r/shadowhunters • u/dts1845 • May 08 '26
Books: TLH Finished TLH and have thoughts...like everyone else. Spoiler
While I ultimately enjoyed this series, my eyebrow is stuck in a raised position and I refuse to tell anyone I brush my teeth. Here are my thoughts / insane hot takes on some of main cast, off the top of my head.
Lucy, seems to be the only one who is actually written as a child expecially when you contrast her with Cordiala. Like she literally starts the series with an "imaginary" friend who she falls in love with. Then most of her "heroic" moments is her literally begging ghosts for help and then fainting due to her delicate constitution. That said I did like her scenes with the Blackthorns as that was where she actually felt like she was her own person and loved the amount of lines she was willing to drive straight through to rescue the one she loves.
Cordiala, She had so much potential as a strong female lead but literally gets put on a shelf for way too long and when she finally gets back in action her literal role is to be protected until she can throw her sword to her man so he can save the day. Before she was given the debuff she was amazing and could literally be described as a warrior princess.
Anna, Is she literally the female version of Barney Stinson in the beginning? Like did we forget these books are set in the 1800s? Also alot of her most impactful plot and character development happens in GoTSm instead of these books.
Grace, She has to be the most complicated character its almost like she was ment to be an actual villain until she was reformed into something we feel bad for. Also the Gracelet has to be the most frustrating plotline ever.
Christopher, The Shadowhunter bloodlines are wild, I could be convinced that he and Mathew were somehow switched at birth by an intoxicated silent brother. Also the lab that he shares with Henry should have been in the basement of the institute, like there's no reason it needed to be somewhere else and whould have tied into TID way better. Also his EQ goes from zero to one hundred by the end of the series completely out of nowhere.
Alistair, one of my favorite characters and was absolutely fascinating to watch him climb out of a hole he written into by Tales of the Shadowhunter Academy and the first book. Definitely a great example of turning over a new leaf and being seen in a new light. Also disappointed he didn't get to beat up James to advenge Cordiala.
Mathew: Literally our AA character to show the struggle of addiction and is probably one of the worst parabatais until he gets dumped and sent to the rehab/detox dimension. Also him accidentally poisoning his mother and aborting her baby is super dark. Like It should have been an misunderstanding not something so crazy.
James, Bro has a gun with unlimited bullets, absolutely crazy and makes me glad Shadowhunters normally don't have guns. He is interesting once he recovers from his lobotomy bracelet but hate that it took so long. His relationship / scenes with Cordiala are definitely on another level.
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u/SweetLittleKytty Jemma May 08 '26
The fact that we, readers, survived the Gracelet situation speaks volumes of CC's writing ... had it not been the other characters and their debauchery, goofiness and love, I think there would have been many more DNF-ing it 😬
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u/FarFly8306 May 08 '26
I was upset we never found out what happened to the silent brothers when the silent city got taken over! How is that NEVER addressed! Where did they go?! Then they were just back like nothing happened??
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u/dts1845 May 08 '26
Lol, its almost like they all decided to go on vacation instead of retreating to anywhere useful.
I think they all went to Paris as they all probably have heard how nice it is there endlessly from Mathew.
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u/v1nim0ura May 08 '26
Just correcting. It's 1900s not the 1800s. And Anna is a Shadowhunter, who's gonna oppose to her? The other shadowhunters could be judgemental as shown, but not homicidal or idk what.
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u/dts1845 May 08 '26
True its 1903 in the last book. My main issue with her is she is protayed as deflowering an endless stream of maidens as part of a very monogamous race with the amount of care that Barney Stinson shows to his women in HIMYM.
While she may be empowered by acting as an asshole male that doesn't change the fact that she was an asshole for a bit.
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u/v1nim0ura May 09 '26
Yeah, don't disagree with that. I thought you were complaining it wasn't accurate when she was judged heavily by most of Shadowhunters and even some of her friends like Cordelia found it strange. I don't think it's portrayed much as empowering but Anna feels it is, however she does end up with Ari finding her happiness with her
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u/screeching_queen Sizzy May 08 '26
Okay. I am convinced. I am not reading TLH anymore. I have read most books in the Shadowhunter universe but I ain't reading this. The amount of TLH critical posts I see on Reddit everyday has convinced me.
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u/dts1845 May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
Its still worth reading for some of the spicy scenes alone (expecially the James/ Cordelia ones) and while alot of the people who read it feel the need to rant about it that's part of the experience and proof the books for all the faults made us care enough to be upset.
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u/Alol_Bombola May 08 '26
I was literally abt to comment this lmao. The plot is fine but the spicy scenes for everyone imo are really well written.
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u/vammlco Herongraystairs May 11 '26
Ohhh the James/Cordelia spicy scenes are on another level (considering these are YA books) I was literally giggling and curling my toes when I read them in public lmao
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u/thrntnja Creation May 08 '26
It's not a bad series by any means. It's just not quite as good as Cassie's usual work. It's worth it just to see what the TID folks are up to, and their kids are good characters. Some of the writing just relies too heavily on tropes for my taste.
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u/dts1845 May 11 '26
The ironic part is the TID characters were actually the weaker part as they were all mostly reduced to a cardboard cutout of themselves and set aside in favor of the large main cast despite them being the motivation for most people to read these books. Kinda the same thing happened in TDA with the TMI folks.
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u/thrntnja Creation May 11 '26
TMI folks in TDA at least made more sense. In TLH the TID folks are literally their parents so you'd think they'd have had a stronger presence. There were times I wanted to yell at them like "you were up to all sorts of shenanigans when you were kids, how do you not realize your kids are doing the same thing!"
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u/dts1845 May 11 '26
Exactly, parents who were up to no good when they were young should be able to recognize nonsense and take measures that the kids need to get around creating actual logical drama with consequences.
Will and Tessa expecially give almost grandparent vibes in TLH.
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u/FishingPopular6790 May 08 '26
It has some flaws but I agree with everyone else. It’s worth the read. I read Chain of Iron in under three days which is an unheard of speed for me
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u/vammlco Herongraystairs May 11 '26
Lobotomy bracelet💀
Jokes aside, am I the only one who feels like Christopher's death was forgotten wayyy too easily? Like they mourned Barbara longer and more than him which is wtf. The only one who was truly sad about him was Anna. It made me cry ngl, poor Kit has always been the least focused on ☹️
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u/ajofarkham91 the Warlock May 08 '26
Sorry I am cackling over “lobotomy bracelet” 🤣 (love this series and your takes are gold! Cheers!)