Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Buy here*

Publication date: 2010
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Pages: 476
My rating: 2.5 stars
Ages: 14+
Series: The Infernal Devices

Tessa arrives in London expecting to be met by her brother. Instead, she is taken prisoner by two old women who show her a talent she didn't know she had. This begins her journey into learning about Downworld, Shadowhunters, and demons. Tessa needs to decide who to trust, learn who she is, and chose who to love.

When I first started reading this, I spent the first 20 pages worried about whether I would understand it or not since I haven't read Clare's Mortal Instruments series. I finally decided to let go of that worry and see what happens. If I did miss something, I didn't realize it. I was more drawn to this book than to the Mortal Instruments because I'm an anglophile, and I love the Victorian Era.

The writing was good and the magic system and cultures interesting. Tessa was a somewhat stereotypical paranormal heroine, but not annoying. The biggest critique I have is that for the first 125 pages, the story was told from one third-person point of view--that of Tessa (excepting the prologue, but then, prologues have their own kind of rules), and then all of a sudden I was going between several character's third-person point of views. It really threw me off, and the switch between point of views could be close together or far apart that it almost made me think that Clare had chosen the wrong main character. Perhaps this is just me, but I feel that the first bit of the book gives certain promises to the reader, in this case, that Tessa was the person I would be following. But, when Tessa wasn't in an important scene (as she wasn't for the confrontational scenes, until the end), Clare chose another person to follow. I think I would have rather that the main character had been Will.

As for the title, Clockwork Angel. This relates to a piece of jewelry Tessa wears, and I believed would play a much larger part in the book. Hold some secret to who she is, or who her parents were. And maybe it does, if you continue the series, but I don't think I'm going to do that.

I did like that the book finished. It's obvious that it's the beginning of a series, as there were things left unaddressed, but the main storyline of the novel ended with this one. This is something that I will always appreciate--I'm not fond of books that end practically in the middle of a sentence, in an attempt to manipulate readers to continue with the series.

There was very little language, no sexual situations. I would recommend this series to teens who have like other paranormal series, or that have previously read Clare's works. Like I said, it had good writing and good descriptions.

*I do not receive compensation from Amazon.