategies when talking to Downworlders,” Catarina argued. “The students who care about the deeper politics can research them as part of their Scholomance entry essays.”

A flash of red ponytail outside of the office door caught his attention. “Clarissa, would you care to weigh in on the debate instead of lurking in the hall?”

The woman stepped hesitantly into view, and Ragnor realized he had been mistaken. “Jocelyn, my apologies,” he said. “Your daughter looks very much like you.”

“I’ve just remembered, I have to check the stock of bandages in the infirmary,” Catarina said suddenly, giving Ragnor a sharp look that told him she expected him to apologize for something, he just had no idea what. “You know how baby Shadowhunters are. Can’t be too prepared for increasingly stupid injuries acquired by showing off.”

Ragnor watched her vanish down the hall, baffled.

“Catarina told me you would be coming to help with the Academy curriculum today,” Jocelyn said, still standing awkwardly in the doorway, fidgeting with the fraying hem of her paint-stained sweater like a schoolgirl.

It had been a long time since Jocelyn Fairchild had been his student, but he still recognized the signs that something was weighing on her, though he suspected it wasn’t about homework assignments this time.

“Come and sit,” he said, a sweep of one hand making the scattered lesson plans march to the end of the desk and neatly stack themselves, and a flick of the other wrist causing two cups of tea to materialize.

Jocelyn sank down in the chair that Catarina had vacated. “You look well, Ragnor,” she started.

“You didn’t come for small talk, Jocelyn,” Ragnor said, eyeing her over the rim of his tea cup. “Out with it then.”

Jocelyn held her own cup, turning it around in her hands like she needed the warmth, but she didn’t drink it. “Clary told me that you were alive,” she said finally. “A couple of years ago, after she got back from Shanghai. I know it was supposed to be a secret, but we both blamed ourselves for what we thought happened to you.”

“What?” Ragnor said, thrown even farther off balance. Whatever he had expected her to say, it hadn’t been that.

“Did Valentine really have nothing to do with your deat– disappearance?”

The pieces finally clicked into place. The spell he had made for Jocelyn, and Magnus’s reason for asking for the Book of the White when Ragnor had been in the middle of faking his death. Ragnor had trusted Magnus to handle the matter, and hadn’t thought of it again after the chaos his life had turned into. He had nearly forgotten about it entirely.

“No, nothing,” Ragnor said. “Valentine was a convenient cover for my escape, but I was well away before anyone associated with him turned up on my doorstep. All of my troubles came from elsewhere.”

Some of the tension went out of Jocelyn and she finally took a sip of tea.

“Catarina was the one who took care of me in the hospital, when I was under the spell,” she said after a moment. “She hid it well, but I could tell she was furious about something when she and Magnus woke me up. I thought it was because she blamed me and Clary for leading Valentine to you.”

Ragnor shook his head. “No, I’m sure Magnus told her the truth about what I had done before they reversed the spell on you. She was probably angry with me.”

Angry wasn’t a strong enough word. The first time he had seen Catarina after Magnus had rescued him, she had slapped him and shouted at him before finally throwing her arms around him and telling him she was glad to see him.

“Your spell saved me from torture I can’t even begin to imagine,” Jocelyn said. “It probably saved my life too. It’s a relief to know that it didn’t cost you yours.”

Ragnor had learned an unfortunate amount about being tortured recently, the memories of Shinyun still uncomfortably fresh. He was glad to have helped spare Jocelyn from a having a similar experience.

“Even if it had,” he said, meeting Jocelyn’s green eyes, finally realizing what it was that she needed to hear, “it wouldn’t have been your fault. I would not have blamed you. You made your own mistakes in the past, but you’ve done what you can to make up for those sins. Valentine’s sins rest entirely on Valentine.”

Jocelyn closed her eyes and took a breath. Ragnor suspected she wouldn’t ever stop blaming herself for Valentine entirely, but lightening the burden a little at a time would help. “I’m grateful you gave me that second chance, all those years ago,” she said.

“If we stop giving people chances to change, the world will become a truly bleak place,” Ragnor said with a wry smile. Jocelyn wasn’t the only one in the room living by the grace of being given a second chance. “I owe you an apology as well,” he added. “I’m sorry for the pain my disappearance put you through. I didn’t consider how pinning my fake murder on Valentine would look to you when you woke up.”

Jocelyn smiled at him at last, and he caught a glimpse of the little girl she had been, before Valentine, when Ragnor had still been close to the Fairchild family. “I’m glad you’re back. I know you’ll be at the Scholomance more, but I hope we see you around here too.”

Ragnor flicked his wrist again, refilling both of their tea cups. “I’ll see what I can do.”

[mistwraiths]

2.5 stars

I usually find that Cassandra's second books are usually better at upping the stakes and letting me love the characters more, I do find that they're usually very good. However, this seems to be the exception here because Chain of Iron was far too tedious, repetitive, boring, and way, way too long.

To preface this, I'll admit I didn't particularly like the idea of James and Cordelia being in a relationship in the first place from the first book. Their sole moment both use as when their love started was her reading when she was 12 or 13 to him at 14 when he was sick and she hugged him once when he was disappearing. It's not enough for me and everything beyond that it's just being physically attracted. I don't feel connection or chemistry with them. And then after I got the secondhand embarrassment from Cordelia saving his ass and ruining her reputation, it didn't help. I love arranged marriages and marriages of convenience, I would have ate this up if I rooted for them. But I didn't.

The biggest problem for me with Chain of Iron was that the plot gets put on the back burner for too long to focus on the marriage to James and Cordelia. There are so many pages on pages of their domesticity and games and he/she definitely doesn't love me that do absolutely nothing to move anything forward. There are so many times they get interrupted before saying something important or simply misunderstand something and rub off that it's BEYOND annoying. There's always been a BIG reason the characters of a Shadowhunter book think that they cannot be together. Clary and Jace think they're actually related. Tessa and Will don't want to lose Jem or hurt Jem in any way plus Will had that "demon curse". Emma and Julian literally have the parabatai bond. James might love Grace and she's getting married to someone else just DOESN'T HIT THE SAME? Cordelia could still be honest with her feelings because James would obviously still would have married her because he's honorable and she helped him and he'd do anything for his friends. James doesn't even think about Grace in any point romantically, he just cant take the bracelet off so there's NOTHING stopping him from ever saying anything at all. I just don't see why this was considered a we can't be together reason like the others.

For having Lucie on the book, there's a surprisingly little amount of her in this book. Most of the time she's just thinking about bringing Jesse back and not trying to go TOO far into necromancy. I would have liked to have seen more of her trying to do anything and working with Grace. The whole blackmailing the ghost did was so silly since Lucie can literally COMMAND ghosts. She barely had any hesitations to do it except the one convenient time she did. I do still like her and did enjoy her arc to get Jesse back alive, but I hope she does face consequences because playing with necromancy, even her ghost powers, seems something the Shadowhunters would HATE. I'm also sad that there wasn't much of a friendship between Grace and Lucie, and I wanted them to grow as acquaintances, their partnership, to friends. There is an OVERWHELMING lack of female friendships in this series.

Also, I'm VERY annoyed that we still haven't gotten Lucie or Cordelia as parabatai nor being really any sort of semblance of a good team? At this point, I don't think they should be. All they do is keep secrets and not tell each other and not work with each other at any point. Cordelia acting hurt that Lucie wouldn't tell her someone else's secret was silly when she was keeping far more from Lucie.

In fact, everyone is keeping secrets and information from everybody that it gets a little irritating. Of course, if everyone talks to each other the conflict would likely be over and if the conflict is so easily solved by talking it out I personally don't think it's that strong of a conflict to begin with. Also, there's too many "they will hate me/never forgive me" parts between characters with loving and strong friendships who very much have the brain capacity to know hey this wasn't their fault. I also found some parts where characters say certain things or act a certain way or think something that feels very BIZARRE. For example: why is Anna reluctant to pity Grace when they don't know anything about her?? Why did Cordelia randomly lie to a fairy at the party when she asked a question? Why did James think Cordelia had such a hard childhood because she braced and steeled herself for something when from our knowledge through Cordelia she had a PERFECTLY HAPPY CHILDHOOD??? There's a few other instances too but those are off the top of my head and don't really make sense to me as a reader.

The bracelet STILL being a plot device that we know is causing problems since the first book and is dragged on and on throughout the near entirety of this second book is so infuriating to me. There was no point in dragging it on for so long.

Grace is literally my favorite character in this series and I will defend her with my entire chest. She can do NO WRONG. She's a product of her upbringing, surviving the only way she knows how and understands. Also, her interactions with Christopher were EVERYTHING and I need more of them.

The saving grace of this book was mostly the side characters and their relationships going on. Anna and Ariadne, even though that's a little frustrating when you put together Ariadne is a woman POC in Britain high society, feeling like she doesn't belong in her or their culture, doesn't have blood family or the famous last name to protect her like Anna does, and thought to marry a man because that's what is EXPECTED of her in that time period and many people don't have the courage or can deal money/society/etc with breaking from the status quo, I'm rooting for them. Thomas and Alistair, I love. We're literally given BREADCRUMBS and don't even get me started on Thomas being a whole idiot.

I am generally struggling to find what purpose Matthew served in this book however. We know he knows Cordelia loves James. He has an unrequited love for Cordelia. But otherwise hating Grace and Alistair and himself, and driving Cordelia to a place she could get herself to eventually, there's really nothing he's done. Don't get me wrong, I love him but????? Cordelia and Matthew running to Paris together feels EXTRA and will likely cause more drama. Also again, it does feel weird Will or James wouldn't understand the parabatai bond of needing to work together??

I did like the consequences of Cordelia's fealty popping up. To be honest in my notes I take while reading, I literally wrote is it smart to swear fealty to someone or something you don't really know or acts like they are MORE than a god or something? I did laugh. But I am curious on how Cortana is so freaking powerful of a sword to kill a prince of hell (literally a fallen angel) and also shattered the MORTAL SWORD back in the other books. I do hope we get answers.

Lastly, the whole people being murdered was barely a plot that didn't really come into focus until the back half of the book. Belial is a bit of lame hell of prince and there's entirely too much join me and I'll kill your family talk and other talking then actual action. A Prince of Hell should be TERRIFYING. You're telling me he's just like whatever about Lucie when he could have tried to kill her to force James to accept him. Like he should be DEADLY and he isn't. Also, there's extra drama between him and Lilith. I like the idea of demons, fallen angels, actual angels, and stuff having these ANCIENT long term plans. But it just feels like the execution is poor.

Overall, there are good moments but this book was just entirely too long. I'm interested in seeing the end of this series. I think someone might die in the next book. I think it could be Matthew but watch it be Jesse (cop-out) or someone else like Christopher or Grace. I hope we don't have too much love triangle drama and I hope there are at least some consequences for Lucie.

It just really felt that NOTHING changed or was resolved in any kind of way. Like nothing happened really in this book.

[belle-keys]

Reflections: She got better after Clace concerning tropes

(NB... this is gonna be my last Reflections because I've got uni and shit to take on in September 😗)

Okay, so we know Cassandra Clare uses age-old tropes in her books: enemies-to-lovers, strangers-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, the evil seductress, the fearless warrior, the secret special snowflake, etc. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, becuse it’s sort of impossible to create written media without using any tropes. It’s how you use the tropes that makes written media interesting, and what I’ve noticed is that Cassie has gotten better at using tropes and paragons since TMI in her books by adding little twists and turns to them to avoid them becoming generic.

Starting off with TMI and Clace for example, we see that Clary is the classic “special teen with hidden powers that discovers a new supernatural world”, falling into that category with Bella Swan, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc. Jace is the aloof hottie with a Dark Past, and operates like a modern day Achilles if he made it out of Elysium, lmao. He’s pretty akin to Edward Cullen, Peter Mellarke, Dimitri Belikov, etc. Clace and their character arcs especially in the first TMI trilogy were pretty generic, even at the time they were published. (NB but Jace really is Achilles man like he’s *golden*, has the military-type fighting skills and discipline, powerful daddy issues, best of the Shadowhunters kinda like how Achilles was the best of the Greeks, feared and lauded by everyone, believed he’s destined for tragedy).

But looking at TID, for example, Cassie went with the Love Triangle trope that was especially popular around the time that TID was written, and she was like “oh hell no” and then created the greatest thing in the world known as Herongraystairs *Spongebob rainbow gif*. The late 2000s were kind of a mild time, and the rule of thumb was that the the main girl just had to end up picking one man in the triangle but nawww Cassie decided that Tessa Gray (bless her) would get both of her male counterparts at appropriate times, love them equally AND have it happen without any hostility between them. She completely outdid the Love Triangle trope.

I made a post discussing why Jemma is a great ship and a great spin on the Forbidden Lovers trope already, but I also need to say that Julian is an exceptional character. He, without hesitation, takes on the most traditional of feminine roles in the series yet isn’t feminine at all- he’s a very masculine protagonist. Julian’s more masculine roles (being a leader in a political revolution, being a schemer, being a fighter) are perfectly foiled with the traits which often assigned to female YA protagonists (no sexual experience before Emma, raises his siblings and bakes and shit, isn’t the one who’s snarky and quips or gets violent quickly). In having Julian take on the main parent role in TDA, it allowed Cassie to show a YA male lead who’s secure and doesn’t depend on what others make traditional masculinity out to be in order to dictate his behavior.

Now let’s look at TLH lastly. I’m really partial to this series as you all may know *cough*. The trope here is Secrets and Miscommunication (which I know some of you absolutely hate, but I think some of said miscommunication is actually necessary given the social context of the series but alas, I don’t blame yall for hating TLH because of this at all, lol). See, what works about the whole secrets and miscommunication trope tho is that everyone is not what they seem. Like Matthew’s the Wildean Libertine right, but he’s actually managed to use that branding as a shield from the shame of his guilt (Oscar Wilde’s philosophy laudes beauty and love, yet Matthew himself does not believe himself to be worthy of this coveted love - Matthew’s soul has turned Gothic despite his self-branding as an aesthete). Grace is the Evil Seductress, the Femme Fatale who must be eliminated so the Good Girl can get the guy, but in reality, Grace is inquisitive and inventive and loving when she’s not guarded - the one woman who the world thinks is heartless is actually the one who hurts the most and enjoys hurting the least. Then we have the James who’s the Eligible Bachelor - he’s well read, a leader, good at Shadowhunting, polite, handsome, and desired by the ladies of London. Yet at his core runs Belial’s blood and his inevitable ties to literal Hell. James, who should be the classic charming hero, is running from something very unmistakably rotten within him (even though his heritage is beyond his control). So these societal paragons are all tinged with something unexpected that makes them interesting imo.

So yeah, to conclude: yes, Cassie’s writing uses a lot of generic tropes but I’d argue that her writing has improved to make age-old tropes and epithets interesting and novel as TSC progresses. I think we also could all attribute the creation of the Herondale to Cassie: obnoxiously attractive and poetic young male with a bottomless heart and strong opinions on the proclivities and capabilities of ducks? Yeah, that’s a Herondale.

[thetypedwriter]

Chain of Iron Book Review

Chain of Iron Book Review by Cassandra Clare 

You know, I was actually really irritated when this book came out because once again, the Dark Artifices seems to be shafted for this new series (that nobody asked for) to shine, but fortunately I wasn’t as bothered by it as I predicted I would be. 

In case you are in the small minority of people who haven’t heard of Cassandra Clare and her millions of Shadowhunter books, Chain of Iron is the next nephilim installment in Clare’s never-ending series. 

Chain of Iron is the sequel to Chain of Gold, and the series as a whole is a sequel to the Infernal Devices series, but a prequel to the original Mortal Instruments as well as the Dark Artifices which is the sequel series to the Mortal Instruments. 

I would be surprised if you weren’t baffled right now. 

I’ve said this before for other Shadowhunter installments, but these books are not user friendly for new folk. You genuinely need to have read the other series to get full enjoyment and understanding of these books.

 If you do read them without having read the others, I'm sure it would still be enjoyable to a certain extent, but a large case of ensemble character and relationships will be lost to you and a big portion of these novels are the relationships within them. 

To delve right in, Chain of Iron has our main cast of friendly teenagers nicknamed the Merry Thieves (which I just abhor, sorry, not sorry) return from Chain of Gold after fighting one of the princes of Hell, Belial, and now with Cordelia and James being married as to avoid a scandal of Cordelia’s reputation and James’ criminal record. 

In addition, there is a new serial killer on the loose murdering shadowhunters at dawn and stealing their runes. Most of the book is dealt with trying to catch the culprit, the Consul and Inquisitor along with the whole of adult shadowhunter authority being inconsequential and inept as usual (how these people became parents are beyond me as they never have any sort of clue what their children get up to) along with side plots including raising Jesse Blackthorn from the dead and romance galore in typical Clare fashion that makes you want to rip your hair out because if everyone just communicated and was honest there would be no issues. 

The beginning of the novel is molasses slow.

I’ve come to expect this with Clare’s books. Actually, I think I’ve figured out the formula entirely. Here is is:

Mostly nothing of consequence happens for nearly 400 pages except for character building and small instances of plot 

Intersperse some random demon attacks for flavor 

Everyone is beautiful, everyone is in love, and love is the most groundbreaking, earth shattering thing in existence 

Get into the last 200ish pages and shit hits the fan with action, misunderstandings, and confessions 

Nobody is honest with anybody and lying is commonplace

End the behemoth on a cliffhanger so that the audience is kept in suspenseful anxiety until the next installment 

You can’t see me, but I am bowing right now. 

Genuinely, that is how 90% of Clare’s novels pan out. Obviously, as she has a very successful and long-running book series, the formula works. 

That being said, there are some vices and virtues to it. 

For this book, the beginning was slow. Almost nothing of significance happens for most of it and it's a dredge to get through. 

However, it’s mundane to get through in the same way that reading fanfiction of your favorite characters is mundane. What Clare does for 400 pieces of paper is build up her characters and their relationships. Normally, you would do this interspersed with plot, but not in this case. 

It’s not very conventional, but it kinda works?

I definitely struggled connecting with the characters from this series more than any other of Clare’s novels. The Mortal Instruments, as the original, were beloved if a little cheesy. Then came the Infernal Devices with witty Will, soulful Jem, and intelligent Tessa. Then we got the Dark Artifices, which to me, is still the best as Julian, Emma, Mark, Christina and the others are the most flawed in any of the series and I enjoy that. 

I enjoy that they’re not perfect, I enjoy that they’re devious and conniving. It makes them more interesting and more worthwhile to read about. 

Instead, the main characters in Chain of Iron and the subsequent series are mainly James, Cordelia, Matthew, and sometimes Lucie. I would argue that no one else matters in the book and are just added in for some sugar, spice, and everything nice. 

Some of you might be outraged at this statement. What about Grace? You might say. Or Jesse? Or Thomas, Christopher, Alistair, Ariadne or Anna?

They don’t matter. 

They matter in a very small, plot convenience, fluff ensues kind of way, but not really in any way of substance. Or, at the very least, that’s how I feel. 

Anna is just there to be cool, Thomas is a gay gentle giant with literally no personality, Christopher is so basic and is essentially the Trader Joe’s version of Henry who was better and more interesting as the first, Alistair is a redeemed bully, and Ariadne is an orphan who loves Anna. 

The end. 

Once again, sometimes Clare bites off more than she can chew and I wonder if she just throws these characters in there just because it makes her happy. 

As for our main protagonists, they’re mediocre. Matthew is definitely the most interesting in the bunch and I was jubilant to see him get more screen time this time around. The increasing realization of his alcohol abuse, his feelings for Cordelia, his nonplussed attitude. 

All of it is intriguing. I still don’t like him as much as other protagonists from other installments, but he is by far the winner of this triad. 

James is too perfect, too beautiful, and a worse version of his father. If I wanted more Will I would have turned to fanfiction of the Infernal Devices instead of imagining up his son. The only interesting thing about James is his demon connection which is not even something he does, but rather something that is done to him. 

Cordelia is banal. Once again, she’s too perfect, too brave, and too kind. Literally nothing is wrong with her. She’s level headed, intelligent, forgiving, and fierce. 

Basically, she’s boring to the brim. 

I do think Clare did a better job this time around to include more of Cordelia’s Persian heritage, but it still mainly fell to the backburner of her lackluster and blank personality. In fact, I think James made more of an effort for Persian food and culture than Cordelia did, but I digress. 

Also, a small note, but still with weight, why does Cordelia have eight names??

It bugs the living daylights out of me that in a single sentence she will be called Cordelia, Layla and Daisy. 

Clare. Give the girl one name. My god. 

Actually, as a side note to this side note, Clare is talented at many things, but nicknames are not one of them. EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER IN THIS NOVEL has a nickname and all of them are horrible. I have never in my entire life known a Matthew that has gone by the nickname Math. 

What. In. The. World. 

Anyways, the only other character of note is Lucie. I like and dislike Lucie. Lucie is also boring and her novelist passion is aggravating to me. However, I did like her turn with necromancy and her increasing desperation to save Jesse that drives her to work with Grace and lie to her friends and family was a much-needed note of interest. 

Overall, this book did make me like the characters more than I did in Chain of Gold, but it took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get there, more than what I think should have been afforded. If you need to kill 400 trees in order to make me like your main characters, that’s a problem. 

Whatever the method, I do care about them more than I did previously so I suppose mission accomplished. I do think some of the strongest relationships in the book are the romances, but then also the parabatai bond between Matthew and James. 

Matthew and James have one of the best relationships in the book and I’m equally frustrated and intrigued how things will play out with Matthew now having confessed his feelings for Cordelia. 

I do feel like female parabatai get shafted in a lot of Clare’s novels compared to the boys. The coed pairs often do well like Clary and Simon or Emma and Julian. Otherwise, the boys far outrank the girls in terms of bond and friendship. 

Even in this novel, the “friendship” between Lucie and Cordelia is laughable. They barely talk to each other or spend time together and when they do is shallow.  Whereas Matthew and James seem much more involved in each other’s lives. 

That being said, if you noticed I didn’t speak much of the plot it’s because for me plot comes very much second in a Shadowhudenter novel. It’s there of course, and it’s entertaining, but I do enjoy the characters and their relationships more than anything else which makes Chain of Iron  better than its predecessor but still worse in my view than any other of Clare’s novels. 

Plot just doesn’t compare to the soul crushing love and friendships shown between the pages, for better or for worse. 

Recommendation: The Dark Artifices > Infernal Devices > The Mortal Instruments ...and  The Last Hours fall somewhere after the Mortal Instruments and the trillions of side novels that Clare has co-written with other authors and all seem to be about Magnus Bane.

Score: 7/10 

[sheisbeautyweareworldass]

Overall opinions on the 3 ducks (boring, victorian and incestuous)? 👀

boring duck is just boring, not problematic, so he's the least worst one. i don't even hate james, i just get annoyed by his lack of personality getting that amount of pages in chog while others characters didn't. i know that his dullness is justified because of the gracelet 🙄🙄 but i still found him boring at the moments he was without it, so is it the gracelet, really? and like, i was lowkey annoyed by how many times he moped around because of his powers when they aren't even nice. very dramatic and boring, not my cup of tea 🤷🏽‍♀️ but he and alastair are at first name basis in choi?? so he ain't that bad, i guess.

victorian duck and incestuous duck are a different deal. i'll repeat what i said a few months ago: will and jace are the same person, but will comes off as more tolerable because he has jem as his parabatai.

will called tessa a whore. will publicly humiliated a 12yo girl. will went get high at the same place where his best friend got the drug he needed to survive from. will made a lot of mistakes and i don't like the explanation behind his actions. i would probably remain neutral, or at least quiet, about him, if he weren't so worshipped in this fandom. the amount of will stans that refuse to address that he was a shit person who did shit things is unbearable and they get under my skin. i don't like will, i don't like wessa, i like heronstairs tho - but i think will did some serious mistakes in his relationship with his parabatai that were brushed off by everyone, on canon and on the fandom. but as i said, at the beginning, will comes off as better than jace because of jem, not because of himself 🤷🏽‍♀️

incestuous duck was the one who made me drop off the books - not james, not will. jace's still the reason why i can't and won't reread tmi. for almost the entire series, his only personality trait is being sarcastic (actually he's just rude). his other personality trait is being into incest. i don't remember much else from him and i don't intend to. i still hate the way he acted towards simon throughout the entire series, even when simon had 1) just saved their lives or 2) almost died or 3) both. he felt angry and decided to lash out his anger on a pack of werewolves, deliberately saying a slur just because he felt like it. the scene where he tells clary that he should beat up the boys who wished to do with her what he wishes he was doing is disgusting and cringe. the "but they weren't siblings!" means nothing here, because jace believed they were siblings and still said that. i can tolerate him in tda and tftsa, but that's because he doesn't show up a lot and it's been 6 years since i read tmi, so the exact details of my hatred for him are kinda blurry - i still remember the basics tho 💁🏽‍♀️

[plantdad-dante]

Book #32 - City Of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

(collected thoughts on the sixth and final book in the The Mortal Instruments series, first time read; I... I didn't hate it? what?)

JEM

JEM IS IN THIS BOOK

WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME

And Tessa is in the epilogue, too. Oh, dear. I wasn't prepared for being gut-punched, book. Maybe give me a warning next time.

I could make a joke about how most of my positive feelings for this book come from either the Infernal Devices characters or the new ones, but that wouldn't be entirely fair, so let's put aside the fact that I am suddenly motivated to continue reading this series (and that less than ten pages of Tessa-Jem interaction almost left me bawling my eyes out (I missed them so much, omg)) and back up for a second.

If one ignores the cringe of Clary's horniness in the first hundred pages and Jace's constant speeches that somehow all blurr together to the point where I can't tell you what any of them were about anymore, the two were honestly fine in this book. Clary finally had character of her own again, including outside of her relationship with Jace, and wasn't just a vehicle to show us the villain's horribleness. Jace.... was fine, too? I don't know, I care about him very little at this point, but he got a nice ending and they are both finally doing art again (drawing and piano respectively), so. I like it. It's fine. Not my main focus, but not annoying me, either. So. Good.

Glad this book finally reminded me again why I liked Alec and Magnus, individually and together. I still think the set-up leading to their break-up was poorly executed, but at least now I get what it was supposed to be about. And they behaved like themselves again. Yay. (Also, maybe the Council should learn to listen to their by-far oldest member who probably has a better gauge on long-term consequences than any of them?? Idk, just an idea.)

I finally like Maia. Only took.... what, five books? Also, Bat and Lily seem cool, can I get more of those two? (Someone give me vampire-werewolf friendship dynamics, pleeease)

Isabelle is, in my humble opinion, still an underdeveloped, poorly characterized mess and I missed show!Izzy everytime she appeared. Her relationship with Simon was also mostly annoying to me, maybe partly because I never liked Simon that much, either. Ah, well. At least now with the memory thing he has the chance to be a new, better version of himself. One I don't find boring as hell. Here’s to hoping, I guess. (Maybe he’ll even drag book!Izzy into the light with him)

All in all looking forward to continuing the series, bit by bit... at a snail's pace.... in between dozens of other books...

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Shadowhunters Chronicles Re-Read, The Mortal Instruments-City of Bones

So I have been woefully neglecting The Shadowhunters Chronicles series over the past couple of years. Really since Queen of Air and Darkness released, and I only got about halfway or so through that book, I’d kind of stopped reading the series despite always wanting to pick QoAAD back up again and finish it. But with it being a while, I knew I would need to probably re-read the series to get back into the mood but the trick was also just trying to find time to do it so that kept on deterring me. But I finally cleared enough space on my phone again to at last re-install the Audible app. So I’m going to be listening to the audiobooks for the books in the series I’ve already read, to get me into a proper mood and mindset to catch up on the series. I’m listening to the audio books while I’m at work or when I’m doing house chores so really, I can get through a book in about a couple of days.

But I just finished the first book in the series, City of Bones and I’m so glad that’s over with. To be clear, I’ve never hated this book, it’s not my favorite in the series but it does have its merits, it’s heavy on the world-building, large portions of it is just characters telling stories of the past so that can get a little boring but it’s also a super essential and necessary part of the book so I don’t fault it for being there. But was dreading listening to the audiobook for this one because I have listened to the audio book for this particular book a couple of times in the past. I just don’t really care for the narrator for this book. I have nothing against Mae Whitman as an actress or a voice actress or anything else and this could simply be an issue of what she was directed to do by the directors and producers of this audiobook, but I really do hate the character voices she gives the other characters besides Clary in this book. I think she has a good Clary voice but giving all the shadowhunters these terrible fake-sounding British accents can really take you out of the story. I’m so glad that this is the only audiobook that really does that (at least with the characters that are not expressly from the UK).

But while listening to this audiobook, I don’t know if its because of the distance I’ve had from the series but I don’t know, I found myself just really enjoying this book moreso than I think I ever have before. I can’t really explain it. You would think that with me being older, Clary’s bratty behavior might weigh on my patience a little, but actually it’s the opposite. I’m finding this behavior of hers kind of endearing in a way? Maybe it’s because of the Shadowhunters TV series making show!Clary so damn perfect, thereby making her really insufferable and boring, I’ve grown to appreciate book!Clary that much more. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always appreciated book!Clary, in fact I may be in the minority but as far as the main heroines go, I much prefer Clary over Tessa from The Infernal Devices and Emma from The Dark Artifices. There’s just something that’s raw and real and enjoyable about Clary that you just don’t get with Tessa and Emma (at least in my mind). In the past, I always saw Clary’s brattiness as kind of annoying but she was still a character I could enjoy despite it. She wasn’t my favorite character but I didn’t necessarily mind hanging out in her head within the narrative.

Most of the time, in my re-reads of this book, this book while enjoyable, has always kind of been the book I feel I have to force myself to get through to get to the better stuff. Such as getting to see the other characters more like Isabelle and Alec and Magnus. And even though, like I said, I really enjoyed this book more than I ever have before, anything with Isabelle, Alec, or Magnus, I was woefully wanting more of them. So for me, only because I’ve read these other books and know these characters so well, and I know that Cassandra Clare in later books will learn to write in other characters’ perspectives as she goes on, it just makes it even more apparent that you just feel like you’re missing something when you only get these small moments with the Lightwoods or Magnus or Raphael or Lily. You just want more of them.

Unfortunately, a drawback to re-reading the series is now that as I’m re-reading the books, my mind is starting to remember all the cringy, cheesy, and just plain bad stuff the show adaptation did. I’ve said this time and time again, my problem with the show has never been that it didn’t follow the books, my problem with it always being that it’s just a bad show on its own and I would really prefer not to remember all of its cringy moments but as I’m re-reading these books, scenes from the show and what they did differently just flashes in my head and I really wish it didn’t. I honestly would prefer to not remember the show at all. I gave up 3-in-a-half years of my life sticking with that show hoping it would someday become a legitimate show that I would want to introduce to my friends, but alas, it never became that, and its now just something I wish I could erase from my mind. Maybe in the next 10 or 15 years, they’ll try again with another adaptation that might do better.

But overall, this book definitely got me into the Shadowhunter Chronicle mood, bad accents and bad adaptations or not. So time to move onto the next book, City of Ashes.

[blurrypetals]

Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare - blurrypetals review

originally posted dec. 9, 2018 - ★★★★★

A-T. L-A-S-T.

I am so absolutely overwhelmed by everything that I've experienced in the last few days while listening to this. As Cassandra Clare's longest book to date, a whole dang fuckin' lot happens in this book. To sort my way through this review, the following paragraphs are gonna be chock full of a whole dang fuckin' lot of untagged spoilers, so continue at your own risk. I do think you're doing yourself a huge disservice if you do read this review before you've read the book, though. It's also incredibly likely I'll drop a spoiler or two on every Shadowhunters book so, if you're here and you have not, for some reason, read The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, the other two books in The Dark Artifices trilogy, and all of the short stories in The Bane Chronicles, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, and Ghosts of the Shadow Market, I implore you to amend that, to go and read those fourteen books and this fifteenth book before reading this review, just in case I ruin anything for you by accident. Okay, now that's out of the way, let's talk about sequels and how to finish a grand, epic fantasy story. It was difficult for me to not compare this book to three other books. The first two are, of course, Cassandra Clare's other finales, City of Heavenly Fire and Clockwork Princess. This handily bowls City of Heavenly Fire straight under the table because, even though City of Heavenly Fire is still a 5-star book, it's the weakest of The Mortal Instruments hexalogy and, other than perhaps The Bane Chronicles, it's also maybe the weakest in The Shadowhunter Chronicles in its current entirety. Clockwork Princess, by contrast, however, is, in my opinion, the best of the entire series. As a finale, Queen of Air and Darkness here sits comfortably as the second best Shadowhunters finale yet. So much happens in this book. It's split into three different parts which could have easily been split into three shorter books with near-perfect three act structures in place for each of them, making this book a nine act book with two "false" climaxes that would have made for quite the cliffhangers if they had been split up for any reason. The first act deals with the aftermath of Livia's death and, because it has a lot of rising action, it's actually a little frustrating in some ways, even if it was frustrating in an incredibly enjoyable way. One of my absolute favorite scenes in the whole book is Julian running to Magnus for help in the middle of the night because it so perfectly mirrors the scene in Clockwork Prince when another blue eyed boy named Will Herondale was at the end of his rope, desperate not to love a girl he was cursed not to be with. I loved the contrast between a Herondale's plea for salvation and a Blackthorn's last hope to avoid damnation, separated by a hundred years yet tied by the same plight and the same warlock's magic. Emotionless-Julian was a really compelling read, even if I was almost as angry and frustrated with him and Magnus as Emma was. I loved to hate how cold and calculating he became without his love and compassion around to guide his moral compass. I hated his betrayal of Emma so fucking much it hurt but I've always loved Julian's ruses, schemes, and plans, and his dealings with the Seelie Queen, the Black Volume, and a skilled calligrapher and wizard called OfficeMax. Damn. So fucking good. Also, speaking of Julian's plans and schemes, his war council and Livia's Watch is one of the most satisfying scenes in The Shadowhunter Chronicles as it currently exists; I'm so proud of my son. He is so great. Hot diggity. Speaking of reminders from past stories, we get the entire cast of The Mortal Instruments during a lot of this book. I was really excited anytime we ran into anyone from The Mortal Instruments, especially the part when Julian and Emma ended up being thrown in the same Unseelie prison as Jace and Clary were and that was Jace and Clary's first appearance in the whole novel. It could have easily gotten overwhelming; I was, in fact, rather worried that Jace and Clary would steal the spotlight for a good spell in the final act of the book, but they didn't, since Emma and Julian were, eh...too big to ignore, and the book even ends with the long-awaited Bane-Lightwood wedding of the centuries, but the story proper closes on Julian and Emma on the beach together. Even though The Wicked Powers is still yet to come, this book felt like a huge culmination of all fourteen of the prior books in a huge way. We had Jem and Tessa from The Infernal Devices, we had Jace, Clary, Simon, Isabelle, Alec, and Magnus from The Mortal Instruments, and we had Emma, the Blackthorns, and all their friends and allies from this series and it felt huge. I also felt the weight of what's to come in a super hardcore manner when it came to Kit and Ty, Dru and Jaime, and, of course, Ash. I genuinely feel as though I can't wait any longer to see how Kit and Ty's stories turn out. I'm especially pleased by the fact that Jem and Tessa decided to adopt Kit and that Kit will have the family he's longed for his whole life and, not only will he have two capable people parenting him through the rest of his adolescence, but he'll also have that younger sibling he's been longing for, someone he can teach and take care of in the way he wasn't when he was small. I really hope at least one of the two forthcoming Ghosts of the Shadow Market stories focuses on Kit and his new life and new home with Jem, Tessa, and hopefully their new precious tiny one. Thoughts of the future of The Shadowhunter Chronicles in Drusilla, Kit, Ty, and, specifically, Ash, bring me back around to the second section of the book, which is the most absolutely bananas thing Cassandra Clare has ever written but is also actually incredibly compelling. I fucking loved the alternate universe stuff, everything to do with the exciting return of not-Jace, the introduction of alterna-Livia, other-Cameron, and living-Raphael (especially the part where he begged Emma and Julian to tell Magnus and Alec to rename Rafael; I was in tears laughing about all of that biz), and the temporary absence of emotionless-Julian and how he and Emma ended up healing so much of their relationship there. I also am so totally down with not-Jace being the main villain of The Wicked Powers, or at least a main villain. I am really impressed with Cassie—which, when am I not, honestly?—in the way that second section of the book was written. It felt like a huge love letter to me as a longtime and dedicated fan of The Shadowhunter Chronicles in general because we got to see these, for lack of a better term, a fanfiction AU turned canon that doesn't read like a fanfiction in the least bit because it remains relevant, interesting, tense, and important the whole way through, even though it's literally a gigantic non-sequitur that some could argue is "pointless." I am not one who would argue that, though, because I loved it so damn much. It gave me what is probably my favorite Emma and Julian scene in all of The Dark Artifices, just after they return to the resistance stronghold. You know the scene. Okay, rapid fire because I could honestly go on forever about this book; I pinned 108 different clips throughout this book, which is the most pins or post-its I've ever put in one single book before. I adored the fact that Simon gave Julian his iron Lord Montgomery figurine before he and Emma left Idris. Michael Wayland's ghost showing up for Robert Lightwood's funeral fucked me up in a super hardcore way and the fact that Kit was the only one who could see him or even sense his presence really got to me and I really teared up because Bitter of Tongue from Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy absolutely wrecked me and this poked at that wound. Everything in regards to Mark, Cristina, and Kieran was incredibly sweet, sex positive, loving, trusting, and healthy and I just...gah they are perfect. A most excellent thruple, one for the ages. A great many of my pins have something to do with Kit growing into his inborn Herondale talent of being a master in snark (think candy gram and "Alas, poor Yorick,"). Everyone in the alternate realm being grossed out by endarkened-Emma's and endarkened-Julian's PDA was hilarious. Julian realizing art requires pain and morality about snapped my sad tiny bird heart clean in half. Feline death on a massive scale. Anytime Jace's more playful, youthful side showed because he's a happy boi now was delightful, especially the parts where he wanted to get to hold the mortal sword and when he declared, "We're the bait!" Magnus hallucinating was great, but my favorite hallucination was when he was flirting with a vase like it was Alec and then very seriously offering to buy it from the Institute. I also loved it when Magnus called Clary "biscuit". It made my heart all soft and nostalgic. Julian's smile at Emma when he got his emotions back tot me emotional, dammit! Caterina meeting Kit for the first time made my heart feel like it was too large for my body. Jace using finger guns, because finger guns are always hilarious. Dru realizing she was looking at the face of a parent when she looked at Julian. Kit responding to being called "Herondale," when Magnus said, "Stay away from my children, Herondale." Emma telling Diana that she showed her the kind of woman she wanted to be. Emma's terrible pun about Manuel being tied up. "Ragnor Lives." An old lady accidentally complimenting Julian on being tall. Emma and Julian deciding to go to the other at the exact same time. Alec would look better on the money. Mark trying (and failing) to make balloon animals and accidentally making them all snakes. That's not even a third of them all. Near the beginning of the review, I said I was having a difficult time avoiding comparing this book to three other books, two of which were past Shadowhunters books. The third book, however, is Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas, which is another very long final book in a series, one that somehow managed to get voted as the best YA fantasy of 2018 and, because of that slap in the face, I couldn't help but wonder how this book, technically the fifteenth in a series, managed to feel fresh, new, fun, and lovable from minute one to hour thirty of the audiobook even though this is the fifteenth time I've experienced a book in The Shadowhunter Chronicles for the first time and I've never come close to feeling the same sort of apathy or anger as I do for Sarah J. Maas and Throne of Glass. This is how you end a series. This is how you end one part of your series. This is how it's done. Take notes, everyone else. Get on Cassie's level.

[pietromelim]

Hello there! This is my Tier List of the books in The Shadowhunters Chronicles! I've seen this today and felt like making my own! It is always nice to talk about these books that i love so much!

Let us begin with the "Haven't Read" Tier. Tales From The Shadowhunter Academy is the only book i have not read yet. I probably should read it as soon as i can.

For the "Bad" Tier,there is no book,because i haven't disliked a single book of Cassie.

For the "Average" Tier,we have City of Fallen Angels and City of Ashes,book 4 and 2 in TMI. City of Fallen Angels was weird the first time i read it,i had fun reading it and all,but i honestly felt like the book was way too slow,as if nothing happened in it. City of Ashes was great but i got really sick of reading about Maia's evil brother. I just can't picture something like that,someone having an awful and wicked brother for no apparent reason. The Shadowhunter's Codex also belongs here. It was interesting to read,but it doesn't really add that much.

In the "Okay" Tier we have City of Lost Souls,City of Bones,books 5 and 1 in TMI. We have The Red Scrolls of Magic,book one in TEC,and The Bane Chronicles. I love City of Lost Souls,the whole Jace being connected to Sebastian situation was really nice to read,as well as the adventures of Team Good. I didn't like having all those scenes of Maia and Jordan though. City of Bones was the first book of Cassie that i read and i really enjoy it. My problem with it is actually the behavior of some characters 😂😂 specially Jace and Simon. Jace was way too annoying for me in this book,being snarky and sarcastic,and Simon always wanting to follow Clary and get into trouble with her,i had no patience for them. The Red Scrolls is very good,but it was kind of a bummer to see that Red Scrolls isn't really a powerful magical artifact. I also hate Shinyun Jung. I absolutely adore The Bane Chronicles,except the Peru story and Runaway Queen,they were really boring to read.

For the "Good" Tier we have Lady Midnight and Queen of Air and Darkness,books 1 and 3 from TDA. We have City of Heavenly Fire and City of Glass,books 6 and 3 in TMI. We also have Ghosts of The Shadow Market. LM is absolutely amazing,it is probably one of the best First books i have ever read. I just thought the whole scene when they found out about Malcolm a little hard to understand,it just seems like they put all the pieces together too fast for my taste. Emma and Julian in the beach is definitely my favorite scene! I also love Cristina! And i'm not a fan of Kieran. QoAaD was breath taking! Thule was definitely my favorite part,specially because i could never expect something like that! I seriously read that part in 5 or 6 hours 😂😂 the ending was game changer as well! My only problem with Queen is Annabel,and the fact Cassie turned her into Ash's babysitter,i think her role could have been much better. I love Heavenly Fire,Edom was really interesting to read about,and Sebastian's attacks to the different Institutes. His death scene was kinda sad in my opinion. I also cannot forgive him for killing Raphael. City of Glass was great,i love the ending,the whole scene with Clary,Jace and Valentine. Raziel appearing is my favorite scene,and him "spitting" and killing Valentine 😂😂. GoTSM is probably my favorite short story book,i just love Every Exquisite Thing and Cast Long Shadows! As well as the one with Janus and Ash.

For the "Great" Tier we have Clockwork Princess and Clockwork Prince,books 3 and 2 of TID. We also have Lord of Shadows,book 2 in TDA. Chain of Gold also belongs to this Tier. Clockwork Princess made me cry,and that was the first time something like this ever happened to me. I was really glad to see that there was a happy ending for those characters that i love so much! Tessa is definitely my favorite character,and i really love Herongraystairs,though i shipp Wessa more than Jessa,don't be mad at me please 😂. Clockwork Prince is also outstanding,especially the ending,when Charlotte reveals her pregnancy and Cecily shows up,it was an amazing Cliff Hanger. Lord of Shadows is my favorite from The Dark Artifices,the ending crushed me,it destroyed me completely. Emma and Julian in Cornwall was also incredible to read,it was also very nice to read about Annabel and the Unseelie Court. I have absolutely no words to describe Chain of Gold. I waited years for this book and it was simply perfect. It is thanks to this book that i love The Merry Thieves so much💖💖📖

For the "Excellent" Tier we have Clockwork Angel,my favorite book of all time. I read The Mortal Instruments before reading The Infernal Devices,and i thought no other series of Cassie could ever be better than TMI. That was until i read Clockwork Angel and loved it more than the entire Mortal Instruments 😂😂 It was a unique feeling,the one you feel when you discover a new favorite trilogy!

[rosecoballoway]

So I just reblogged an edit about the parabatai bond between Jace and Alec and between Will and Jem and it gave me an idea.

Like I used to see a lot of people talk about how Will and Jem have a better parabatai bond than Alec and Jace but I don’t think they actually do? Like I think a lot of people just perceive it that way because:

A) They’re different people and different people have different types of relationships with people who are important to them and it doesn’t mean that one set of people have an inferior relationship than the other set of people. Like Jace and Alec are not the same people that Will and Jem are so you can’t say that they love each other less just because they don’t express their love the same way.

B) I think we got a better look at Will and Jem’s parabatai bond because the main character was Tessa who was in love with both of them. They were both equally important to her and the relationship between the three of them was a major point of their series. We didn’t see as much of Jace and Alec’s parabatai bond because the main character was Clary who was only in love with Jace. She wasn’t in love with both of them so the relationship that they had with each other wasn’t a major point of their series.

C) Alec legit thought he was in love with Jace for a while. Being in love with your parabatai and being gay were both very taboo to the shadowhunters and as such it probably affected the way they interacted with each other. It doesn’t mean that they cared about each other less though.

In conclusion: Both parabatai relationships are amazing and neither one of them is superior to the other.

[rosereview]

Chain of Gold Review

Okay so I just finished Cassandra Clare’s newest book, Chain of Gold, the first book in her new series The Last Hours which is set in the Shawdowhunter world and is a sequel to the Infernal Devices series and a prequel to the Mortal Instruments. I have loved Cassandra Clare and the Shadowhunter world since I really got into reading when I was in grade seven. Since then I have read all of Cassandra Clare’s books and every year when one or two new books come out, I run to the bookstore, buy it, and then go back home and read it as soon as possible. I am literally in love with this world and these characters and every time you think it can’t get any better, a new one comes out and it exceeds all expectations. 

In this review I will definitely spoil everything that happens so if you haven’t read the book, I wouldn’t recommend reading this review. This review will be split into different parts where I focus on different aspects of the book starting with my favourite part of any book, the characters. 

Characters

So first I’ll talk about the characters individually and my thoughts on them and we will focus more on their relationships with other characters in another part. 

To start off I want to share my thoughts on the main female character, who is also on the cover, Cordelia Carsairs. At first I wasn’t sure what to think about her because so far in all of the series, the main female character was never my favourite at the start, like Clary, Tessa, and Emma. At first all three of them were a little annoying, but now I love Tessa and Clary. (I’m still trying with Emma.) But each of them I learned to love over multiple books which is where their character really developed. In Chain of Gold, Cordelia started off kind of annoying and dumb, but throughout the book she really develops and grows and learns and now I love her after only the first book in the series! While moving to London she really learns how to behave in society while also saying true to herself which is very admirable. She such a strong girl and person and when she finally gets friends she is less dumb to the world around her and how life works. I now really care about her happiness especially with a certain someone, which we will get to.

Next I want to talk about James Herondale. Well I went into this knowing I was going to love James, I mean he is a Herondale. And while I do love him, I am also continuously angry with him and the situation he finds himself in. By that I mean with Grace Blackthorn who I despise with a passion, but we’re talking about James right now. I loved James during the middle of the book when he was not under the control of Grace and freely falling for Cordelia while loving his friends fiercely and not really hiding anything from them, like any of his feelings. I was also so proud of him for how he handled all the news about his grandfather, Belial, and how he didn’t give in to all the demon talk and trying to put all the weight on his shoulders to protect everyone he loved by sacrificing himself. I did not and still do not want to see James possessed by a demon or Prince of Hell. Overall I loved James, but not as much as I had originally thought.

And the reason I didn’t love James as much was because I loved one boy a bit more… Matthew Fairchild! Omg I am like Magnus Bane in the way I have a soft spot for broken boys. First Jace Herondale and his daddy issues, then Will Herondale and his inability to let anyone love him, and finally Julian Blackthorn and him having to be a father to his siblings while being hopelessly in love with his parabatai. Matthew fits right up there with the greats! In the short story in the Ghosts From the Shadow Market where you find out what Matthew did that makes him broken, and I did not like him after that, but then I read this book and changed my mind. I really saw how much he changed from being a self entitled Consul’s son, to being a kind and caring and selfless boy that made a big mistake. Now Matthew feels like he has to keep his secret and pain all to himself while taking up drinking to numb himself. It hurts me to watch but it makes me love him so much more. The way he loves James is beautiful while he still knows James has his own faults. Seeing Matthew with Cordelia and how he loves her almost makes me want him to win her heart, but I know James and her are who are meant to be together. I just want Matthew to find happiness and to forgive himself and love himself, and that needs to happen before he finds someone to love and who loves him back. 

Next we have Lucie Herondale who is amazing. She is just the perfect depiction of the annoying younger sister who also just has so much depth and story to her at the same time. I definitely relate to Lucie the most with her loving to write and tell story, while also fully in love with her family and friends and having such a strong relationship with her brother. She doesn’t want to be left out of the fun, but at the same time understands when some of her friends have to go on an adventure without her. All the while she is trying to understand her own gift and to help out people in need, like Jesse Blackthorn. Lucie has her own little secrets and even though she knows it will be against the law, she still wants to help out people who need her, like Jesse and even Grace, who continues to play her brother, but Lucie sees the way she lives and feels bad. That shows great character and kindness. 

Someone that really surprised me in this book, more than Matthew, was his complete opposite, his nemesis, Alastair Carstairs. At first I hated him from what he did to the boys at the Shadowhunter Academy, and that might have been a part of why I wasn’t fond of Cordelia at the beginning. But now you kind of understand why he did the things he did and said and he truly didn’t know the damage he was doing by saying all the stuff he did. During the book we see how much Alastair does to protect his family, especially his sister even when she doesn’t see it fully, and we also see how he is dealing with his own demons like his sexuality and needing to accept himself. I can’t wait to see more of Alastair in the next books.

From Alastair, I would like to touch on Thomas Lightwood who I have to say I love. Honestly I love all of the Merry Thieves and Thomas is no exception. He is definitely the kindest in the group, trying to see the good in everybody which is no easy feat. He is also sort of Christopher’s protector to a point, making sure he doesn’t hurt himself and such, which sometimes puts Thomas in the background. He also has feelings which he doesn’t understand and I can’t wait to explore that more. 

That brings me to Christopher Lightwood, Thomas’s cousin and a mini Henry. I LOVE Christopher! That boi needs protection! He is just so precious and the way he still always tries to protect his friends and his big sister, oh it is just beautiful. Literally he is the most wholesome character and I love him so much. That one scene when someone was saying something bad about Anna and Christopher got so mad and protective. It was the best.

Now I’ll talk about Anna Lightwood. I’ve loved Anna since the first time we saw her in the short stories and my love has just grown. She is such a complex character while still being loved by all, as she should be. She observes her Merry Thieves and knows what’s going on before they even do. She reminds me of Magnus Bane in that way. She also has a history with Ariadne that I can’t wait to see more of how that history comes back to make Anna fully happy again. 

I would also like to touch on Barbara and Eugenia Lightwood. It was honestly the saddest when Barbara died because Thomas doesn’t deserve that, but also Gideon and Sophie. To lose a child is the hardest thing to go through, and after everything that Gideon and Sophie have been through, they don’t deserve that. But besides that, I really liked Barbara in the short time that we knew her. Cassie never really talked about Thomas’s sisters before the books came out so I didn’t think they would really make an appearance, which made me sad because they were Gideon and Sophie’s daughters. But now that Barbara showed that she was actually fairly important for the plot of the book, I’m excited to see more Eugenia in the future. I want to know what happened to her that makes her not accepted in society, which is hinted at during the book saying she was ruined because of stuff to do with a boy. But now I want to know more and see her more. 

Next is Grace Blackthorn who I hate. I hate her and her manipulative ways with James. A small part of me kind of feels bad since she has a terrible adoptive mother and her brother died, but still she is a batch. That’s all I have to say.

Jesse Blackthorn is someone I actually want to see more of and who I’m very intrigued by. He’s very nice and thoughtful despite having a disaster of a mother. I really don’t have much else to say about him besides the fact that I want him to be alive but not if it hurts Lucie or gets her into trouble. I hope Grace does all the dirty work. 

Lastly we have Charles Buford Fairchild… I don’t even know what to say. How did Charlotte and Henry raise such an asshole? They are literally the best and practically raised Will, Jem and Jessamine, how is their first born a dick? Matthew is even an amazing guy who cared about everyone but himself while Charles is the opposite. He cares only for himself! God, and the way he talks about his mother not being a strong Consul and how he took credit for everything that the younger kids did makes me want to barf. He literally doesn’t deserve anything, including a loving family and amazing parents and brother. He makes me mad.

Relationships

Now I want to talk about the relationship between two or more characters in the book.

To start off, all of the sibling relationships are life, excluding Matthew and Charles. Like James and Lucie, Cordelia and Alastair, Anna and Christopher, Thomas and Barbara and Eugenia, even Jesse and Grace. They are all really beautiful and make me happy.

Matthew, James and Cordelia- this little love triangle actually really interests me and I love all the scenes that have all three of them running around and going on adventures. I’m really excited to see more of them in the next books.

Lucie and Cordelia- this friendship is really nice to read about, but I was kind of disappointed not to have more scenes where it’s just the two of them. I feel like there wasn’t a whole lot of time to do that in this book,mbit hopefully in the next one we can see that and their parabatai ceremony. 

Thomas and Christopher- I love that these cousins have such a strong relationship and I really want them to be parabatai. I just think that would make their relationship that much stronger and I want that for them. 

Jesse and Lucie- I really like these two together and I know from the family tree that came with the Clockwork Princess, that they end up together and that is how the Blackthorn line continues, which makes me happy. But there were also some false dates and such on the family tree, like Lucie’s birthdate, so I also don’t know if we can trust the family tree but I do really hope that these two end up together and somehow Jesse is resurrected without it hurting Lucie in any way.

Anna and Ariadne- At first when we met these two in the Ghosts of the Shadow Market short story, I did not like Ariadne. I mean, she broke Anna’s heart and made her think love was only pain and heartbreak so now she only does one night stands, which is kind of sad because she deserves someone special. But then at the end of the book when Ariadne goes up to Anna and says that she will do anything to get her back, I was so excited and happy because even with their history, they are perfect together and are meant to be, so I hope to see more of their relationship blossom in the next book.

Thomas and Alastair- So like I said before when talking about Alastair, I didn’t like him because of the things he said and did when he was at the Shadowhunter Academy, and I was a little bit annoyed that Thomas was the only one being nice to him because he really didn’t deserve it. But then we saw them in Paris and honestly, that made me so happy. I love Alastair now and I think that they both deserve happiness and someone special, and I really hope that is with each other, but if not, then I hope they both find other people to make them happy.

Charlotte and Henry and Matthew- What I really want to see more of in the next book, is Matthew with his parents. We know that Matthew has a strained relationship with them because of what he did in the past, poisoning his mom and killing his unborn sister, all because of what Alastair had said to him at school, but I really hope that they can fix their relationship in the next book. I want to see more Charlotte and Henry caring for their kids like the other parents do, and maybe some more one-on-one with Matthew and Charlotte where they try to see what the problem is and Charlotte trying to help her son. Also I want to see Charlotte give Charles a whooping for being an asshole. 

Plot

Now that we are done with all the characters, I would like to touch on the stuff that actually happened in the story. What I really loved though, about Chain of Gold, was the amount of scenes where it was just character interaction and development because like I said before, I love the characters in a story the most. This is usually what Cassandra Clare does in her books, which makes them longer and bigger, because she focuses on her characters and their journey’s, all the while getting some action in there. That was what we had with this book, a little less action and a little more learning about who these characters are as people and I really enjoyed that. But aside from the characters, the plot was very intriguing in itself. We learn that for these kids’ whole lives, London has been pretty demon-free, which causes everyone to have a false sense of security and none of the Shadowhunters are very experienced in the field. When demons do start to come back, it is a shock to their London community especially when the demons walk in the daylight and are only there to injure Shadowhunters and make them sick. I thought that whole plotline was very interesting, especially since the whole city had to go into quarantine because of this sickness, and that is literally what is happening in the world right now with COVID-19. I laughed out loud when that happened.

I really enjoyed the whole connection to the demon realm and James and his grandfather, because we never touched that in the Infernal Devices series with Tessa, and it's cool to see how it’s only coming out now and how it affects her kids. Even with all that, and the Herondale’s usually need to sacrifice themselves for their loved ones, I love how James didn’t when he was in the demon realm. He had a chance to give himself up to Belial to possess James and save everyone in London, but he didn’t and instead found another way. That was refreshing to see, because I don’t think I could have gone through another book with my boys cursed or possessed. (Literally Jace, Will and Julian.) I mean, James still has some power over him from Grace and that damn bracelet, but at least for the time being James isn't also possessed by his demon grandpa.  Speaking about the bracelet, I really liked how the bracelet wasn’t on for the whole book, so we could see how James usually acted around his friends and family when he wasn’t being controlled by anyone. I was mad when the bracelet went back on, but we can’t get everything we wish for, especially when it’s a Cassandra Clare book. 

I also definitely knew that Tatiana was behind everything, since the beginning and knew that she tied in to everything including Belial and his plans and controlling Grace and everything. She is just the worst and I have always hated her and I will always hate her. She’s like the Zara Dearborn of this series, you just hate her so much and there's no sympathy for anything she does. At least with Jonathon Morgenstern, you felt a little bit bad for him because his father made him the devil he is and he just wants to be loved by someone. And for Axel Mortmain, he just wants to get revenge for his warlock parents who were brutally killed by Shadowhunters, and same with Malcolm Fade who just wants his dear Annabel to be alive with him. Literally you can find the good in antagonists sometimes, which is literally my favourite thing to see in a story, but with Tatiana Blackthorn, she’s a bitch and she should die. 

Lastly I just wanted to say that every scene with all the Merry Thieves was beautiful and I can’t wait for more of them!

Thank you for staying till the end if you made it this far. If not I understand, it’s all kind of jumbled and long, so no hard feelings if you couldn’t read this whole thing. And sorry for everyone who did read this and got lost because all my ideas are just one big mess on the page, but oh well. I write this for me, so who really cares. 

Until next time!

~Rose Reviews

[mrs-fairchild]

Prince of Hell and Herondales

(spoilers for Queen of Air and Darkness)

So, after the end of Queen of Air and Darkness, we have Ash (Sebastian Morgenstern and the Seelie Queen's son), Kit (the first heir and the lost Herondale), the Cohort who locked themselves in Idris and no less than two Jace Herondales. There is a lot to unpack but no doubt one of the biggest questions is: who is going to be the main villain in the series?

So now we have three big contestants: Ash, ThuleJace and the Cohort.

While I do think the Cohort will play a role in TWP, I can’t believe they will be the main villain, because 1) Cassie specifically said it would be the greatest threat they ever faced, and no way the Cohort is more dangerous than Sebastian and the Endarkened. and 2) Because they were already the main antagonists in The Dark Artifices.

So that leaves ThuleJace and Ash. Now, I am truly speculating, but I don’t thing either of them will be the main antagonists for this series and here’s why: I don’t see their motivations being a catalyst for the rise of this big threat. For one thing, the only thing we know for sure ThuleJace wants is Clary, but I doubt Cassie would write a whole book where the main villain wants to be with Clary against her will (again), especially since she will not be a protagonist in TWP. And for another, it’s pretty clear that there is some romance foreshadowed between Ash and Drusilla, and it would not make sense for him to be the main villain in that sense. Also, as powerfull as they are, I don’t think they alone could pose that much of a threat to everyone unless they allied themselves with the Seelie Court and the Cohort but even then, between Kieran and the Unseelie Court, most of the world’s shadowhunters and downworlders plus Jace and Kit, it would be a pretty balanced fight. It would also feel really similar to the end of Queen of Air and Darkness.

So who would be the villain then? Well...

We know why everything went wrong in Thule. Lilith got help from a really powerful demon, and as such she was able to kill Clary and then the whole world went to hell (literally). We also know that the threat in The Wicked Powers is the greatest they ever faced, so who better to be this threat than the guy whose mere help caused the very disturbing Thule scenario?

I also imagine that because TWP is the ultimate fight, and according to Cassie, the last trilogy of the Shadowhunter Chronicles, this villain will be someone that is connected to all the main trilogies in the TSC universe. Now, this is also speculation, but who better, then the demon who is personally connected to the Herondale bloodline? Tessa’s father, whoever he is, is a Prince of Hell. In TDA we assume Tessa was unafected by the blight because of her angelic inheritence, but what if it wasn’t because of that? What if it’s because all that was fueled by her fathers power and she was somehow immune to his magic?

His heritage is clearly a major plot point in The Last Hours, since James inherited demonic powers, and it would tie in well with him having helped Lilith in Thule and granted her so much power. It would clearly have an impact on Tessa and her descendents (aka Jaces + baby Carstairs), and so this particular fight could affect the different Jaces in different ways.

All I know it’s that if there’s a demon that could wreak this much havoc for our characters, that demon is Tessa’s father.

[qween-of-air-and-darkness]

Social media hcs; post quad pre twp

Kit:

Instagram: pictures of Tessa, Jem and baby Carstairs and him with each, pictures of himself doing dumb shit, memes, sad love poems. Dumb captions like "lex malla lex nulla" when hes doing dumb shit, "is it possible to love my mum anymore???" At pics of tessa.

Youtube: a mix of supernatural stuff and funny stuff and stories

My house is haunted???? (Not clickbait) (he gets will to do some dumb stuff)

My baby sister is a genius??? (Not clickbait)

My mum being amazing for four minutes straight (not clickbait)

Violin covers by Jem (my dad is so talented!!!)

Baby Carstairs and I try to bake cookies+Jem and Tessa's reactions

Q&A with baby carstairs

I fuck up dinner and get banned from the kitchen

I get caught breaking into my own house (video cred to: (his friend))

My baby sister is haunted??? (Not clickbait)

I confessed my love to a guy then moved countries when he didnt respond: my most embarrasing story

Q&A with Tessa

I think my dad was a witch: storytime (not clickbait)

Baby carstairs being adorable for three minutes straight

My friend (dru), her brother (ty) and I tricked a guy into letting us into his nightclub (the shadowmarket) :storytime

Q&A with Jem

Jem and I try to start a band (its just him hitting pots together while jem looks exasperated holding his violin and cutting in with "orchestra" everytime kit says band)

I prove ghosts are real

How i got my tattoos: storytime

Yes my crush gave me my first tattoo: i respond to your indignant comments

Is my mum immortal? (Not clickbait)

Jem has youtube but he doesnt post anything bc Kit posts stuff for him but hes still rly famous somehow. He mostly just watches violin covers and cute animal videos and he leaves the most adorable comments.

Tessa:

Instagram: she doesnt post anything but she created it so Kit would have more followers back when his acc was new and bc she thought his posts were hilarious and wanted to keep an eye on him. She also follows other shadowhunters to make sure theyre not posting anything that will expose them.

Youtube: she doesnt have her own but she lets Kit video her twlling stories ect for his and shes really famous

Emma:

Instagram: she posts lots of pictures of julian and of them on their year abroad, lots of cristina and lots of the blackthorn kids, pics of her and clary and her with clace and videos of her doing dumb stuff on their travel year, a few pics of/with clace babies and carstairs babies

Julian:

Instagram: his entire instagram is just pictures of Emma and pics of the blackthorn kids. Its rly aesthetic. They have lost of followers who all think theyre "couple goals"

Dru:

Instagram: dark/horror aesthetic. Shes tagged in lots of pics but hardly posts any of uer own. The occasional pic of one of her sibs if its in dark lighting/filter and fits her aesthetic

Youtube: mostly her reviews of horror movies

My reaction to watching the original It vs the old It

My reviews for The shining

Why horror movies are better than horror tv series

My brothers reaction to watching the conjuring

My reviews for the conjuring

Emma and Julian watch the silence of the lambs with me (julian is a chicken)

I am forced to watch the grinch with my little brother and i hate how relatable it is

My review of Paranormal activity

Emma made me watch the new scream and it wasnt that bad???

Why I hated the exorcist

Jules and Emma being couple goals: a compilation

All my siblings are wusses except for emma???

Aline and Emma are badasses

I watch halloween on halloween

My family watches beetle juice

Why the Adams family is the best movie ever made

Aline:

Instagram: literally just Helen

Cristina:

Instagram: aeathetic af. Roses+pics of her. Pics of mark and ones of kieran. Them together. Them in couples.

No social media: Diego, Helen, Mark, Kieran, Ty, Tavvy