Chain of Thorns

Cassandra Clare

2022 • 30 pages

Ratings45

Average rating3.9

Love, duty and danger collide in Edwardian London, as the Shadowhunters face the greatest threat they’ve ever known in the thrilling conclusion to the Last Hours trilogy.

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 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 from 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.

For time is short, and Belial’s plan is about to crash into the Shadowhunters of London like a deadly wave, one that will separate Cordelia, Lucie, and the Merry Thieves from help of any kind. Left alone in a shadowy London, they must face Belial’s deadly army. If Cordelia and her friends are going to save their city—and their families—they will have to muster their courage, swallow their pride, and trust one another again. For if they fail, they may lose everything—even their souls.

Genres

Mood

tense

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Series

Featured Series

3 primary books

#3 in The Last Hours

The Last Hours is a 3-book series with 3 released primary works first released in 2019 with contributions by Cassandra Clare.

Featured Series

19 primary books24 released books

#21 in The Shadowhunter Chronicles

The Shadowhunter Chronicles is a 24-book series with 23 released primary works first released in 1999 with contributions by Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, and Sarah Rees Brennan. 2 books are still to be released. The next book is scheduled for release on 2026-01-01.

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#12.5

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Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Alona

I have a mixed feelings about this one. I guess, that I just feel a bit tired of this series. Well, the last book was especially long. I felt as if I was done with this characters in the middle of the story, but they still had so many things to do and I was not just here for that.

Overall there was so much drama in the series, but very little of it felt like it had real impact. All characters wished to be good characters so strongly, so any conflict just felt flat. Especially, I couldn't understand the need for secrets in the friend group. In regards to that, it was not so believable to me, that the adults, that were in the heart of things in the Infernal Devices would just stand by when all of this was going on.

Another thing that was quite weird is some of the attitude to certain things. In the Mortal Instruments some characters were gay and it was such a big no-no with shadowhunters. But here we are in last hours, just one hundred years prior and we have 5 openly gay characters and almost everyone is super okay with that. This feels like a general plothole for the timeline.

I've seen couple of reviews with disagreement about certain character death and I agree. That character was done dirty. Their death was just skipped over for the plot and it really felt like nobody cared so why should I?

Now I see, that I mostly concentrated in the negative things. It wasn't all that bad, and there were some really nice moments. I have no regrets reading this series.

March 2, 2023

Madeline

Devoured the first 300-ish pages, and then it all started to go downhill as I got bored. I didn't want to pick it back up. It was a struggle to finish the last 100 pages. This book didn't need to be so long, and it all felt very underwhelming.

James and Cordelia never appealed to me and I wish there was more Lucie. I loved Lucie and Jesse's relationship way more than the main.

All in all: first two books in the trilogy were better than this one in my opinion, and I was left wondering why this book was pushed back so many times just to be left with this?

February 20, 2023