Today’s featured book: Clockwork Princess, by Cassandra Clare (Book #3 of The Infernal Devices trilogy)
Format I consumed it in: E-book, from the library near my house
The premise: The book opens with Tessa trying on her wedding dress, ’cause in case you forgot what happened in Clockwork Prince, she and Jem are about to get married! Of course, since they’re living in the London Institute, where all the action happens, they’re interrupted by Gabriel Lightwood running in to inform them that his father’s morphed into a giant, murderous worm. The gang immediately rushes off to help Gabriel reason with Benedict Lightwood (if still possible) or deal with him (if necessary). Without spoiling anything, the rest of the book continues in a similarly fast-paced fashion. There are countless automaton attacks, Jem’s supply of yin fen, which he is dependent upon to live, runs out unexpectedly early, Tessa finally learns the entire story behind who/what she is, Charlotte faces incredibly sexist and therefore unreasonable and frustrating challenges to her leadership from Consul Wayland, who had previously supported her, and that’s only in the first 60% of the book!
My thoughts: [Spoilers] I am inordinately pleased with this book. It was by far the best of the three Infernal Devices books, and I thought the other two were pretty good. Tessa is a damn good heroine/protagonist, and I get why Jem and Will both love her so much. I also get why she loves them and has trouble choosing between them, AND! I really see how much they love each other and am surprised they both ended up loving another person in addition to each other. I jumped ships not once, not twice, but THRICE over the course of this trilogy. At first, I shipped Will/Tessa. Then I shipped Jem/Tessa. Then I shipped Will/Jem. And finally, I decided it had to be a perfect triangular romance between the three of them. Will/Tessa/Jem. Will/Jem/Tessa. Jem/Will/Tessa. Whichever order would work. Normally, love triangles are more like love carets (this symbol: ^^^^). They meet in the middle but that last line that would make it a true triangle is non-existent. NOT SO HERE! There is even a line at the end about how half of Jem’s heart belongs to Will and the other half to Tessa, and half of Tessa’s heart belongs to Jem and the other half to Will or something like that, but I read it as Cassandra Clare canonically declaring that Will/Tessa/Jem is a thing, and YOU CANNOT CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE.
I was surprised by what happened to Jessamyne. I thought that she would be given a redemption arc, like the one that Gabriel Lightwood got, but guess not! Speaking of Gabriel, he is a treasure. Like a more awkward version of Will. He actually reminds me a lot of Alec (from The Mortal Instruments, who is his descendant). Izzy is more like Cecily, who is very, very free-spirited and independent for a girl from a proper “mundane” Victorian home; I kept remembering when Tessa first came to London and was more reserved and conservative– not so with Cecily, who is a force in and of herself. Gideon and Sophie’s romance was like romance novel fare, but so entertaining to read, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief that they both survived to the end. CHARLOTTE AND HENRY– my god, Henry gave me such a heart attack during that big battle in Cadair Idris. I thought he was a goner for sure! And Charlotte! That woman is the queen of my heart! And pretty much the queen of the Institute and later on the Clave as well. There’s an actual line comparing the male Shadowhunters of the London Institute pledging loyalty to her the way Englishmen pledged loyalty to Queen Victoria. I also liked that Bridget, the cook who sings tragic songs about love, death, and murder all day, is an insanely talented fighter and almost singlehandedly kept them all from being overwhelmed and crushed by automatons during the final battle.
I thought the book should have ended with the Christmas party, where Jessamyne’s ghost makes amends with Will and pushes him to propose to Tessa. It was unnecessary to do an extended epilogue with Tessa dealing with Will’s death, but I wouldn’t have minded the book ending in a bittersweet way like that. The Jem ending, though? What the hell? I felt like Cassandra Clare started flip-flopping and being indecisive about Jem’s fate. He doesn’t want to be a Silent Brother ’cause it would mean no more music. He decides to become a Silent Brother because he doesn’t want to die and leave Will and Tessa behind. He is a Silent Brother, but apparently he gets to ignore the rules of Silent Brotherdom and even gets to come back as his young self (albeit as a mundane) to live with Tessa decades after Will’s death? He mentions the reason for all of this having something to do with Lightwoods, Herondales, and Fairchilds, but I don’t remember anything like that happening in the first three books of The Mortal Instruments, so it must have happened in books 4-6, which I haven’t read (don’t plan to read?). I guess it’s nice that Tessa gets to not be alone for another 60 or so years, and it would support the Will/Tessa/Jem thing, but ehhhh, I wasn’t a fan.
Rating: 4.75/5.
By the way, did anyone read the preview for The Last Hours? So THIS is the Downton Abbey-esque series that everyone was talking about. I ended up reading the entire preview, and it’s not really working for me. Magnus is great. I love Magnus. But this James kid…… ehhhhhhh…… and the whole Tatiana Blackthorn-in-her-crumbling-manor-with-her-beautiful-bitchy-ward thing just reminds me too much of Great Expectations, a book that I HATED. I don’t know if I could read a whole trilogy about James-Pip pursuing Grace-Estella but with supernatural stuff thrown in (if that’s the angle Cassandra Clare’s going for). I’d rather read the three remaining Mortal Instruments books I’ve been avoiding.
P. Pufferfish 