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Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare is the first dead tree book I have read in 2020. I own all of Ms. Clare’s books in dead tree format, but they are all currently in storage boxes. I did however take photos of my bookshelves before packing everything up for the move from California back home to Tennessee. Ideally, I would have them all be hardback, but I started reading the Shadowhunter Chronicles sometime in 2011, the first book, City of Bones, in this young adult fantasy saga was published in 2007 so between the library and trade paperback versions I saved some dollars. Now, I can’t wait to read and own them all sitting prettily on my shelf, so pre-order or purchasing soon after release is my M.O. I have always had an issue with my books being of a particular look on the shelf (don’t even act like you don’t have bookshelf proclivities, every book lover does), and I, of course, prefer the uniformity of height and dust jacket cover that a hardback provides. What I do not appreciate is when a publisher changes the look of the cover and/or the type of book they publish (hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback) in the middle of a series – I’m looking at you Game of Thrones and Outlander and even Shadowhunters! Thank you Tor books for keeping The Wheel of Time series consistent over almost 25 years…but, I digress…

If you are already familiar with Shadowhunter lore, where all the stories are true, skip down to the bottom for the Chain of Gold book review!

It would be remiss of me to start talking about Chain of Gold without giving you some background into the enormity of the world of Shadowhunters, also known as Nephilim, demons, and downworlders. Here’s the quickest and dirtiest overview I can give you. Shadowhunters are a race of mortals given angelic powers by the angel Raziel to rid the world of demons and protect mundanes (humans with no powers) from demons and downworlders. Downworlders are the fae, vampires, werewolves, and warlocks, and they are not all evil, but if the majority of mundanes knew they existed, the shadowhunters would never be able to exert control over the chaos. These six peoples have fourteen full-length novels, three short story collections, a codex, and multiple graphic novel interpretations, ranging in chronological timeline from 1791 until 2013. Ms. Clare doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon, as she has two more novels in The Last Hours trilogy, of which Chain of Gold is number one, and who knows how many other stories just daring to be written. I will highly recommend that you read them in publication date order and not chronological order if you have never read them before, see official timeline here. Alternatively, you could break up The Mortal Instruments’ six books into two trilogies and insert The Infernal Devices trilogy in the middle then read the short story collections and following books in whichever order makes sense to you, but that’s probably more confusing than just sticking with published order.

If you want more info than what I’ve given, go to shadowhunters.com or cassandraclare.com or dig deep into the subreddits and fanfiction world that exists in the darkest corners of the internet.  For more shadowhunter-y entertainment, there’s the 2013 film entitled The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones starring Jamie Campbell Bower, Lily Collins, Lena Headey, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Nikki’s and my Poldarkian favorite, Aiden Turner. Additionally there’s the 2016-2019 Freeform TV series Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments that I thoroughly enjoyed, and honestly think was better casted but contains actors that don’t have name recognition. Both movie and TV series take ‘liberties’ with the plots of the books. You have been warned.

Without further ado or explanation, Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare, The Last Hours Book One. 

Cordelia Carstairs comes to London in 1903 with her brother and mother to clear her father’s name before his trial in Idris, the shadowhunters’ hidden country in the middle of Europe. During the course of social outings with other shadowhunters of her age, including her friends from childhood Lucie and James Herondale, a new type of demon, one that can walk in sunlight, begins attacking London. The young shadowhunters undermine the directives of the Clave,  the official government of shadowhunters all around the globe, and flout their parents’ supervision to find out what supernatural power is calling the demons to Edwardian London after years of relative peace and quiet in Downworld, the world of supernatural beings hidden from mundanes. Cordelia, Lucie, James, and their cohort of friends from the great shadowhunter families of Carstairs, Herondale, Fairchild, Lightwood, and Blackthorn are thrown into dangers expected and unexpected.

Clare excels at maintaining a cast of characters that is, at times, overwhelming. We have our main group of young shadowhunters, but we also have their parents, siblings, and the peripheral characters within shadowhunter society. The large social gathering scenes jump from group to group seamlessly, just as if you were a guest at a party flitting from one conversation to another. I am amazed by how she writes these ‘mob scenes’ and can keep each character reacting as their personality dictates. Part of the ‘new’ generation of young adult writers is that they are unafraid of including diversity in their characters. Cordelia’s mother is of Persian descent and Clare references the literature and culture throughout the book. Many of the characters identify as bisexual, lesbian, and gay, with no judgement from the narrator, but with honesty towards the difficulty their truths bring to their lives and the lives of their families and those they love. The primary characters condone love, understanding, and appreciation for everything that makes their people the person that they are on the inside. They love and support each other through the difficult times, and that’s why I read Clare’s novels, in addition to the teenage angst, romance, and supernatural demon fighting powers that force the nephilim to mark themselves with tattoo-like runes to activate those powers. They also wear a lot of black, and I respect that. Overall, I don’t consider this one of Clare’s best works, some of her plot devices are obvious before you know what they are being used for, and it’s hard to be rooting for the female empowerment and relationships when they feel one-dimensional at times. More Cordelia and Lucie being BFFs and BA demon hunters, not them being obsessed with boys and relationships. Four stars for getting lost in another world and time period for a couple of days. (Dead tree gets 2 stars because I couldn’t highlight and make notes which make my posts much more delightful to write and read after.)

Do you have a book or series of books that aren’t necessarily ‘age appropriate’ but you low-key obsess over like a teenager? Hint: don’t go looking at my Pinterest boards…

~Ashley

Hint from Nikki: We’re interested and we want to know more!  Either we’ll chat with you about your favorite or we’ll consider adding it to our TBR list.