Also, if you are like me and end up waiting for paperbacks of novels to come out, Clockwork Princess will be out November 11th in softcover! I think I know what to ask for for my mother's birthday. ;)
So in this second installment to the Infernal Devices trilogy, Tessa and the Shadowhunters at the London Institute are given an ultimatum: find the Magister (or at least solid evidence of where exactly he is) within two weeks, or Benedict Lightwood will take over as head of the Institute from Charlotte and Henry. Seeing as nobody wants that, the gang put their heads together and get to work.
After a bit of investigating., the residents of the Institute learn that Mortmain - better known as the Magister - was the adopted child of a couple of warlocks who he believes were killed unfairly by Shadowhunters. These warlocks also built automatons much like the ones Mortmain uses now in his attacks, and Mortmain's father told him as a child that one day he would be a little clockwork prince - I see you there, title shoutout!
The only Shadowhunter still alive who was present for the killing of Mortmain's parents is Aloysius Starkweather, the cranky old head of the York Institute who holds a grudge against Charlotte's family. As a last resort, Tessa, Jem, and Will travel to York in the hopes that Starkweather will tell them anything they can use to stop Mortmain. When they arrive, they learn that Mortmain's family home is nearby, so they decide to go poke around there, too.
What do they discover, you ask?
Will's long-lost ex-Shadowhunter family.
Before he can go barging in and try to save them, though, they are stopped by an automaton-servant of Mortmain's, warning them that if Will tries to speak to his family, they will be killed. This puts Will in a funk for the trip home, and once the three of them arrive back in London, he dashes off to Magnus Bane's house - not that Jem and Tessa know that, however.
Will's backstory was a big unsolved mystery from book one, and it's in the scenes at Magnus' place where we finally learn why Will is so abrasive. I won't type it out - I don't want to give away a spoiler that important - but it definitely makes sense with what we know of Will.
Back to the main plot: Sophie, the maid at the Institute, has discovered that Jessamine has been sneaking out at night recently to meet Tessa's brother Nate - a servant of the Magister. She incapacitates Jessie and gets Tessa, who uses her ability to Change into other people to take Jessamine's shape and sneak into the ball at the Lightwoods that Jessie was planning on attending in order to get info from Nate. Will goes with her as backup.
At the ball, Tessamine (as I demand we call her whenever she takes Jessie's shape) learns that Jessie's been feeding all of the discoveries the Institute has made to Nate in an act of double agent-ry. She also learns that Nate and Jessie got married in secret, much to her chagrin. Once Tessa informs Charlotte of this, Charlotte has Jessie arrested, and they end up convincing her to write a fake letter to Nate so they can try to pump him for more information on Mortmain.
Nate catches on to what they are doing, however, and he ends up forcing the Shadowhunters into a fight, losing his life in the process. The Shadowhunters still have enough information to blackmail Benedict Lightwood into giving up his challenge for the Institute, though, so everything comes to an uneasy end for now.
In happier news, Jem proposes to Tessa, who decides to accept, even though she also has feelings for Will. Will's rejected her in the past, however, so she believes they can never be together.
What she doesn't know is that Will has been harboring feelings for her, but he hasn't acted on them for fear of provoking something from his past - this is explained in that backstory I alluded to earlier. He gets a bit of news that shakes his self-conception, though, and makes him believe he can afford to love Tessa after all - but is it too late?
(First and foremost, I'm sorry if that summary's as disjointed as I think it is. So much happens in these novels!)
Clockwork Prince was definitely a worthy follow-up to Clockwork Angel. It continued the action and didn't contradict any character development from the previous novel - in fact, I grew to like a lot of these characters more in this one. I couldn't draw as many neat parallels to the characters from The Mortal Instruments as I did in the first book, which makes me happy.
I also sympathize with almost all of these characters, which is unusual for me. The villains aren't all morally black, obviously terrible people; heck, many of them start as characters we're meant to love. While I can't say I agree with everyone's choices, I can understand why they've made them - except maybe Mortmain. He's gone a bit overboard, hasn't he?
My favorite minor reveal from this book? The demon pox thing oh my God are you kidding me
The only element of this novel I didn't particularly love was the Jem/Tessa relationship. It's not even that I don't like it - I just don't care very much. I realize that a lot of their formality comes from Victorian standards, but c'mon, bro, you make out with a girl once and suddenly you want to marry her? I don't care that you're dying young, that seems a little extreme. It's not a bad relationship by any means, though, so maybe it'll grow on me in book three.
(I doubt it, though. I think I'm rooting more for Will/Tessa, even though I'm pretty sure from City of Heavenly Fire that that's not gonna happen.)
Book three wishlist: more Sophie and Charlotte being awesome, please! They might be my favorite characters in this series.
Overall, Clockwork Prince was a great sequel that avoided the sophomore slump, remaining engaging, funny, and engrossing as ever. 4.5/5 stars, only because I'm really not feeling the Jem/Tessa thing.
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