Point of View

In Chain of Iron, Cassandra Clare frequently shifts the narrative point of view while maintaining a third-person omniscient perspective throughout. The effect of this is to give a voice to multiple characters and thus weave together complex and diverging plot lines in a way which emphasizes the importance of each character in their own right, and not merely as accessories or obstacles to the ‘main’ plot line regarding Belial’s return to Shadowhunter London.

For example, Clare spends a great deal of time writing from Cordelia’s point of view in order to be able to capture the pain and heartbreak of unrequited love which exists separately from Cordelia’s struggle to wound Belial or her familial tensions. This plot line could not exist without Cordelia’s point of view, as James Herondale – her beloved – does not even know that she loves him. Writing the...