CHAIN OF THORNS BY CASSANDRA CLARE | booktalk with XTINEMAY 

Everyone reading CoT when Esme Hardcastle showed up making a family tree: “Wait, is this play about us?”

A Jesse and Lucie wedding would’ve been a serve for sure but what I’m REALLY pissed about is we never got a scene where James and Cordelia give each other the final marriage runes to truly seal their union 😭

It’s such a small scene, but one of my favorite moments in the book was when Tessa did Lucie’s hair before the Christmas party ❤️

Nothing like a Christine video to finish off a Cassandra Clare read ☺️

I think Christophers death could have been written so much better. I love him so much too, but nobody mourned him basically, so as I reader I had no time to mourn him because there was never a moment to. The emotional crumbs we got about the aftermath were good but not enough :(

The scene where Will used a phone and I think it was the inquisitor on the other line yelling in his ear was the funniest thing to me. “IDENTIFY YOURSELF” I was literally crying.

The Grief chapter was such a waste! why did Cordelia spend that time mourning for James and Mathew (which both the reader and characters) know are alive? Missed opportunity. Where was Cecily? Where was Gabriel? Where were the parents? Charles had more a reaction in being told Christopher was dead than his friends.. sad lol

I wished we would had seen Gabriel and Cecily’s reaction to Kit’s death. We barely saw anyone reacting to it other than Anna and Thomas and it just felt incomplete. I guess the future Lightwoods will come from baby Alexander, then, for it to make sense that Alec has the same dark hair and blue eyes as Will, Cecily and Anna. Also… Belial’s talking bird demon 😂😂

TLH isn't my favorite shadowhunter series, but it definitely has my favorite cast of characters. I have so much love in my heart for all of them.

There is never a moment in which we are actually worried that Cordelia will end with Matthew rather than James. We never for a moment doubt that Thomas and Alastair would not end up together, or Ariadne and Anna. The only interesting pair is the one in which we know less about, Grace and Christopher. But alas.

No but honestly, Grace’s arc? I loved it sooo much! Also the fact that she invented the fire message? A queen. Also, I am a Jesse Blackthorn Stan, I said it

Can’t believe Cassie wrote Christine in the book as a crazy shadowhunter trying to write a crackpot family tree hahahahahahha

i wish we saw more of them grieving christopher, and we didn’t see his parents reactions at all?? i really think there should be like two companion novels centred around the remaining last hours cast, we definitely need more. i need to know what happens to them after, like we literally knew everything about will’s life at the end of clockwork princess but nothing for them??😭

There was a lack of emotions in this book, I think we should have seen all the parents grief. Like it's crazy to me that we didn't see the parents and the family grief, they are not only friends, they are also family. Tatiana killed her brothers children! Twice! And it was all wiped under the rug. Missed opportunity to make the reader feel something in a book with a mediocre plot with banale villains.

My issue with the miscommunication in Chain of Thorns is that it was so reminiscent of the miscommunication in The Infernal Devices, with one key exception. Will HAD to keep things about his feeling from Tessa to keep her literally alive, or at least in his reality he had to. James had no reason except his pride to keep the bracelet a secret, and it was SO FRUSTRATING!!!!! The Esme Hightower stuff was so funny, and I also wish we knew more about the future of these characters!

I was expecting Cordelia to have this epic battle in the book and the WHOLE book she did not have a single good battle just stood there watching everyone fight. Of course she doesn't wanna summon Lilith but there could've been a bigger battle at the end with belial

The fact that SO MANY sentences were just “Cordelia ran”. It started to bother me towards the end cz then every time it would happen again I’d just be like “of course she did.”

As frustrating as James not telling Cordelia or anyone about the bracelet at first was, I eventually really started to feel for him as it became clear he was harboring a lot of shame and guilt that were clearly trauma responses from being essentially controlled and manipulated without his knowledge or consent for so long, and it kind of made sense in a way that he would just want to bury that and move on out of fear that the people in his life would think it defined him somehow

Seeing the connection between Chain of Thorns and Secrets of Blackthorn Hall was so interesting to me. I have a feeling James’s gun will be instrumental in The Wicked Powers. (IYKYK) Christopher deserved so much better, and I will forever be angry that his death was a part of the she devil’s redemption. 🥺

The bit where they sent the first successful fire message got me crying so bad 😭

Every time I remember the scene of the Merry Thieves sleeping together in Matthew´s apartment and James decriptions of them sprawled one on top of the other like a "liltter of puppies" I cry.... Because that litter is ever going to be complete again 😭 Cassie broke my heart

Cassie said at her GA tour stop she wanted to write a book/novella like Magnus’s for one of the TLH characters because their story didn’t feel finished and we would understand after we read it so I believe it is Matthew since he really is the only one who didn’t have his storyline end like the others did. Where this book is concerned overall I really wanted to love it but it just felt so detached to me and completely different from the first 2 in this series. Then there was the pacing problem, and so many unnecessary scenes and not any of the scenes that would’ve brought the feelings and what this book needed. I don’t know it just made me feel so sad finishing it because it just fell flat for me.

- I really loved all of Cordelia and Alistair's sibling moments!! Lmao every time Alistair asks Cordelia if he needs to beat up James or Matthew. Alistair's whole mood and commentary about the whole Cordelia, James, and Matthew situation had me cracking up 😂 - Thomas revealing he's been learning Persian 🥰 and when he's coming out to his family, I love him saying that he's going to spend the rest of his life with Alistair Carstairs. They are so freaking adorable!! - I really wished we could've gotten more time with Christopher!! He was such a sweet, pure character and even though we knew the family tree wasn't accurate I was still holding onto the idea of him and Grace eventually getting married. I definitely wish there was a scene with Gabriel and Cecily learning Christopher died and to see all the other adults grieve him. Like we saw Sophie and Gideon grieve Barbara and we never even knew her. - I'm happy we got to meet baby Zachary and got to learn how great Alistair is with the baby! Also, since we know that Alistair isn't going to have kids and Cordelia's kids will of course be Herondales that means Emma comes from Zachary's line. - I liked the epilogue, but at the same time it didn't really feel like an epilogue. It felt different from all of Cassie Clare's other finale epilogues. I would've liked having like 2-3 more chapters to give everyone more of a clear ending. - Btw Tessa can still shapeshift! I think it was mentioned somewhere that she didn't do it for a while after she shifted into Ithuriel in Clockwork Princess because it caused her pain, but she did eventually start doing it again. In one of the stories of Ghosts of the Shadow Market, Tessa shifted into Rosemary (Kit's mom), but ended up having complications with it because she was pregnant with Mina and didn't know it.

Am i the only one who thought that Jesse getting so angry with Grace to be so out of character? Also Jesse/Grace should have had much more conflcting feelings towards Tatiana about hate/love, much like Clary,Jace, Sebastian have them over Jocelyn and Valentine.

i totally agree this didn't feel like a wrap up of a series. we had no time to sit with the characters post battle and there was NO time to mourn christopher. i will never get over how good graces redemption arc was tho like im now inlove with her. i need a novella of TID and TLH living happy little lives and having fun time. i also NEED a family tree omlll i need it

I think the tree was originally real when Cassie wrote Clockwork Princess. My theory is that she made it "fake" in this series, cause if it was real it would've been the biggest spoiler for TLH.

It might be a bit of an unpopular opinion but in this book I kind of shipped Matthew and Cordelia. The lack of communication between James and Cordelia did not help, and it just felt like Matthew treats her better overall. Not that I disliked James and Cordelia's relationship, and I knew it was end game.

How underwhelming was the villain in this book? Belial is so weak. The whole Lilith-paladin plotline is so boring and could be cut out of the book. Tatiana could have been a great villain because she's mad, but she was underwealming and cartoonish too. Bring back toxic Valentine destroying his family for a purpose. Bring back psychotic Sebastian. Sebastian has so much more ambition than Belial. I can't understand why these Princes of Hell are so stupid. Why is Belial a model grandfather to James compared to how Valentine was a father to his children. Bring toxic villains back.

Watching the parents leave is so much harder now that they're characters we know and love and trust. When you're reading TMI and Robert and Marys are just gone all the time, you're like, yeah makes sense they're kinda absent parents (at least at first) and it's a YA novel so obviously the 16 year olds need space to do their thing. And when you don't know the parents, you can't really know for sure that they'd help. But in TLH, it's like... that's Will and Tessa's children! They are babies! Stop hiding things from your parents, we KNOW they could help you!

She mentioned at her last book signing in LA that she regrets the family tree she made previously and wishes she would have waited. So it sounds like she is not done with these characters. Which I hope she never is 😁 I could read about these characters for a long time!

I think we all have to admit that this book was mid at best. It felt like a feel good story about nonsense. There were no consequences for anything. There was nothing harsh, nothing emotional, no stakes. Everybody just turns into a goody-goody by the end. What a waste of a perfect cast of characters. Chain of Gold was perfection. Chain of Iron was okay. Chain of Thorns was mediocre on a good day.

This book was a letdown for me. 😭 I mean, yes, i enjoyed it but the pace felt so ridiculously slow and it made me so frustrated. And so many things weren't shown, just told to us which felt weird with how long the book was.

cant believe i’ve been watching u review these books since the 5th gr and now i’m a senior in hs and still with u and these books🥹

Watching your booktalks is always a must after a Shadowhunter book, it's so nice to hear someone discuss it, since none of my irls have read it yet 🥰 I really loved this one, even though to me this trilogy can't compare to her other ones. I felt like the ending was a bit... not too much of an ending, tbh, and hearing you say how she might not be done with the characters makes a lot of sense. I just hope I'm not hyping myself over nothing 😅 But in all honesty, I think I just need more Will in my life 😭

“Why wouldn’t we at least have SECURITY??” So many good quotes from you Christine but this is one of my favs

Since by the end everyone is perfectly happy, perfectly good, perfectly content.... it makes the book unnecessary, because nothing of consequence happened? Except Christopher, but they didn't seem to care that much...

I just finished the book this morning and I IMMEDIATELY came to watch your book talk!

You being giddy about the skit with the Canterbury priest is my fave version of Christine ❤

I AM SO HAPPY YOU'RE DOING THIS ONE! Been looking forward to it!!!! Loved reading it in a couple of days after the magical 00:00 hit on my Kindle and it was downloaded on the 31st of January.

Forever glad you make these

Yes!!!! Watching this video was so validating! Also your comment about maybe we could see Alexander's POV - Cassie has crafted a whole new generation with Sona's baby, Charlotte's twins, Alexander, and I'm guessing Anna and Ari will adopt asap so that's 5 right there?! And maybe TLH cast will start having kiddos?? Shadowhunters is such a generational story that I could actually potentially see this happening 🤞Also CoT just did not feel like a satisfying conclusion so this theory is now keeping me going

I’m so excited. I’ve been WAITING for this.

this is the first book of hers in a while that disappointed me-although it was still a fun read!! excited to watch this and hear all ur thoughts as well even if theyre different from mine

There were too many POV's in this book. Especially since it's a book about keeping secrets, and then the consequences of keeping secrets. Apart from the fact that there were no consequences, lol, as a reader i was so bored, because we knew everything so there was never nothing except mild frustration from the miscommunication. So there is no suspense, no stakes. We knew everything would resolve perfectly because we are in everyone's head.

I live for your Shadowhunter book talks, I was dying laughing :) I think this series has been my favorite, I feel like the characters are my friends (nerd things). My main issue was like you said, the ending didn't feel like a real ending, so I'm kind of hoping we will get more books with these characters or at least their kids. I especially wish we had gotten more Anna and Ari content because at the end, most of the couples got a little "wrap-up" section, and they got like one sentence. I wanted to see them actually verbally acknowledging their feelings and be on the same page for once. I definitely still adore this series though.

I’m still in shock that Johnathan shadowhunter showed up to lucie and cordelia’s parabatai ceremony

So I finally finished the book today and as soon as I did I came to watch your booktalk 💛 I think what I loved the most about this book is the sibling moments between Cordelia and Alastair, I could relate so hard to their relationship and how it evolved because it is very similar to the way my brother and I interact, so it was really touching for me to see them be so apart from each other and then build that closeness and trust again. On another note, I don’t know if this happened to any of you as well, but… like, what kept me glued to the book was this need of seeing Cordelia and James FINALLY get together, as in having no more secrets between them, acknowledging their mutual love and all. And then when it happened I wasn’t as interested in the rest of the story, but Christopher’s death was definitely the most shocking and sad momento for me. Although I did cry a bit afterwards with certain scenes it wasn’t anything like when I read Clockwork Princess or City of Heavenly Fire. Also, it was very interesting reading CoT while reading at the same time Secrets of Blackthorn Hall, to know the way the modern characters we love view or see events past and their ancestors. Plus, I agree that the sex scene in this book is the sexiest of the whole Shadowhunter universe jaja but in a explicit way, and though I liked it, I kinda missed the way Cassie normally writes those scenes, you know? I’m a more subtle and elegant way. I think I find that waaaaay more sexy and appealing that being more explicit, as it often happens in YA books. (On that note, such a big fixation on Cordelia’s breasts omg, don’t know if there could’ve been other way to describe that she had a different body type than the normally skinny small chested women).

I love ur booktalks soo muchh Christine ❤️they are soo relatable on every level and they makes my day .I was soo desperately waiting for ur booktalk video after reading COT, always hv a amazing time after finishing a Cassie Clare and Sjm book and watching ur booktalk after.....We soo badly need a family tree closure! 🥺And thinking of what's up with the princes of hell has taken away my sleep.... Even if a prince of hell can be killed by the character in upcoming books are they just always going to simply replace them i wonder what Cassie will do with that! Cassie just posted on Tumblr that she might do some future projects that may include TLH characters 🥺🥺

Ahh I haven't finished yet but clicking/liking/commenting in support of the booktalks because they are my favorite!

Honestly, Cordelia and James' unconditional love feels forced. There, I said it. Sorry people. Jesse and Lucie, I can see it. Alastair and Thomas, I can see it. Anna and Ari, I can kinda see it? It's okay, but could have been better if it was less repetitive, but i can see it.

I don't understand why Cassie felt the need to make everyone a model citizen by the end. Charles comes out, Alastair becomes a mary-sue, Grace personality is nowhere to be seen. They are all best of friends? Why? Is this elementary school when the teacher forced everyone to be friends? Felt forced and banale.

Am I the only one who really wanted the epilogue to be a flash forward in the future where we see the TLH cast with their kids??? Like to see James and Cordelia with kids, and Lucie and Jesse married with kids and Thomas and Alistair possibly adopting. Just seeing a glimpse of them all grown up with kids. I feel Cassie kinda left it open to interpretation, but I just feel like there's still a lot of story to tell with this cast of characters and I very eagerly want to see more of them and how there stories played out beyond this finale. We definitely NEED a legit and updated family tree because there's so many gaps in between, and I feel there was so much potential to do more besides just wrapping up a few months after.

You constantly referring to the family tree as you were reading was also me. I kept going back and being like ??? I need a real family tree!!! 😭

It’s here! It’s here! I’m so excited to watch this!!!!!!

Iconic review as always❤

Amazing booktalk as always!!!!!❤️❤️

I’m not sure where it lands for me either. Some of my favorite characters are in the last hours, but I love infernal devices the best as a triology and I absolutely love dark artifices as well. Love your review and agree that it felt not as final as her other books! The ending left me longing for more and didn’t feel like a complete conclusion.

It’s snowing today and I’m going to go get this book at my little local bookstore because it sounds SO GOOD

Tessa still has her powers! She used them in Magnus' books and when they were looking for kit. At one point a potion messed with it and broke her out of the change I believe and another time she got stuck in a change and they later found out she was pregnant (I dont remember if that was why she got stuck) but I'm thinking maybe she gets to keep her powers cuz she's the direct decendant and is technically a warlock. James and Lucie bore no other magical traits the way she did (immortality and such) they were just normal shadowhunters with demon blood that gave them each a power. So it makes sense they'd lose them when he died

YESS finally, I've been waiting for this one

I really love your reviews 😂 so great! ❤

BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE!!!

I actually was so sad when I finished this. Cried for consecutive hours over Christopher 😭

I'm not even 15% into the book but I'm still going to watch every second of this video.

On Cassie's tour someone asked her if this would be the last book where we would read about these characters and she said that she had in mind a collection of short stories for one of the characters. She didn't want to specify who but, maybe Mathew? 👁️

I always save your videos for when I finish Cassie's books, and I just got this one for christmas!! I can totally picture a book of stories where Matthew discovers the world (kinda like the Simon book or the Jem book) and we could see Anna and Ari in India, and maybe Lucie publishing her book. It could also expand in the american side of the Blackthorn family or maybe something related to the Rosales in Mexico, and the origin of their connection with faeries

Christine! This was HILARIOUS

Thanks for voicing my feelings, as normal. You at least got to mourn the death. I was so positive he was somehow coming back because of the family tree that I didn't mourn until it was way past time.

your gasp and face when the family tree went from kit and grace to robert had me on the floor laughing lol….genuinely the family tree being fake has me feeling so betrayed

After finally finishing that door stopper of a book, I finally have some thoughts. I was so blindsided by Christopher as a family tree truther as well and I legitimately until the last page was waiting for him to come back somehow. They were at the park and James said something about seeing Christopher near the water in his dreams waiting and I was like this is it, he’s coming right now, and I cannot tell you the heartbreak I felt when it just ended without him. I thought that was why I wasn’t the biggest fan of then end but it also felt a little anticlimactic. Overall, I think this book had absolutely fantastic character moments and all of the character scenes I loved even as far as Tatiana then obviously with all the younger characters and the parents and Magnus and stuff but the plot wasn’t my favorite. The watcher bit was really cool but the end just getting solved so quickly and belial really wanting to be crowned felt a little too contrived for me. Somehow, even after 800 pages, I felt like the book was too rushed. Maybe it was just so many characters to follow but I felt like I just needed more and everything had to happen so fast. It kept the book very interesting, I just felt like there was no time to sit with anything. Overall, though, I loved it, solid 3.5/5 stars ok the shadowhunter scale! Thank you so much for your book talk, you had me cracking up the entire time and I always love to hear your thoughts!

Ive been waiting on this video since I finished the book!!! I feel the same way 🤞🤞 for family trees and a wedding for lucie and jesse

omg YES i didn't feel wrapped up!! i was expecting so much crying???

Kinda devastated we didn’t get magnus walking in on anyone post-coitus in this series

YESSS WE NEED AN ADULT NOVEL OF MATTHEWS ADVENTURES 😭😭😭😭

I also noticed Cassie LOVEEEEES the word ‘fiercely’ in this book.

Yes! I love these so so much

Not only did Cordelia have to carry this book on her back, she had to do while sprinting

Thank you for pointing out the many, many flaws and plotholes in this book 😅 I was so frustrated with everything. And Cassie DID US DIRTY with that family tree and killing Christopher off like that.

Two more thoughts! I really wish we got a scene of James and Cordelia putting the second marriage rune on each other! In the epilogue we learn that Anna and Ari are planning on adopting and I would like to know if that did happen and if they have any descendants that we know in the present.

I almost cried every time James thought of Grace because he was SA for years. He couldn't tell Cordelia which is clear when she tells him she knows and he physically flinches and resides deeper into himself. 😭

I also thought about Hush Hush's cover, you are not alone on that one Christine. 😆

I feel like Cassie is saving the Clace wedding for the very last shadowhunter book (the last wicked power book, i guess) would be fitting to end the story like that and would explain why she is making clary weirdly avoiding the wedding

Also, did anyone else expect her to tie in some things that happened with this book to the next triology with Kit and Ty? She had mentioned before that things from this story tie in directly with the next series, so I kept waiting for something big to happen.

I read the scene of Christopher’s unalivement the morning I had to take the GRE and I have no idea how I got through that test 😂😭 Christopher was my favorite and I’m like nnooo this keeps happening Cassie stop doing this with my favorite characters

My family tree theory is that James and Cordelia lead us to Jace (obviously), Lucie and Jesse give us the Blackthorns, and then all the three young kids give us the other lines, so Zachary Carstairs leads us to Emma, then Alexander Lightwood leads us to Alec and Izzy, which follows since Alec’s full name is Alexander and then we know Alec and Izzy have to be descended from Cecily since Alec has Will and Cecily’s eyes (the only random thing here is that Alec and Izzy’s middle names are Sophie and Gideon but… I will take genetics over the middle name choice lol). I think the Fairchild family tree is the most unclear bc it could be Matthew or, I think it would be cool if one of the twins was a girl and her kids got the last name Fairchild, just like Clary chooses to be a Fairchild and Charlotte’s kids are Fairchilds too.

what i don't get is the constant mention of "Morning Star" and i KNOW that this must be related to the Morgenstern family. Does anyone understand the link between them?

Kit's death made absolutely no sense to me aside from the heartbreak- the family lineage! Because we knew Anna wasn't going to continue it, Kit's just dead, Thomas and Alister probs won't. So I was very confused until I remembered baby lightwood that almost died. I'm assuming the same with how Cordelias new baby brother will be Emma's relative. The babies ended up sorting out the family tree.

Never in my life have I arrived this early!

I was a little underwhelmed with Chain of Thorns I still loved it but I was kinda left feeling confused like not a lot of things were perfectly wrapped up

Even though the family tree was partially retconned, knowing all these characters (or most at least, rip to Christopher a real one) would end up alright because they produce some of the later generations of characters made the stakes in this series definitely not feel as high as Cassie’s others, especially as it came right after the dark artifices- it did have probably my favorite cast of characters though, and James and Cordelia are by far my favorite main couple in a shadowhunter series yet

Something I’ve never thought until these books was that Tessa had to bury and outlive not only her beloved husband, Will, but all so her children. She had to see James and Lucie die, and then their kids, her grandchildren. How painful of a life must it be

Oh my fucking God the wait is over I finally bought the book I've been so excited about this series

I believe that the Blackthorne's line comes after Jesse and Lucie, the Lightwoods from little Alex Lightwood, and the Fairchild's... well we don't know anything about the twins but I'm hopefully that Clary comes after Matthew

the moment when they started talking about the family tree had me yelling like THIS IS HOW THIS WAS WRITTEN??? but i also thought it was super interesting how they started to go more into god/devil stuff at the end rather than just angels and demons-maybe i’m remembering wrong but i feel like this is one of the first times we’re talking about god as an actual character in these books

I was waiting so bad for this video, and i enjoyed SO MUCH. I felt empty when i finished the book, it was like, there is so MUCH Cassie didnt tell us, and the Christopher death... it affect me so bad, but,... i didnt feel that from them! that was frustrating, the only one how was really affected was Grace and i HATED that even her didnt have a really happy ending, god after all she suffer? i cant believe i'm defending her

did you read the bonus story of cordelia and lucie’s parabatai ceremony?

Although I loved Chain of Thorns I was expecting a Clockwork Princess epilogue and this epilogue felt so pointless and open. It doesn’t feel done and Cassie has shared the original ending on tumblr and it was sadder but it felt so much more concluding

I think you need to make a video of you figuring out/drawing the family tree. Please. I'm begging you. We all need it.

So we need a novella for Jessie and Lucy's wedding and for Wayland the Smith!!

I was really disappointed that there was no AVE ATQUE VALE!!!! 😭💔