Sometimes I feel like the only TSC fan alive that loved TLH, so here’s an appreciation post for anyone else out there on that wavelength.
Things I loved about The Last Hours:
-The Setting. The early to mid 1900’s absolutely slaps as a time period to set a story in. Especially when set in a Western nation that had spent the last few centuries building their wealth off of colonization, the “Golden Age” of wealth and convenience contrasted with the uneasy sensation of rapid change that is giving rise to technology that can be easily weaponized alongside the dawning of an era that is no longer going to accept traditional oppressive structures is *chefs kiss*. The Nephilim obviously don’t deal with mundane politics too directly, but I feel those vibes were still conveyed in a Shadowhunter context, and the Edwardian aesthetic only added to it. (The scene where the Shadowhunter youth are having a picnic by the lake only to be attacked by demons in broad daylight lives in my head rent free.)
-The Establishment in the World. Within TSC, I find TLH to be a breath of fresh air. I appreciate how all the characters are already well-established in the Shadow World- it added a new flavor to be following characters that all grew up Nephilim. (That was also technically the case in TDA, but the Blackthorns still feel cut off from the rest of the Shadowhunter world due to the fact that they were orphans raising each other pretty far away from Clave influence.) I felt like there was a completely different side of Shadowhunter life we got to see when the characters weren’t outcasts on the fringe of their society, but rather members of proud, functional, actively participating Shadowhunter families.
-CORDELIAAAAA. My favorite protagonist in TSC by far. I may have to make an entirely separate appreciation post about her, but on a character bingo sheet I would definitely check off the “everyone is wrong about this character but me” box 😂
-Themes of Consent (and male rape being taken seriously.) One of the biggest themes in TLH is consent and the horror of consent being violated or manipulated. James was a victim of sexual assault and continuous emotional rape, and the book treated that with the maturity and gravitas such a topic deserved. The shame James feels that prevents him from seeking help after he finds out the truth, the PTSD and continuing effects even after the bracelet is destroyed, his reaction to Grace (even knowing she herself was a victim), and the way he wonders if the experience permanently damaged him somehow all added reality and weight to what happened to him. I also appreciated how his family and friends reacted when they did find out- they believed him, were supportive, and were sick at heart for him. In my opinion, a part of fantasy books directed at teen audiences is modeling various social behaviors and expectations, and “believe the victim and support them through their trauma regardless of their gender” is an important message that was well conceived of and executed in TLH.
-Grace Blackthorn as an antagonist. Grace is such a compelling character, and I adore her plot and redemption arc. In the first book, we are introduced to her as a co-villain alongside Tatiana. In the second, she is increasingly antagonistic to the main characters, and yet we also see her story presented in flashes- revealing a victim of horrifying abuse, isolation, and consent violation since childhood. She is trapped, and unlike our characters, she has no support system. By the third book, readers are sympathetic to her, but that sympathy isn’t used to suddenly undercut all the harm she caused and make it suddenly fine (like in the case of a certain Will Herondale.) Instead, Grace actually has a meaningful redemption, in which she gets the support she needs, and has the opportunity to learn and grow and also sit with her mistakes and feel their weight. Everything isn’t completely resolved by the time the series ends, but she has made meaningful steps forward and her future is bright.
-TID character cameos not overstepping their bounds. I was so relieved that the TID characters didn’t take over the story. Cassie is usually pretty good about this anyway, but even in TDA some of the TMI cameos felt forced to me or made me roll my eyes a bit. I liked how in this series, the TID characters had a natural way to be involved (they were literally the parents of our cast) but they also didn’t overwhelm the narrative with their presence. The only cameo I wasn’t a huge fan of was Magnus Bane’s (that felt more like cramming him in for the sake of having a Magnus appearance in every series) but the rest was tastefully done.
-Queer Joy that occurred prior to the 2000’s. This was obviously the gayest series Cassie has ever written, and for the most part, the characters get to be happy being themselves. Their struggles are shown as well, but it isn’t solely about the struggle. I understand why a lot of queer media focuses on themes like parental rejection, societal persecution, and being forced to be a person you are not- that is the real lived experience for many in the community and those stories deserve to be told. But it’s nice when it’s not all pain and suffering for queer characters, especially in a fantasy world where the rules are up to the author. Add that to the fact that this is a story occurring in the early twentieth century, and you get a rare representation of queer characters in a historical context who don’t have a completely tragic ending to their story. Sure, it isn’t all sunshine and roses for these characters- but their bravery is rewarded and their relationships are ultimately celebrated.
-The Merry Thieves. I love these boys and their tight-knit, non-toxic, supportive male friend group. I agree that more time could have been spent on them, especially as a unit, but in the space the books had I thought Cassie did a nice job of showing us what the Thieves were about. They all had their own issues, but they didn’t force one another to disclose everything or accept help they weren’t ready for. However, once someone was ready to ask for help, they were all there to ride or die until the end.
-THE CHARACTERS. I’ve already talked about many characters separately, but I am actually obsessed most of the TLH characters. I am more attached to this crew than that of any other TSC series, and would gladly give my life for Anna, James, Lucie, Matthew, Christopher, Thomas, Alastair, Cordelia, Grace, and Jesse… and I love some of the more minor characters, like Sona and Charles too. It was no surprise because Cassie’s strength has always been character writing, but I was impressed with her ability to compellingly juggle so many characters at once (and I personally think the attempt to do so was slightly more polished than the similar approach in TDA.)
-Matthew’s alcoholism. This plot blew me away, and I thought it was sensitively handled and altogether well-done. It was a different angle of the themes of consent- how an addictive substance takes your choices away from you. We’ve seen glimmers of attempts to explore this kind of slow-burn inner conflict in characters like Jace, Will, and Julian, and I think with each series her capacity for showing this effectively has grown. Matthew was by far my favorite of the “boys slowly imploding from the inside because they refuse to ask for help and are engaging in increasingly self-destructive habits to alleviate their own self-loathing.” And I LOVE that he couldn’t resolve things on his own and needed the help of multiple people closest to him- help which they offered compassionately and persistently once they knew the problem.
-Lucie and Cordelia’s parabatai relationship. This one is really going to be unpopular, but I don’t care. I thought this relationship was well-written and reflected a relatable teenage female friendship experience. I myself had a similar relationship with my best friend in high school, and so I felt nostalgic while reading about it. Many argue that they shouldn’t have been parabatai because they lied to each other and didn’t trust one another, but I think the scope of what was going on is important to consider. Lucie didn’t tell anyone what was going on with Jesse because it sounded insane. It WAS insane. And anyone who cared about her would’ve been honor-bound to put a stop to it. She knew that, but also knew deep down that this was the right thing for her to do, even if it made no sense to anyone else on the planet. And it was- everyone accepted it after it all worked out. But no one would have helped her in the moment, nor should they have been expected to, and Lucie knew that. Similarly, Cordelia had her consent taken advantage of and violated when Lilith tricked her into swearing fealty. It wasn’t an easy thing for her to admit to or talk about, when it caused her so much self-loathing, misery, disgust, and heartache. What stood out more to me than the fact that both girls withheld information from one another out of fear was how they reconciled and came together afterwards. They learned from their mistakes, they saw that they had each others best interests at heart, they realized that they had missed each other when they had been keeping each other at arms length by harboring secrets, and they decided that they still loved one another and wanted to move forward together. I’m glad that their parabatai dynamic wasn’t a copy and pasted version of something we’d already seen.
-CHAIN OF THORNS. This book popped off, talk to the wall 😂 In all seriousness, I respect criticism of this book, but it is still my all time favorite TSC book, and the hate it gets always confuses me a little. While the scope of the conflict may have been a little contrived, what TSC finale conflict isn’t? What this group of ten was willing to sacrifice in order to stand up for their mandate to protect mundanes from the evils of demonic forces brought me to tears in every chapter past Christopher’s death. Maybe it’s because it taps into a lot of my worst fears of isolation, loneliness, and complete helplessness, but to willingly choose to stay behind in a zombie apocalypse with no escape and possibly no solution, to not give into despair but instead use your specific talents to lift where you stand and put your implicit trust in everyone else to do the same… to me, it’s the bravest thing any TSC crew has had to do, and it touched my soul. (And I don’t think I can ever get past Grace sending the first fire message without bawling.)
-The deaths. Another unpopular one, but I always think Cassie does a nice job deciding who to kill for maximum impact to the story. People complain that Christopher was written to be killed and they could see it coming a mile off, and I understand that one (although I think his death was still properly utilized anyways) but other people died in the series besides him. Barbara Lightwood and Oliver Hayward, Elias Carstairs, and Filomena di Angelo all come to mind as characters whose deaths both moved the plot forward and added a sense of reality to what was going on without feeling too predictable. Part of the Shadowhunter universe is that anyone could die at any time, and while we know it won’t be the main characters, I have always found the casualties that remind us of that to be well-chosen.
-A more subtle look at the prejudice of the Clave. This is another strength of TSC as a whole, but I feel that TLH brought it to a whole new level. We’ve seen how the Clave’s bigotry affects Downworlders and any mundanes that may happen to stumble into their world, and also how it can affect Shadowhunters who don’t fit the mold in some way. A lot of times, that hatred is decently overt, because no Nephilim feels the need to be subtle about their distain for those not like them. But systemic oppression thrives on unspoken rules that designate who gets privileged and who does not, and the way that these rules operate in society are often a lot deeper and more nefarious than the outward expressions of superiority from one individual to another. This series explores that side of things a bit more because all of our characters are supposed to be in the privileged group according the rules. They are all from pedigreed Shadowhunter families, they have parents with high positions in the Clave, and they are all strong warriors to boot. But the Clave still doesn’t like them because they represent the exceptions that prove that their “rules” are not based on actual blood superiority, but are rather just vain constructions to elevate themselves at the cost of everyone else.
This is a carried over from TID- all these same characters that used to be outcast and on the fringes of Shadowhunter society now hold great position within it. Tessa is a warlock with Shadowhunter blood (something that in most Nephilim’s mind should be impossible) and so she was able to be recognized as a Shadowhunter, marry a Shadowhunter, have Shadowhunter children, and hold position within the Clave- she’s a Downworlder that they no longer can justify keeping on the outs by their own logic, and it rankles. Will and Cecily’s father got his marks stripped and ran away to go marry a mundane- but since they both came back into Shadowhunter society (which is their right by Law) they can be first hand witnesses that poke holes in the myth that any Shadowhunter who leaves is making a huge mistake and doomed to a miserable existence. Will also openly skirts the Law and maintains a close relationship with his former parabatai who took the oaths of the Silent Brotherhood, proving that some of the lore surrounding the Silent Brothers and their detachment from humanity are not completely true. Sophie was a mundane servant-turned-Shadowhunter… again, technically within the bounds of the Law, but it still by its nature pokes holes in the thinking that the mundanes with the Sight that so many Shadowhunters employ are any different from them. Henry was a fine Shadowhunter, but he preferred his lab to fighting with weapons- something that other Shadowhunters are no longer able to openly scorn seeing as he invented a technology so useful that they utilize it daily. Gideon and Gabriel both escaped the harsh generational consequences that usually pass through a bloodline for their parents failures and build success for themselves because they have the backing of these other rule-defying Shadowhunters. And Charlotte kept pushing through everyone who tried to undercut her because of her gender and became the first female Consul.
It makes sense then why Cordelia is so enamored with our cast (and later Alastair, Jesse, and Grace too.) The Carstairs-Blackthorn children have grown up on the fringes of Shadowhunter society because of their parents and are paying the social consequences for it. Meanwhile, the Herondale-Lightwood-Fairchild children grew up with parents that were powerful enough to protect them from some of the harsher consequences of not fitting the mold (hence why half of them can be openly queer with limited backlash) but also parents that drew spite and fire upon them just for existing. Each of them had to endure punishing words or various other snubs throughout the years, and had to make the choice to silently endure it so as not to hurt their parents. It put them in a sweet spot where they could have whimsy and a devil-may-care attitude to do things like cavort at the Hell Ruelle, but where they also weren’t arrogant or naive to the injustice of the world. It inspired jealousy and admiration in equal measure from others who had not been able to afford to act like the opinions of others could not touch them.
This malice swirling underneath the surface comes to a head in the final book, where Bridgestock tries to discredit and overthrow the whole family while the whole Enclave that they had deep connections with silently watched on… followed by an utter lack of proper acknowledgment of the heroic feats of the characters who defeated Belial, a Prince of Hell. It’s like James, Matthew, Cordelia, and the others completely fade from the annals of history within a generation or two, which is absolutely a result of bigoted rhetoric that would rather erase the stories of those who didn’t fit their ideal than preserve a great victory over the forces of Hell that could inspire generations to come.
Some grievances I have (to keep it fair):
-Belial. Belial is a trash villain, and it’s disappointing that he’s a Prince of Hell. He’s impossible to extract from the story without removing a lot of things I really love from the series, so I tolerate him… but I completely respect why he was frustrating to so many.
-The self-contained plots. It’s funny, because I actually like the plots and conflicts of all three books, but I have to admit that as a series, it would’ve been better to stick to one or maybe two conflicts than to have every conflict resolved within its own book. This was mostly due to Belial being such a bad villain, but the “here’s my next attempt to take London” approach was choppy and not indicative of the authors usual style. The best conflict was Lilith’s fealty oath- which developed over the course of multiple books. So while I liked individual elements of all of the conflicts, I believe the overall effect was diminished by too much being resolved too quickly.
-The extra content that happens prior to CoG. This isn’t a gripe about the extra content as much as it is the fact that these “deleted scenes” are pretty necessary to CoG. A lot of the extra content I feel is good as bonus material- fun to read if you are a hardcore fan, but not necessary to understanding the main story. But reading CoG was a confusing experience for me- I felt like I had to really struggle to put pieces together and understand certain character motivations. When I went back and read the extras, I felt a bit scandalized at all the information that had been cut from the main storyline that I considered necessary for a proper enjoyment of the plot and understanding of the characters.
-The fact that Lucie and Cordelia weren’t already parabatai. Although I like their relationship, I do think it would have been stronger if Lucie and Cordelia were already parabatai to begin with, or at least had become parabatai after the first book. Then instead of the conflict being whether or not they would actually become parabatai, it could mirror the rift between James and Matthew and how challenging it is to navigate anger and betrayal with someone you are bound to in such a permanent way.
-Ari and Anna’s relationship. I’m sorry to all the Anna and Ari fans out there, and I do love both their characters separately. But the constant pining and the way that Anna couldn’t move on from Ari but also couldn’t forgive her for the past became tedious quickly. I felt like too many pages were being dedicated to this “will-they-won’t-they” in a series filled with better romances and juicier relationship conflict. I wish they would’ve spent more time as an actual couple and delved deeper into Ari’s personal journey with self-discovery rather than leaving that as an afterthought.
-Christopher as a repeat autistic genius trope. It’s funny to me that Ty is Cassie’s first canonically neurodivergent character when she loves coding characters with certain “quirky” traits that… well, if it’s a spade, call it a spade, you know? Christopher and Henry are pretty much the exact same savant absentminded professor type autistic that Ty is, and while the autism diagnosis wouldn’t be relevant to them as it didn’t exist yet when they lived, it’s still how these characters are written. I do love all three of these characters, but as Christopher was the third one I read about and he was another white boy-loves science-great with numbers-bad with people, I was side-eyeing it a little bit. (Although Lucie as even unintentional female AuDHD representation may have made up for it.)
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