Hello there, I'm back with a book review. I've just finished Clockwork Angel, the first book of the Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare. After finishing the Mortal Instruments books and having to wait for the last book to come out, I thought i would head over to youtube and watch some videos about what the lovely booktubers expected to happen in City of Heavenly Fire. I was then stopped by every single person saying "do not watch this video if you haven't read all the books of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Divices" at the beginning of their video.
So I thought, why not listen to those people, they seem to know what they're talking about. And here I am, all three TID-books sitting on my desk and two of them still giving me reproachful looks because I haven't picked them up yet. But I will get there. But first I need to talk about book #1.
I understood why I was supposed to read this trilogy before watching any of those videos after reading the first few pages of Clockwork Angel. I didn't expect there to be so many familiar names. I mean, we're in London and in the 19th century. But of course we've heard of Will Herondale, the guy who looks like Alec and is totally Magnus' type. And the names Lightwood and Fairchild and Wayland ring a bell too, right? I really liked that, kind of knowing the characters already. It didn't make me feel like I jumped into a whole new book but more like reading the between-the-lines story of The Mortal Instruments.
Do I like Clockwork Angel better than The Mortal Instruments? I have no clue. I didn't fall in love with the book to be honest. But then again, I didn't fall in love with The Mortal Instruments instantly either. Maybe my love will grow with time. I really hope that my love for the characters will. I don't know why but when thinking about it now, I feel like I don't really know a thing about the characters. Taking Tessa for an example, I feel like there was no character development at all. I still don't know whether she's the badass fighter type or more the I'm-scared type. But then again, not much time passed until the end of the book, not nearly enough for her to actually change. This somewhat bothers me about Cassandra Clare's writing style. I mean, yes, it's good that there's always something going on. But I feel like sometimes it's also okay to let a few days pass without writing about every detail of it and without having a huge event happening every five minutes. At the end it always feels somewhat unrealistic and, most of all, whenever there's a love story (like Jace and Clary) and they've known eachother for two months but are already willing to give their lives for the other person, I just don't quite buy it. So I would love to see some more time pass between action scenes. What's wrong with saying "the next few weeks I trained to become a better Shadowhunter and nothing much happened"? To me that would also explain why people go from having absolutely no clue of fighting to being a pro in a few days.
But back to Clockwork Angel. I did like the book and I am looking forward to reading Clockwork Prince, I would just like to see more depth to the characters, most of all Tessa. Jem has his horrible past that he keeps with him and that has made him who he is and Will does have some secrets locked away but Tessa doesn't seem to be much, even though she's the main character. I'm also hoping to learn more about the Magnus-Will thing because that will probably have an influence on my expectations for City of Heavenly Fire. I just want to know what's going on with Will in general. And I want him to open up and show me why everyone who's read the books is in love with him.
So yes, I'll come back with an update once I've read Clockwork Prince. Thank you so much for reading!
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