Book Jacket:
Magic is dangerous–but love is more dangerous still.
When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.
Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.
Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by–and torn between–two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length…everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world…and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.
You can read an excerpt here.
Review:
I think I’m going to be one of the few voices of dissent when I say Cassandra Clare’s latest, while perfectly competent, failed to woo me.
If you’re a fan of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, you will enjoy this book. It is a story firmly in the same vein as its predecessors – girl discovers heretofore unknown magic world and her own magical powers, gets caught up in Shadowhunter intrigue but mostly just falls headfirst into a love triangle between Inevitable Love (tortured bad boy who treats her like crap) and Best Friend (the nice guy with some affliction).
I think the reason I get so frustrated with Cassandra Clare is because I love the mythology of the world she has created – the Shadowhunters, their magic, the politics and tensions of the supernatural world, all of it is fascinating – and it all ends up being used as set dressing. Everything original about this story gets firmly tossed in the backseat, while the melodramatic teen romance gets to drive. I realize that this is a very savvy marketing move, and I’m sure tweens are stampeding to buy this book by the truckload, but all I see is wasted potential. This book could be so much more.
Honestly, I don’t think I would call this book Steampunk, it’s more mildly Victorian. I never had a real sense of the period – there was some wardrobe commentary, and a few pages describing historical London, but that was about it. The dialog and sensibilities seemed modern to me, even with all the literary quoting. Really the only steampunky element was the marauding automatons (which are a lot of fun).
Plot-wise, with Clare books, I always feel like I get ahead of the story. It happened in the Mortal Instruments (was anyone surprised by the genealogy?), and it quickly happens again here (the reveal at the end felt anticlimactic). I do like that this plot has more mysteries that the first trilogy, plus some interesting layers to Tessa’s family history, decent action and a nice twist at the end, but overall it wasn’t enough to save the book from being mired in melodramatic romance.
And now we have come to the core of this book – and the root of my dissatisfaction with really all Cassandra Clare books – the romance. WHY does the heroine always have to swoon over the guy who treats her like crap? Will, the Inevitable Love, is a complete ass to Tessa for most of the book and she just rolls over and takes it because she is so moved by his beautiful eyes and lustrous hair. If that’s how you want to play it, at least give me some Pride and Prejudice style “hating,” or some Jane Eyre backbone and self respect. But instead of a heroine who puts her foot down or gives as good as she gets, we get Tessa, the doormat. Every now and then she would manage to finally say something substantive to Will, but it never amounted to anything – she would forgive him in two seconds flat and be mooning after him again in three. I understand that Clare was aiming towards a classic Gothic romance paradigm, but the entire romance she built was essentially subjugating. Girl loves boy, so girl takes abuse, because she knows he’s “worth” it. I don’t find that at all romantic. Yes, Clare built in plenty of blushing and zinging looks and physical attraction between them, but I never felt that personality played a part in their attraction – which to me made it utterly unbelievable.
Once, just once, I’d like to have a Clare book with a heroine who falls in love with a boy who actually treats her decently.
Still, I seem to be in the minority – breathless, hopeless, tortured romances are very popular these days. The eternal appeal of the bad boy one girl “knows” she can save, I suppose. Though it worries me a little that sexy seems to rate higher than how the boy treats you to so many.
But in the end, having said all of the above, I would still put The Clockwork Angel firmly on par with The Mortal Instruments. I actually would even say I think Clockwork Angel has a more interesting story with better developed secondary characters and subplots (the bumbling Henry is fantastic) than its predecessors. I just wish the melodrama played a supporting role instead of hogging the spotlight, and that personality factored in to all the lovelorn gazing. I want so much more from this world.
Byrt Grade: B
As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…
Thea of The Book Smugglers says:
…what I take issue with is the novel’s unconvincing period setting, its ridiculous characterizations, and above all, the same Twilightified-Mary Sue heroine meets two superhawt supernatural dudes that fall for her trope.
On the whole Clockwork Angel is a well-written and well-paced story. Vampire fans should enjoy the vampire arch-villain and there are some great nail-biting action scenes when the Shadowhunters clash with the vampires. Fans of the Mortal Instrument books may find Tessa and Will lacking protagonists by comparison to Clary and Jace. They are similar enough to Clary and Jace to be a constant reminder that they are not them, but there’s plenty of potential in Tessa and Will. They may surprise this reviewer even yet!
Clockwork Angel once again displays Cassandra Clare’s writing strengths: snarky humor and swoon-worthy (albeit a bit predictably so) guys. Comparison to the Mortal Instruments series is inevitable, and there are a troubling number of similarities between the two books so far. I’m hoping there will begin to be differences in the next installment, but meanwhile, I’m keeping this on my shelf to reread whenever I need some smile-inducing, flutters-in-my-stomach pick-me-up reads.
