The Infernal Devices trilogy is my favourite YA Fantasy series to date, and I don’t think I will come across something that strikes me in the gut and makes my heart sing quite like it. I’m a huge fan of Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter chronicles, if that wasn’t evident by now. I’ve talked about The Mortal Instruments series and The Dark Artifices trilogy on this blog, and now we get to my favourite trilogy of the set. Clockwork Angel is, as far as I am considered, a perfect historical fiction fantasy series starter, and I will prove it to you.

In the prologue, we are immediately introduced to the setting – late-1870s London by name, but then we get such rich description of the grimy, narrow streets and the port, home to gambling houses, opium dens and brothels befitting of the time period. We also get the fantasy action in the fight with a demon, and even a little mystery in the case of the dead girl Jem finds. On that note, we get introduced to Will and Jem, parabati and young Shadowhunters at the heart of the story. In the latter half of the prologue, we meet our heroine, Tessa Gray, and following through into the first chapter, we learn about her, her power, and her helplessness with being in a strange place with no one to help her and no one looking for her.

Tessa’s character establishment is raw and emotional and really starts the story on a tense note as she gets used and abused by these horrible women. Her isolation is apparent, but the depths of emotional response such trauma has on her sets the tone and paints her as a strong female character we know we will be seeing a lot of. She may be naive, but aren’t all YA heroines at the beginning of their stories? Throughout the book, we see her learn so much and have to take on so much while still trying to understand who she is. While Clockwork Angel isn’t my favourite in the trilogy, in fact it’s my least favourite, I still highly rate this book and stand by a lot of the character elements and plot decisions.

I’m try my best to keep any talks of Will and Jem to a minimum. Keyword: try.

Will and Jem are so precious – not only are they two individuals that are so well designed, from their strengths and weaknesses to their interactions, demeanours, backgrounds and perspectives of the world, but they are make such a wonderful duo. When I think of writing a friendship or a brotherhood between two characters, I aspire to create something like Will and Jem’s deep friendship. When I think of how characters bring out the best and worst in each other and can love each other to their own detriment, I think of Will and Jem. Whenever I think of two characters I would give everything to be burden-free, two characters I want nothing but happiness for, I think of Will and Jem. I love them both so much and they provide so many avenues of discussion when it comes to character building, character relationships, and the authentic possibilities of how their relationship can fit into a text.

I also want to give a quick shoutout to Jessamine. whenever I read Clockwork Angel, and that’s about once a year on average, she becomes more human and more broken and i cannot help but feel for her. She’s a horrible person to all those in the institute, that is undeniable with this book, but her desire to be a normal girl is heartbreaking. All she wants is to live a life where she is a woman, a young women will a social life and the ability to do what she wants. How can you hate her once you learn that about her?

I will gladly sit down and read the rest of this trilogy in one sitting, but I do need to order my reading to best suit library return dates and blog post schedules. Not to fret, as I am sure Clockwork Prince will be in my hands by the end of the week.