Review: Clockwork Princess

I know I said I probably wouldn't get this novel until November, but then my mom read my review of Clockwork Prince and said I could get the hardcover.

This is why it pays to have your mom read your blog, folks.

I also finished this like a week ago but got backlogged with other books to review, so sorry if this is a little shoddy on the plot points.

So in this final installment of the Infernal Devices series, everyone and their brother has or will literally come live in the Institute. Cecily Herondale, Will's little sister, showed up at the end of book two, and so far, he hasn't been able to send her back home. Why?

Cecily thinks the Shadowhunters are actually the bad guys who have "stolen" her brother from her and her family, especially after her mother's less than pleased reaction after Will left. She's hoping to convince him to come back to Wales with her, or at least write their parents and tell them why he left.

Before she can get too far into that plan, though, Gabriel Lightwood shows up at the Institute saying that his father's gone into the final stages of demon pox and turned into a large worm. Since Gideon lives there now (and since killing demons is kind of what Shadowhunters do), Gabriel came to get some assistance. The 'Hunters at the Institute all end up going with Gabriel to try to restrain or kill the demon (minus Charlotte, who's pregnant), and in the end, Gabriel is the one to kill his dad. He comes back to the Institute to live, too, thus fulfilling my "literally everyone's there now" statement in the intro.

Now the Shadowhunters are in a pickle. Benedict Lightwood's final, mad ravings imply that the Magister is about to attack London with his clockwork drones, but when Jessie returns from the Silent City, she's still adamant that the Magister is in Idris, even though mundanes can't get in the sacred Shadowhunter country. The Consul, the head of the Shadowhunters, is also trying to keep Charlotte from getting appointed to replace him when his term ends, since she's not subservient enough to him for his own power-hungry ways.

Making matters worse? Jem's out of the drug that keeps him alive, because he's been taking more of it than usual to make him appear healthier, and there's none left in the country for him to resupply his stores with. The Magister makes a deal - send Tessa to him, and he'll give Jem all of the stores of the drug that he had originally bought up. The Shadowhunters refuse, but they can't stop her from being taken when the Magister's automatons attack the Institute.

Cecily helps Will understand where the Magister is - Cadair Idris, in their homeland of Wales. He sneaks out one night to go after Tessa, partly because he himself is in love with her, partly because she's Jem's fiance, and partly so Charlotte can get information that might prod the Enclave into giving her some assistance.

The Magister has also launched an attack on the Enclave, though, making them a little preoccupied. In the end, Charlotte, Henry, Sophie, Gideon, Gabriel, Cecily, Magnus, and three Silent Brothers are all the fighters available to go to the Magister's stronghold. Will they be enough? And what secrets exactly has Tessa's clockwork angel pendant been hiding? The last battle will be a big surprise in more ways than one.

Personal thoughts: I think I'm a fan of all the "endgame" couples, not gonna lie. Sophie finally got to become a Shadowhunter and Gabriel became less of a douchebag, which I would like to credit partially to their respective other halves (as well as their own determination and growth, of course). Will and Tessa also became a thing, which I honestly wasn't expecting, but was pleasantly surprised by - I always liked their chemistry.

Jem's not dead, either! Now that I know that, I understand the ending of City of Heavenly Fire a lot better, too. The epilogue made me wonder whether he and Tessa are going to renew their relationship, though. I can't say I'd be too upset by that, although it also smells vaguely of deus ex machina.

I was also super excited to see the invention of Portals in this book! It felt like another cool tie-in to the Mortal Instruments books, especially since Magnus played a big role in their conception. I kind of want to go reread all those novels now just to see how much the backstory has changed in my mind, honestly.

Overall, Clockwork Princess was just as much of a thrill as the first two novels in this series, and an incredibly satisfying end to Tessa's story. I wasn't disappointed in the least. Five stars.

Review: Clockwork Prince

Book 2/5 that I managed to finish this weekend! (Although I'm considering just reviewing the series I'm rereading as a whole rather than separately now....)

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.

Review: Clockwork Angel

I'm a pretty late convert to the Shadowhunter world, I know. I tried reading City of Bones at least twice back in high school, but then the Clary/Jace bombshell in the earlier books turned me right off. (I'm trying to be a little vague in case anyone else here wants to remain unspoiled, but you guys ought to know what I mean.)

Cut to last fall, after I've 1) read A Song of Ice and Fire and thus become desensitized to anything ever seeming weird after the relationships in that series and 2) transferred to Michigan and need something to distract me from my anxiety. I decide to give City of Bones another go because of the movie, and wham bam thank you ma'am, I'm hooked.

I've finished all of the Mortal Instruments books now, so I figure now is as good a time as ever to start the Infernal Devices, right? Good decision, me.

Clockwork Angel is set over a hundred years before the Mortal Instruments series begins and centers on Tessa Gray, who makes the journey from New York to London to meet up with her brother, Nathaniel. Their aunt has just died, and Nate is all the family Tessa has left. When she arrives in Southampton, she's met by Mrs. Black and Mrs. Dark, a pair of sisters who say Nate sent them in his stead to pick up Tessa.

Wrong. The Dark Sisters actually imprison Tessa in their home, forcing her to use magic she never knew she was capable of and preparing her for marriage to "the Magister," whoever that may be. They say they have Nate locked up somewhere, and that the Magister will release him once she's married to him, if that's what she wants.

Fortunately for Tessa, she's rescued by Will Herondale in a Shadowhunter raid on the Dark Sisters' home. He takes her back to the Institute, where she's offered sanctuary until they figure out how to stop the Magister and find her brother. Tessa accepts, although she's wary that the Shadowhunters will want to use her powers for their own gain, just as the Dark Sisters did.

Tessa and the Shadowhunters - Will, Jem Carstairs, and Henry and Charlotte Branwell - work with the vampire Camille Belcourt and the warlock Magnus Bane to take down Alexei de Quincey, the alleged Magister. They even manage to rescue Nate in the process, much to the delight of both Tessa and Jessamine Lovelace, a Shadowhunter who'd much rather be a lady of society.

De Quincey isn't the man they're looking for, however, and a few twists of betrayal leave Tessa still in danger at the end of the novel. Will's backstory is also still unsolved, much to my frustration. (I'd also like to learn a bit more about Jessamine, if I had my druthers.)

Clockwork Angel is a great example of a spin-off series that still does the original justice. The storyline is fresh and engaging, and the characters aren't carbon copies of their predecessors (postdecessors?), though they do share some quirks. I also love seeing Magnus and Camille appear in this series - it feels like a nice unifier.

I know from City of Heavenly Fire that some of the characters from this series will survive to see that series end, too, so a lot of my brainpower is devoted to figuring out exactly how that's going to work. I think I have one of the character's trajectories traced already....

Overall, Clockwork Angel is definitely worth the read. It's interesting and unique while still incorporating well-loved elements from the Mortal Instruments. My only complaint is that some of the characters feel too reminiscent of characters Cassandra Clare already created at times, but it's not like different people can't have similar habits. 4/5 stars.