Chains Analysis

Today, it's the theater capital of the world, home of the world's biggest New Year's Eve party, and notorious for its bright lights and bad traffic. In fact, as you read Chains, it's probably a lit...

It's hard to imagine a character other than Isabel as Chains' narrator. After all, it's her story, her journey through loss, heartache, and agony to discover the strength she didn't know she had. P...

One of the most interesting things about Chains is that it lets us see a side of the American Revolution that's often overlooked: the perspectives of slaves caught in the middle of the Loyalist/Pat...

For a thirteen-year-old, Isabel is incredibly observant and has an amazing memory. As a result, the language of Chains is full of her assessments of the events, people, and choices in front of her...

Since Chains is the first book in a continuing series, it's difficult to tell what distance Isabel, as our narrator, is telling the story from. We do know from the use of past tense in the narratio...

We'll start with the obvious: The title Chains refers to slavery. From there, though, it gets a little more complicated, because there's a ton of different kinds of slavery going on in this book. T...

Reading the end of Chains kind of feels like watching the season finale of your favorite television show—more often than not, the writers leave you with a nail-biting cliffhanger. If you're dying...

Liberation LostIt's no accident that Chains begins with the game-changing event of Mary Finch's death. Ruth and Isabel's mother has told them that the day their mistress dies is the day they'll be...

By 1770, the slave population of New York City was around twenty percent, which is a pretty significant number. That means twenty percent of New York's citizens were considered property. In additio...

Things get pretty hot during the Great Fire of New York, but that's about it for the steamy department.