Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare
With each new series Cassandra Clare releases I find myself falling more and more in love with the world of the Shadowhunters. I also replace which series is my favourite with whichever is the newest. I actually can’t find a favourite at this point, I just know The Mortal Instruments is my least favourite.
This book in particular, which is book two of the The Last Hours series, is spectacular. It gives you everything action, slow burn romance, an excellent ensemble cast and plot twists you’d never see coming. God I love Cordelia and the Merry Thieves so much. They almost replaced Emma and the Blackthorns as my favourite cast, almost. My love for the Blackthorns knows no bounds.
Anyway, I can’t recommend this series enough. I usually write fairly spoiler heavy reviews for these books because there’s so much I want to talk about, so trying to explain why I love it so much without giving it away for people that haven’t read it yet is quite difficult.
Synopsis: Cordelia Carstairs seems to have everything she ever wanted. She’s engaged to marry James Herondale, the boy she has loved since childhood. She has a new life in London with her best friend Lucie Herondale and James’s charming companions, the Merry Thieves. She is about to be reunited with her beloved father. And she bears the sword Cortana, a legendary hero’s blade.
But the truth is far grimmer. James and Cordelia’s marriage is a lie, arranged to save Cordelia’s reputation. James is in love with the mysterious Grace Blackthorn whose brother, Jesse, died years ago in a terrible accident. Cortana burns Cordelia’s hand when she touches it, while her father has grown bitter and angry. And a serial murderer is targeting the Shadowhunters of London, killing under cover of darkness, then vanishing without a trace.
Together with the Merry Thieves, Cordelia, James, and Lucie must follow the trail of the knife-wielding killer through the city’s most dangerous streets. All the while, each is keeping a shocking secret: Lucie, that she plans to raise Jesse from the dead; Cordelia, that she has sworn a dangerous oath of loyalty to a mysterious power; and James, that he is being drawn further each night into the dark web of his grandfather, the arch-demon Belial. And that he himself may be the killer they seek.
Moxie Jennifer Mathieu
It’s rare for me to talk about a book I’ve never actually reviewed but this book was incredible. I read it back in 2017, which is when I was studying music journalism at university and I talked about this book in an essay about the Riot Grrrl movement. Not many books survived the great culling of 2023, AKA when I moved house, but I think I will always keep this book. It’s just that good. I’m actually a little tempted to do a re-read (the film adaptation was also pretty decent).
Something that really makes this book stand out, other than the great plot about female empowerment, is the illustrations of the zine that Viv creates. I love when books have accompanying media like that. It breaks up the pacing nicely and really brings the story to life.
I feel like everyone has read this by now, but if you haven’t, please check it out. Not only does it have a great message, but it’s also just an entertaining read.
Synopsis: Moxie girls fight back!
Vivian Carter is fed up. Fed up with her small-town Texas high school that thinks the football team can do no wrong. Fed up with sexist dress codes and hallway harassment. But most of all, Viv Carter is fed up with always following the rules.
Viv’s mom was a punk rock Riot Grrrl in the ’90s, so now Viv takes a page from her mother’s past and creates a feminist zine that she distributes anonymously to her classmates. She’s just blowing off steam, but other girls respond. Pretty soon Viv is forging friendships with other young women across the divides of cliques and popularity rankings, and she realizes that what she has started is nothing short of a girl revolution.
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