Monday 17 August 2015

THE INFERNAL DEVICES #3


Clockwork Princess was by far my favourite out of the three books, though I couldn't justify giving it more than four stars on Goodreads, which is the same number of stars I awarded Clockwork Prince. I had hoped the writing style would pick up as the trilogy continued, and while there were DEFINITELY some precious gems of stunning beauty and wisdom dotted through the books, they were mainly hidden behind a lot of unnecessary clutter. There was far too much dumping of information, as well as conversations that went on for way too many paragraphs. The plot itself ended up being quite irrelevant. Mortmain's character was ridiculous and really not believable. He didn't seem frightening enough or cold enough, there was just something missing from his character development. Maybe it was the fact that we hardly saw him! Oh and his ending was actually ridiculous, he literally ended up being a fly on the wall, an inconvenience that someone finally managed to squish so they could move on to what actually mattered.  


Speaking of what actually mattered, there was plenty of fantastic stuff packed into this trilogy. YES, the plot was not fabulous, which is a flaw because aren't plots of a trilogy like this supposed to be epic? 

HOWEVER. What Cassandra Clare seems to do so so so fabulously is create BEAUTIFUL, MOVING, HEARTBREAKING relationships. Platonic/familial/romantic, she writes them  all fabulously. In fact the BEST thing to come out of these novels (in my opinion) is the dynamics of parabatai. The friendship/brotherhood between Jem and Will. The scenes between those two were by far the most interesting, the most moving, and the best written! Honestly I think I cried my eyes out for like the whole of the second half of Clockwork Princess because all the pain/love/loyalty/sacrifice between Jem and Will was CRUSHING MY POOR GENTLE HEART. 

"She did not know what anyone could say in the face of love like this - so much forbearance, so much endurance, so much hope.' (p. 288)

The Will-Tessa-Jem sceniario would then, inevitably cause a lot of heartache, however the ending was pretty satisfying. Though just reading about their lives together and the generations that came MADE ME SOB EVEN MORE. 

'and Cecily wondered, just for a moment, what it would be like to have someone look at her as Henry looked at Charlotte - as if she were a wonder on the earth.' (p. 367)

It's almost a little annoying that every character had to be paired off with someone but Henry and Charlotte's lovely relationship was all kinds of heartwarming. 


One thing that doesn't sit right with me is HOW Tessa could POSSIBLY love two DIFFERENT guys an EQUAL amount. Apologies for the excessive amount of capitals. It's just something that really boggles my mind if I think about it too much. Love-triangles are annoying. Hey, books/characters/authors, can we think of something else to keep the story interesting? Please. 

Mortmain may have been underdeveloped and irrelevant, but Will certainly wasn't.

Will Herondale. He came across as such a horrible pig in the first half of the series but by the time I finished Clockwork Princess, I realised that my heart ached for him. I weeped for Will Herondale, and even in his joy I felt pain because I knew he believed himself to be unworthy, and he hadn't allowed himself to entertain the possibility of happiness for so long. As Will's true nature is revealed, we see that he is the furthest thing from a typical 'bad boy'. He is unbelievably vulnerable.

'Will, whose heart was as easy to break as it was carefully guarded; Will, who loved not wisely but entirely and with everything he had.' (p. 509)  

I saw myself in that description of him, and I think Cassandra's development of Will from an arrogant, irritating person to someone so incredibly loveable, and genuine was wonderfully done. No word was wasted in his story, no stone unturned, no feeling left undeveloped. Simply brilliant.

As my love for these novels grew, so did my appreciation for its format. Each chapter begins with a poem, or an extract from a poem/play/novel, and those few lines are in some way relevant to the events of the coming chapter. As a booklover, I really loved those little touches, and I discovered a lot of great literary material because of them! 


Needless to say Clockwork Princess has been heavily highlighted. 

And that's it for The Infernal Devices trilogy! It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know these characters (particularly Will, Jem, Sophie, and Charlotte!) and though I can't yet say whether I prefer this series over TMI (I've yet to read the last three books) I know I won't forget this bunch of vivacious victorian shadowhunters.

Also, I'm excited to see what part some of these characters play in the rest of the TMI series! But I'm also nervous because feels. Lots of them. 


'For to be wise and love
Exceeds man's might.' 
- Shakespeare 

Share:

4 comments

  1. AHh I'm so glad you liked this one! I'm...I'm a bit opposite. D: This was my leas liked of the trilogy. I think I liked Clockwork Prince best, tbh. There were just so many things in Clockwork Princess that bugged me! Like Mortmain didn't seem...scary, and I totally DO NOT think Tessa could love two guys equally. I think she loved Will more the whole time. And I think once Jem knew Will liked Tessa...he totally backed off straight away! IT FELT SO WRONG. I felt so bad for Jem...I mean, it kinda worked out but still. >_> I STILL LOVE ALL CASSANDRA CLARE BOOKS THO.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tbh the best part about Clockwork Princess was Jem/Will's relationship! That's what made this book seem a little better than the others cause it was at its peak in this one! And yeah Jem suddenly decided to be a Silent Brother after he found out about Will and Tessa despite saying he would never choose that way of life? It was a nice ending, and not TOO easy if you know what I mean, but I'll never be able to wrap my head around Tessa's 'equal' feelings for both Will and Jem. I can't help feeling like she like Will the most and only felt what she did for Jem out of pity? Ah well, still a good fun read!

      Delete
  2. MMMMHMMM! You finished! Yaaaay! Can I just say that this review was AMAZING Alliyah... You went in to so much detail and I agreed with everything that you said. Cassandra Clare isn't the best writer (I kind of view her as a guilty pleasure read), but her relationships are INCREDIBLE. I do have to admit that I hate the love triangle bit... because YOU CANNOT LOVE TWO PEOPLE AT ONCE and Tessa clearly loved Will more than Jem. Urgh. Also, I totally have a confession: Clockwork Princess is my LEAST favourite of the series. To the extent that I DNFed it. I think I may need to reread the series again, now...!
    Beth x
    www.thequietpeople.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OMG thank you so much Beth! I was quite proud of this review :')
      I find it quite interesting that clockwork princess is disliked by so many people! The first one just seemed a little too amateur/boring, the second one was pretty good but all the heartbreaking emotion in the third one is what made it so much better than the others in my opinion. I think you should definitely finish the series, if only for the sake of Jem and Will because their bromance is the best thing to come out of these books :') <3

      Delete

© soulflower | All rights reserved.
Blog Layout Created by pipdig