Yes, I’ve been bad. Yes, I’ve broken my New Year’s resolution already. Man, I suck at New Year’s resolutions. The only one I ever succeeded in keeping was a “no caffeine for four months,” which was the stupidest resolution I could have made, seeing as it just resulted in killer migraines and me gaining 15 pounds. Ugh. Who cares if caffeine is a drug? It’s awesome. Yes, kids, I did just become a bad role model. Whatever. Point is: I’m back! I’m back and ready to review! :P
Today we’re talking about Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices series, namely the first book (The Clockwork Angel)… since I don’t want to give away any spoilers in the second book (The Clockwork Prince), which is, quite frankly, amazingsauce. Yes. Amazingsauce.
If you have yet to read and/or hear anything about/by Cassandra Clare, at this moment, please slap yourself, palm flat, in the face. I’ve mentioned her before. So if you’ve read prior posts by me before, STOP! Don’t slap yourself! Unless it’s too late, in which case I say, “Sorry, but maybe you should pay closer attention.” :)
Seriously, though. Cassie (what we huge, dorky fans call her as if we know her on a personal level) is ah-maaaaa-zing. (That’s read in a singsong voice, FWI.) She’s like… the chocolate-iced cake to my inner fat kid. She’s the plump, red cherry to the top of my library sundae. She is the maple syrup on top of my Belgian waffles because waffles trump pancakes any day, no competition. And yes… it has occurred to me that I may be a little hungry. However, I’m always even MORE hungry for any witty words this author has to add to my collection of YA books.
Cassie started out publishing what is called her Mortal Instruments series. This series is about a society called Shadowhunters and a girl who gets tangled up with them when it becomes apparent she’s somehow connected to their crazy, magic-filled world. These Shadowhunters hunt demons for a living. Pretty cool? Um, duh.
Well, anyway, Cassie’s Infernal Devices series is set in the same world, the world filled with Shadowhunters, demons, vampires, warlocks, and other things that go bump in the night. There’s just one difference. (I mean, minus the plot and characters and the overall way the story flows.) The Mortal Instruments series is set in the now. The Infernal Devices? The Victorian era.
Well, anyway, Cassie’s Infernal Devices series is set in the same world, the world filled with Shadowhunters, demons, vampires, warlocks, and other things that go bump in the night. There’s just one difference. (I mean, minus the plot and characters and the overall way the story flows.) The Mortal Instruments series is set in the now. The Infernal Devices? The Victorian era.
Woot, woot, period piece, here we come! FINALLY, I’m reviewing something set in the past (Princess Academy aside, seeing as that might not even be set on the planet of Earth)! Okay, but seriously. Let’s start getting down to the nitty gritty. :D
The Mortal Instruments series is awesome. It’s hilarious. The characters are great. There’s conflict and kickass battle scenes and at the same time, hello, there’s some good old sexy romance, tastefully done, of course. It’s the whole package. Tons of people love it. Pretty much every book has been on the New York Times Bestsellers. That said— UGH!— The Infernal Devices series is BETTER. First of all, not only is it cool how this second series she’s written interweaves with the families and traditions of the first, it’s phenomenal how the second one comes off as completely different. In a good way.
When authors write same-world books where they branch off with different characters, let’s just face it, sometimes they drop the ball. May I give an example? It'd be my pleasure. Here we go. I love Kelley Armstrong to death, but the Darkness Rising trilogy just doesn’t quite measure up to Darkest Powers trilogy (at least not yet, by the way, read that first series if you haven’t, it’s epic). The Darkest Powers has more action, more character development, and more overall originality. This is the pit many authors fall into. Cassandra Clare doesn’t fall in the precarious hole like so many before her. She laughs at the hole, inconspicuously steals a cement truck, pours cement in the hole, it dries, then she smiles the hole in the metaphorical face.
I liked Cassie’s first series. Okay, that’s an understatement, I loved it. Okay, since I’m obviously laying it on the line here, YES, I WAS OBSESSED WITH THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS AND RECOMMENDED IT TO EVERYONE AND, YES, I WAS OFFENDED IF THEY NEVER READ IT BECAUSE, YES, I’VE BEEN TO THREE SIGNINGS OF CASSIE’S AND HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO TELL HER OR APPPARENTLY ANYONE ELSE WHO’S MY FRIEND AND SAYS “YEAH, SURE, I’LL READ IT” BUT NEVER DOES JUST HOW AWESOME SHE IS BECAUSE I'M TOO ENAMORED BY HER. Ahem, yeah. I’m a little bit of a fan. So what?
The Infernal Devices centers around an American girl named Tessa Gray who, after the death of her grandmother, has no other choice but to move to England to live with her brother, Nathaniel. However, when Tessa makes her way to England, she is kidnapped by two women named the Dark Sisters who lock her away in a room in a brothel, telling her that soon she will have nothing to fear, she’ll be married to a man called the Magister. THANK GOD, however, Tessa is discovered by a group of Shadowhunters and saved, taken back to their home, for she has no other. However, as the Dark Sisters reveal to Tessa, she has more to worry about than not just having a home. There is something locked away in Tessa, a magical power that allows her to transform into others, a power no one has heard of before. Under the watch of the Shadowhunters, Tessa frets as to where her brother has been taken, what this power is inside her. Add in a dash of two attractive boys her age, one with a deadly disease that eats at him, James Carstairs, another with a reckless streak that will probably end up getting him murdered, William Herondale, and Tessa, well, she’s got a whole story surrounding her. Tessa strives to uncover the secrets of this new world around her and also the secrets inside herself all while she and the Shadowhunters try with all they can to figure out who this mysterious Magister is and why he’s attempting to obtain Tessa. Also, spoiler alert, though not really, seeing as the titles The Clockwork Angel and The Clockwork Prince suggest it, this series is a tinge on the side of steampunk. ;)
Never heard of the term?
UGH. And that’s like not even really getting into the characters. Let me be short about this: Cassandra Clare knows how to mold characters. They’re funny or rash or haunted or calculated. She does it all, really.
While I wouldn’t call Clare’s work “literature” per se, I would call it totally freaking worthwhile. Also, it’s kind of clever how she ties in different quotes in Victorian literature into the titles of each chapter. I’m a sucker for Vic Lit. I almost (and still contemplate it later on in life) decided to go to grad school to become a Victorian Lit professor.
Cassie, as far as the era itself goes, nails it. After all, we have to talk about that. What’s the word? Verisimilitude? Believability? Um, yeah, covered. The images of a foggy, dank, Victorian London are spot on. Also, Cassie really gives the reader a sense of place. It’s like not only do we get a series set in Victorian era London, we truly learn about it. The characters teach us if not just the imagery within the books. And it’s not all tell, it’s show.
Let’s see. I’m going to put in a few choice quotes from the book just to draw you guys in. Then I’m going to shut up after once again telling you to read this series.
“The Sisters vanished entirely then, and Aunt Harriet was standing over Tessa, her face flushed with fever as it had been during the terrible illness that had killed her. She looked at Tessa with great sadness. "I tried," she said. "I tried to love you. But it isn't easy to love a child that isn't human in the least...."
"Not human?" said an unfamiliar female voice. "Well, if she isn't human, Enoch, what is she?" The voice sharpened in impatience. "What do you mean, you don't know? Everyone's something. This girl can't be nothing at all....”
Jem shook his head. "You bit de Quincey," he said. "You fool. He's a VAMPIRE."
"I had no choice," said Will. "He was choking me."
"I know," Jem said. "But really, Will, AGAIN?”
“Whatever you are physically... male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy— all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.”
“You know," Gabriel said, "there was once a time I thought we could be friends, Will."
"There was a time I thought I was a ferret," Will said, "but that turned out to be the opium haze.”
“Well, she's not responding to my advances," he observed more brightly than he felt, "so she must be dead."
"Or she's a woman of good taste and sense.”
I know these quotes don’t have much of Tessa in them, but she’s really a great heroine. She’s sheltered enough to be like any other gender-challenged Victorian woman, and yet, throughout the series, she discovers, though she may be a lady, sometimes ladies don’t have to sit in the corner, playing the piano and looking pretty.
Rating?
Fiction or Literature?
80% Fiction, 20% Literature
Good or Bad?
100% Good, 0% Bad
READ THIS SERIES! (I told you I’d say it again.) NOW!!! (Preferably. Don't be like my lying friends.)
Until next time readers,
Alex :D
