Clockwork Angel: Your Next Favourite YA Fantasy Read

Welcome Jellies. Yes, that is the name I am giving all my blog readers because you are sweet like a jellybean! Today I am going to give the review of Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. But before we get into it, I would like to let you know that I will be using my very own reviewing system which I named Book Brew Review System. If you haven't yet read what it is or how it works, I suggest you quickly go have a look before reading further. 

Now that you know what you can expect this review to be, I should tell you that there will certain points that may qualify as spoilers but I promise there will be nothing that will reveal the major plot twists. I will, however, mention some scenes and quotes here and there that I loved.

Okay, now that we have covered of this, let's get into the review!

Tessa Gray is a young girl who has come to London to find her older brother, only to get kidnapped by people claiming to know his whereabouts. While fighting to survive her kidnappers, she learns that she has a super power that is quite frankly impossible for a human to possess. Understanding that she has found herself deep into the dark supernatural underworld, Tessa fears for her life. This is when she meets a blue eyed boy, Will Herondale, who claims to have come to help her out. She then meets the people, including Jem Carstairs, who call themselves The Shadowhunters. Between figuring out who or what she really is and fighting an attraction to the mysterious white haired, Jem, Tessa has to team up with the Shadowhunters to fight the unstoppable clockwork creatures run by the Pandemonium Club.

“If no one in the entire world cared about you, did you really exist at all?”

Book Brew Review System

• Plot: ☕☕☕☕
• Characters: 🧋🧋🧋🧋🧋
• Writing: 🍪🍪🍪🍪
• Pacing: 🥐🥐🥐
• World Building: 🍩🍩🍩🍩🍩
• Emotional Impact: 🍷🍷🍷🍷

    OVERALL RATING:

    25/30 : 4.15 Brews

source: pinterest. I have taken these pictures from pinterest and made the collage myself

PLOT

The plot of the book is pretty straight forward with nothing new that we have not read before from Cassandra Clare. The Mortal Instruments also begin with a similar premise of a young girl being thrust into the Shadowhunters universe and having to figure out her place in it. However, the plot is still pretty interesting and unique in a way that the characters run the story. Sometimes in books we see events happening to the characters and they decide to go with the flow and see where it takes them. However, I personally really like how Cassandra Clare's characters are very head-strong and feel very real. More about them later, but what I meant to say is that having such realistic characters help the readers to feel more connected to the plot because it will matter to us. I gave the plot 4 espresso shots because even though it wasn't something out of the box, I still very much enjoyed reading it and had the time of my life. 

The Infernal Devices fall under the category of love triangle trope. I completely agree because this book does justice to not just MMC-FMC relationships but also MMC-MMC relationship. I am a strong believer of love triangles term being used when there is at least one queer relationship involved, otherwise it would just be a love angle. We see love angles all the time which are wrongfully advertised as love triangles. They usually end up having two men falling for the same girl. To all those books, I would just give a gentle suggestion to refer to The Infernal Devices because this should be the bench mark of how to do the love triangle trope right. 

We get to see how love is so unconditional and equal between all three, Tessa, Will, and Jem. There were multiple scenes where each of them was ready to sacrifice themselves for the other two without thinking twice about themselves. One scene that I can think of from the top of my head is when the Magister (the main antagonist) sends a package that is very crucial to Jem, in exchange for Tessa. The reaction each one of them has is a very crucial character marker of them. Another one is this dialogue which takes place between Jem and Will, which would have been considered 'flirty banter' between the two main leads if it was a heterosexual couple's story. 

Jem: "Must you go? I was rather hoping you'd stay and be a ministering angel, but if you must go, you must."

Will: I'll stay. I can minister angelically.

 Jem: None too convincingly. And you're not as pretty to look at as Tessa is.

Will: How rude. Many who have gazed upon me have compared the experience to gazing at the radiance of the sun.

Jem: If they mean it gives you a headache, they aren't wrong. 

That being said, I don't believe Will and Jem are queer in any way, but it does feel good to image them in this sense.

CHARACTERS

Like I said earlier, the characters of this book feel very real and 3D instead of just ink on the paper. What I mean by this is that they don't go with the flow or behave how the writer wants them to. They take charge and try to change their fate and quite literally meddle with what feels like destiny. One main thing that made me love these characters is that they have their very own and distinguished character conflicts. Tessa has an internal conflict of whether or not she is a human and her world being turned upside down. This is where we get out famous line: 

"Half one thing and half another," Tessa said. "Like me. But you know you're human."

Jem's expression softened. "As are you. In all the ways that matter."

Will's conflict is about the secret that lingers in the distance but we don't get to see much of in this book. However, we do get the idea that Will, though being just seventeen years old, has witnessed some kind of a tragedy which may be resulting in his hot and cold behaviour, especially with Tessa. 

Jem on the other hand, bless his soul, is struggling to stay alive because of a mysterious disease that Tessa, and the readers alike, don't know much about initially. He is shown to be pale and white haired and that Will is very protective of his parabatai. 

I was really interested in the friendship between Jem and Will because the entire time I kept getting a vibe that maybe they don't really see each other as "brothers" which most parabatai shadowhunters see each other as. I say most because... The Dark Artifices.

I also want you focus on the female characters in this books like Charlotte, Camille, Jessamine, Sofie, and of course Tessa. This book is set in Victorian London and from our history lessons we know that women did not have much agency in society. However, these non protagonist characters are crafted with such care and thought that they not only feel real, but also show us how some women have been challenging the norms and fighting their lack of agency. 

Charlotte is the sweet and badass head of the London Institute who faces blatant direct misogyny on a regular basis. People in the author question her ability to run the institute despite doing a fabulous job with what she has been given. Her husband, Henry, wants nothing to do with the ways of running the institute and would rather just spend time making his inventions, but is always expected to be the one in charge just because he is a man. Albeit making some poor decisions, she does do her absolute best to undo the chaos and restore balance again. My heart warms seeing her fight with her absolute fullest in this book. 

Jessamine is a character that was set up for the readers to hate. Even though she is annoying and really sucks the fun out of everything, she is fighting her own battle. She wants to secure her future because she is aware that in her time, she cannot be without a man and have an identity of herself. When I think of her, I don't see a girl with ill intentions but rather I sympathize with her.

Sophie is the helper maid of the London Institute who has the sight, which means she is born a mundane human but has the gift of seeing through the glamour of the shadowhunters. She is very loyal and faithful to Charlotte and I loved their friendship. I hope this dynamic is explored more in the further books because they fit together really well. 

One thing that I really appreciate about this book is how well Cassandra Clare showed two sides of femininity and two different ways of handling misogyny. Jessamine has been brought up in a way that makes her believe that she is too superior to fight like a shadowhunters. Her response to misogyny is finding a man to get married to so that she can escape what she does not wish to do. On the other hand, we have Tessa who wants to be a part of every fight and does not hesitate to jump first into the fire. She too deals with her own internalized misogyny but also does not back off from a fight in any circumstance. I thought it was interesting. 

WRITING STYLE

I have always admired the writing of Cassandra Clare especially because the language is very easy to understand and comprehend. The sentences structures are perfect and her beautiful prose is just beyond me. I will always adore her writing style. That being said, I did get bored a little in the middle and wanted to skip a few pages because the plot was getting slow and I wanted to read the action and other scenes that I knew would give me an adrenalin rush. However, this does not mean that her writing style is poor, I think it is just the plot needing some time to establish the world and other necessary things before getting into the interesting things. That too picks up really fast. So, overall, it is pretty decent. 

PACING

Like I was just saying, the pacing could have been a little bit improved but this is a standard Cassandra Clare thing which happens in almost all of her books. I think in most YA fantasy novels the pacing is always a little off. For instance, all these books take place in the matter of one year which, in my opinion, is too soon for the relationships and bonds to form as strongly as the ones presented in these books. Regardless, this book is very addictive and I could not put it down (yes I powered through the slow bits).

WORLDBUILDING

The world of Shadowhunters has been my favourite ever since I read The Mortal Instruments series. The Infernal Devices is a prequel to the first six books which means the world was already built pretty much in those books but Cassandra Clare always explains the world in every series. I assume she does it so that the readers who read in different chronological order than the one she intended to would also understand. The London Institute is similar to the New York Institute but since the books are set in different eras and different countries, the world is not entirely the same. 

The major thing that I loved about this book is the inclusion of the industrialization that was happening in London in the 19th century. Victorians are known to be dabbling into science and scientific research in this era, like we see in Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. Having clockwork creatures to be the main aspect of the plotline did justice to the world this book is set in. Henry is also an inventor, as in he invests an repairs clockwork gadgets or machine/robots as we know today. 

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the gothic aspect to the book as well. There were many settings like the Institute, the dungeon of the Black Sisters, and the Pandemonium Club, that fit perfectly with the gothic aesthetic, which is another huge part of the gothic era that was prominent in the 19th century. 

EMOTIONAL IMPACT

I was very much invested into the plotline and the character. Will Herondale, especially. I wanted to know if he really was the 'bad boy' of the book or if he was just playing the part and there is more depth and secrets to him that we will find out later. I convinced myself that the latter was the case and by the time the book came to and end, the cliffhanger made me even more excited to pick up the next book immediately. I think I was pretty well impacted emotionally by the characters and cannot wait to tell you all how I feel about the next book!

So, that was my review on Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. It is a very interesting read for someone who has read The Mortal Instruments and is wondering which series to start next, or for someone who has no clue where to begin. If you fall into the second category, don't forget to check our my comprehensive guide on Shadowhunters Chronicles that not only explains who they are and how the world works but also gives 5 different reading orders for you to choose from.

If you pick up this book, don't forget to let me know in the comments and if you have already read it, please share your thoughts! My socials will be linked on my profile so don't forget to connect with me on my bookstagram!