So Bookalicious!: Review: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare

Thursday 20 February 2014

Review: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare

Synopsis

In a time when Shadowhunters are barely winning the fight against the forces of darkness, one battle will change the course of history forever. Welcome to the Infernal Devices trilogy, a stunning and dangerous prequel to the New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series.

The year is 1878. Tessa Gray descends into London's dark supernatural underworld in search of her missing brother. She soon discovers that her only allies ar the demon-slaying Shadowhunters - including Will and Jem, the mysterious boys she is attracted to. Soon they find themselves up against the Pandemonium Club, a secret organization of vampires, demons, warlocks, and humans. Equipped with a magical army of unstoppable clockwork creatures, the Club is out to rule the British Empire, and only Tessa and her allies can stop them....

- Goodreads -

Opinion

I had some doubts before I started to read Clockwork Angel, I had read the first two books in the Mortal Instruments series and I liked them but nothing more. But since I like historical fiction I decided to give The Infernal Devices series a shot and I’m glad I did. I loved Clockwork Angel.

Clockwork Angel is a mixture of so many things: action, friendship, family and love. And that’s partly why I loved it so much. It never gets boring, when you think you finally know all the secrets and the mysteries there is a plot twist that you never expected. And with each puzzle piece you found another one pops up. And the biggest mystery of all? Will Herondale. From the moment he appeared in the book I loved him. He’s full of contradictions he’s funny but he never laughs, he cares for people but he doesn’t show it and het tries to push everybody away from him who comes to close. Except for Jem that is. And the fact that we still know so little about him after an entire book doesn’t help either, I’ve always have had a weak spot for mysterious guys. Then we got Jem, Jem is the complete opposite of Will. He openly cares for the people in the institute, while not related they are his family and he will do everything to protect them. And I love the fact that he was born in a foreign country, in Shanghai China. This way Cassandra creates a multicultural environment for her characters to live in. The other main character is Tess. She’s the American between all the Brits and if that wouldn’t make her an outsider in the institute than the fact that she’s a warlock would certainly do it. But nonetheless the shadowhunters accept her easily into their house. Tess is a fierce young girl, she does everything to protect her brother and her friends. But at the same times she’s a bit naïve and she doesn’t always see what’s right in front of her. But I loved her and I loved how she experienced all the things that happened to her in such a short time. Last but not least we got all the other characters such as Charlotte who runs the London Institute together with her husband Henry and Jessamine, a shadowhunter who doesn’t want anything to do with the world of shadowhunters and downworlders.

There is nothing that I didn’t like about this book, but I can see that there are going to be some things that I’m not going to like in the next book. You can see the love triangle coming from miles away and if there is one thing that I do hate in books than it are love triangles. But I do hope that the rest of the book will be able to compensate for it. I can’t wait to read the next book Clockwork Princess.