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Clockwork Angel

(The Infernal Devices #1)

Cassandra Clare (Goodreads Author)

4.31 · Rating details · 742,659 ratings · 35,074 reviews

In a time when Shadowhunters are barely winning the fight against the forces of darkness, one battle will change the course of history forever. Welcome to the Infernal Devices trilogy, a stunning and dangerous prequel to the New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series.

The year is 1878. Tessa Gray descends into London’s dark supernatural underworld in search of her ...more

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Hardcover, First Edition, 479 pages

Published August 31st 2010 by Margaret K. McElderry Books

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· 742,659 ratings · 35,074 reviews

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Start your review of Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1)

Aug 31, 2014 NReads rated it it was amazing

____________________________________________

“One must always be careful of books," said Tessa, "and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”

____________________________________________

Mountain View

☆☆☆☆☆5 FULLY STARS!☆☆☆☆☆

You can find the full review and more about this book on my blog!

I never thought this could be that good.I had started "City of Bones" (the first book of The Mortal Instruments by the same author) but it didn't work for me so I thought this could be the same but I wa

...more

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Sep 06, 2010 Kat Kennedy rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: Don't ask. I'll only start swearing.

Shelves: just-plain-bad, kat-s-rants, kat-s-book-reviews, books-that-deserve-painful-death, ya-pnr-maddness

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A lot of Goodreads friends that I have, people I deeply respect and whose opinions I actually hold in great value gave this book lots of stars and glowing reviews. Friends of mine, you know I adore you, so please don't take offense at this review. If you enjoyed this book then I’m really glad you did. It makes me happy when people enjoy literature. So you probably shouldn't read this review if you love this book.
It's nice to know that even though Cassandra Clare's Draco Trilogy ended years ago, ...more

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Mar 17, 2015 Jesse (JesseTheReader) rated it really liked it

THIS WAS SO GREAT. I'm so glad that I finally picked it up! I'm going to be doing video review/discussion for this so be on the look out for that soon on youtube.com/jessethereader :)

reread: 4/22 - 4/28 ...more

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Dec 18, 2014 Hannah rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, owned

Five years later and my love has yet to subside

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Dec 04, 2018 chai ♡ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to chai ♡ by: Emma, Elise and Mel did this

Shelves: young-adult, read-in-2018, fiction, poc-rep-side, ya-sff

[rips apart ‘I love Jem Carstairs’ shirt to reveal another ‘I love Jem Carstairs’ shirt in bigger font]

I can't walk up the stairs without wheezing but I would fisfight the moon for this boy.

As for Will Herondale, being that I am a fellow emo, I respect his self-loathing but as his foster mother, I do not want him to feel that way.

Lastly, I can see the fledgling tendrils of a love triangle and I am suffering. Make it an OT3 you COWARDS. ...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Zoë rated it it was amazing

This book was fantastic! I am happy that I read it after TMI because I was able to catch the nods to those books. I love both Jem and Will and all of the other characters. I'm excited to start next book right away, which is rare since I never binge read series. ...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Mizuki rated it did not like it

Shelves: young-adult-books, werewolves, mary-sue-warning, disappointment, supernatural-stuff, vampires-related, unable-to-suppress-my-disbelief, i-hate-love-triangle

This book got 1.5 stars from me simply because I was also reading Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck, and comparing with Tiger's Quest, Clockwork Angel looks like it deserves 1.5 stars...

In order to save you some precious time, I will tell you my honest reaction to Clockwork Angel right here, right now:

Thank you, Shou.

Also, when I first opened the book, I was faced by this description as well:

Magic is dangerous-but love is more dangerous still.

*sighs* What kind of soap-operatic shit is that!? I hat ...more

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Jul 03, 2017 Virginia Ronan ♥ Herondale ♥ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

”Milton thought Hell was a city, you know. I think maybe he had it half-right. Perhaps London is just Hell’s entrance, and we are the damned souls refusing to pass through, fearing that what we will find on the other side will be worse than the horror we already know.”

I’m the first one to admit that this book has a very slow pacing and that there isn’t an awful lot of action, let alone an intriguing plot. No, this book has none of that, yet it’s still one of my all-time favourites and I’d recomm ...more

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May 15, 2018 Elle (ellexamines) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-star, z-2018reads, favorite-characters, favorite-squads, trauma-abuse-recovery, sff-high-fantasy, lgbtq, x-series, y-2000sreleases, favorite-relationships

Some of you might know me for, well, this review. You know, my most popular, most liked one-star review of City of Bones? That one? So I guess the thesis of this review could be people change. Oh, no, not me - I still think that book was a piece of shit, because it really was. I mean Cassandra Clare. As in she got better at writing.

The BIG thing that shocked me here was how incredibly addicting this was. Like, I tore apart City of Bones, but kind of the main thing about that book was that it was ...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Wendy Darling rated it it was amazing

Shelves: lgbtqi, 2010-favorites, favorites-all-time, asian, read-2011, crush-worthy-boys, poc, historical-fantasy, favorite-ya, 1800s

A fan of Will Herondale, are you? Prepare to swoon.

The Dirty Sexy Attic Scene, from Will's point of view: http://www.cassandraclare.com/cms/loss1

Yeah, yeah, it's a little over the top in parts, but who cares? :D Yum

Merged review:

I don't give many 5 star reviews, but this one is definitely a 5 star book for me. While I liked Mortal Instruments, I wasn't as rabid a fan as I know many people are, so I read Clockwork Angel out of curiosity more than anything else...and I'm so glad I did!

This book is ...more

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May 06, 2014 Hailey (Hailey in Bookland) added it

Shelves: historical-fiction, mystery-thriller-paranormal, owned

I think I may like these better than TMI

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Feb 27, 2016 The Burning Rose (Jess) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, fantasy, young-adult, books-i-own

5/5 stars.
You don't even realize how perfect this book is to me, it's among the best books I've ever read.
There's something about Cassandra Clare that makes me feel like she's getting better with every book she publishes. I can wholeheartedly say that this plot is much better than TMI. The writing is more interesting, intriguing, exciting.
Unlike Clary, Tessa is a good character. Clary got on my nerves 99% of the time. But I love Tessa. It makes the reading a lot more comfortable for me. Well, 5/5 stars.
You don't even realize how perfect this book is to me, it's among the best books I've ever read.
There's something about Cassandra Clare that makes me feel like she's getting better with every book she publishes. I can wholeheartedly say that this plot is much better than TMI. The writing is more interesting, intriguing, exciting.
Unlike Clary, Tessa is a good character. Clary got on my nerves 99% of the time. But I love Tessa. It makes the reading a lot more comfortable for me. Well, she is the main character after all.

I didn’t have a chance to get bored with the plot, it was so fascinating and flowing.
I'm in love with the setting. My dearest London always makes me feel at home. I love the fact that these characters are ancestors of the characters in the TMI series.

Now I'll talk a little about the main characters:

Tessa-
She's a great main character. Usually, I have a hard time liking the main character. They are the main point of view in the books you read, you get into their heads, which is why it's hard to like them - you just know so much about them, and sometimes it's too much.
Not with Tessa. I really like her. She‘s so cute, intelligent, strong but still not too strong. She's real.

Jem-
An angel. A strong, beautiful angel. Jem is one of those characters you just can’t hate. You just can’t. And I’m not even referring to his illness. It’s his personality, he’s so pure. He should be a role model for all of us.

Will-
Hmm. Will is an enigma. Such great humour, that’s for starters. He made me laugh, and I don’t laugh much. There’s something about him... he’s hiding something, and I’m dying to know what it is. He’s pushing everyone away, which is frustrating. I can see that there’s a reason for this- I just hope the reason is good enough.

Even tho this book has a love triangle, which I truly hate, the relationships in this book are great. I love both Jem and Will. Each one of them is special in his own way. Both are deep and complicated characters, and it makes me happy. I just love deep and complicated characters.
Maybe that’s why I feel more curious about Will. He’s so bloody complicated, it’s so intriguing. I want to know more and more and more about him. The secondary characters were great too. No one was too shallow (well, I guess except for Jessamine, but I think there’s something behind her shallowness.. who knows).

Basically, this book was fantastic. The only thing that bothered me was the plot twists- too obvious, too cliche. And yet, the ending left me speechless. ...more

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Oct 29, 2020 Sofia rated it did not like it

Recommended to Sofia by: Petite Draig

Shelves: failed-romance, stock-side-characters, too-long, shadowhunters, lol-what-female-characters, love-geometry, problematic, that-one-character-i-hate, gary-stu, mary-sue

Where have I read this before? Oh, right:

Amazon.com: City of Bones (Mortal Instruments) (9781416914280): Clare, Cassandra: Books

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone: J.K. Rowling, Mary Grandpre: 8601422743395: Amazon.com: Books

Look me right in the eye and tell me this isn't the same book as City of Bones. Oh, wait, you can't. Take a look at this plot sketch.

1. Normal girl is saved from demon by strange, handsome boy with mysterious powers
2. Normal girl's name rhymes with "hey" and has three syllables in total
3. Girl discovers she has magical powers, and isn't normal after all
4. Girl discovers her parents were hiding something from her
5. Girl falls in love with two different bo ...more

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Jul 01, 2017 Samantha rated it liked it · review of another edition

1. Yes, I'll be doing a review for this on my channel.
2. Yes, I'll be continuing the series.
3. No, I won't tell you who's "team" I'm on yet 🙃 ...more

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Jan 12, 2018 megs_bookrack rated it it was amazing

Hey, y'all. Settle in, grab a snack, some tea and a comfy blanket, because I've got a lot to say about this one!

I originally read Clockwork Angel in December of 2018. It was my first time reading anything from Cassandra Clare.

I knew about The Mortal Instruments series, but mistakenly believed that I wouldn't like it and since this one is set in Victorian London, a setting I adore, I figured I would start here; skipping TMI altogether.

I was not prepared for how much I would enjoy this world and t ...more

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Feb 29, 2016 Irina rated it really liked it

re-read 01.01.2020

3 years later and Jem Carstairs still owns my heart.

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Jul 22, 2018 Melanie rated it liked it

Recommended to Melanie by: Emily

Shelves: demons, fantasy, read-in-2018, romance, shifters, read-in-2020, angels, fae, paranormal, historical

(This was such a thoughtful gift from Haley!)

1.) City of Bones ★★★
2.) City of Ashes ★★
3.) City of Glass ★★★

“It's all right to love someone who doesn't love you back, as long as they're worth you loving them. As long as they deserve it.”

Friends, I finally made it to your beloved Infernal Devices! And I really enjoyed this book. Easily my favorite Cassie Clare book yet! And this was hella darker than anything in the The Mortal Instruments thus far.

Clockwork Angel is the first installm ...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Claudia Ramírez rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-boyfriends, hilarious-humor, cover-love, 2013

4.5 stars. I really liked it, but I felt that it lacked something...

I LOVE WILL HERONDALE.

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Mar 18, 2010 Janina rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-fiction, given-away, urban-fantasy

To be honest, I’m not quite sure how to rate this book. It wasn’t all bad, but I wouldn’t say it was good either. It was rather boring at times and the story dragged heavily, especially in the middle and towards the end. None of the characters has become particularly dear to me. I didn’t buy the love story.
However, I think I would have liked it much better if I hadn’t read the Mortal Instruments series before. But the books are so similar (which was to be expected, I know, as they are set in th To be honest, I’m not quite sure how to rate this book. It wasn’t all bad, but I wouldn’t say it was good either. It was rather boring at times and the story dragged heavily, especially in the middle and towards the end. None of the characters has become particularly dear to me. I didn’t buy the love story.
However, I think I would have liked it much better if I hadn’t read the Mortal Instruments series before. But the books are so similar (which was to be expected, I know, as they are set in the same world) that I couldn’t help compare them to each other, and Clockwork Angel pales in comparison.

The character constellation is almost the same: We have the girl who has never heard of the Shadow World before, but plays a bigger role in it than she believes. We have the boy with the dark past who refuses to let anyone come close to him. We have his best friend, seemingly the only one he cares about, who hides a secret of his own. We have the slightly bitchy girl who acts like she doesn’t care about anything at all but who can fight extremely well if she has to.

But Tessa doesn’t have Clary’s wit and strength, and her obsession with what is proper and right might be realistic for the girl of the 19th century, but it annoyed me a lot. Will doesn’t hold Jace’s attraction, and whereas his lines sometimes caused me to smile a little, they never made me laugh out loud. Jem is nice, but almost too nice sometimes. It seems like besides his mysterious disease, he doesn’t have any faults. Still, he is my favourite character of those four. Jessamine has it in her, but I didn’t particularly like her and she didn’t show any signs of love for her fellow Shadowhunters as Isabelle did despite her attitude.

The love story revolving around Tessa and Will didn’t really capture me. Will might be snarky and mysterious, but he can also be very mean without a real reason. I’m sure the motives behind his attitude are going to be revealed in future books, though. All in all, I didn’t find him particularly appealing.

The plot itself is fortunately different from the Mortal instruments series, but rather slow at times. Despite the 400 something pages this book has, not much happens. And what does happen is also somehow boring because, if possible, Tessa is mostly kept out of the fighting scenes or doesn't participate much in them. Deaths occur, but I didn’t really feel shocked or sad about them.
All things considered, the only people I really liked were a) Jem, b) Magnus Bane, who is from the TMI series and unfortunately only made a very short appearance and c) the cat (I know that is not a person, but I’m a huge cat fan) they found towards the end and decided to keep.

I didn’t really have that high expectations for this book, but was a little disappointed nevertheless. I wish Cassandra Clare would have had the guts to write something completely new instead of hanging onto the success of her first three books. In the end, the only thing this book did for me was make me look forward to meeting the characters from TMI again, and I really hope that wasn’t the author’s intention.

2 stars after all, because I can’t really say I liked it and struggled quite a bit to finish it. Not sure yet if I will be curious enough to read the sequel, but probably not.
...more

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Aug 29, 2015 Mikee (ReadWithMikee) rated it it was amazing

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Clockwork Angel was AMAZING. If you love The Mortal Instruments, then you will surely love this book, maybe even more than the original series itself. And if you didn't, well I honestly believe The Infernal Devices will succeed in what The Mortal Instruments failed to do.

The characters were one hundred times more better than that of The Mortal Instruments! Everybody was so much more likable and mature. I really thought for a second that Tessa Gray was older ...more

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Sep 10, 2017 Dorreh rated it it was amazing

Shivered with excitement all throughout the book!

“One must always be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”

I would cry, but I still haven't read the clockwork princess, so I feel my time would be wasted. This book was so so so good. I can easily say this is one of the best books I've read in a while. It's been a stressful couple of months, but this book was a place I went to where all the stress, the unhappiness, and depression of the past couple of m Shivered with excitement all throughout the book!

“One must always be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”

I would cry, but I still haven't read the clockwork princess, so I feel my time would be wasted. This book was so so so good. I can easily say this is one of the best books I've read in a while. It's been a stressful couple of months, but this book was a place I went to where all the stress, the unhappiness, and depression of the past couple of months didn't reach me. It was such a welcome reprieve. I could babble about how great this book made me feel for hours on hours, but I think I've made my point.

This book revolves around the prehistoric setting of the mortal instruments. The mortal instrument was my first experience with Cassandra Clare, and I remember I was in love with the first 3 books. I admit there was a large gap between the 5 and 6th book, so I didn't read the 6th installment. So I had a good background with Cassandra Clare's work. That being said, I honestly don't think the two series are comparable. While the mortal instruments was a enjoyable series, this book was an incredible work of art.

Tessa, the books main character, while a soft hearted and innocent young women of old time New York upbringing, is of a literature loving and poetic nature. Tessa is so relatable, perhaps that's what attracted me to her most. At some point in the book I realized she may be my favorite character in fictional novels yet. Then there's Will, the perfect love hate pretty boy who would steal your heart no matter how badly he behaves. Cassandra creates characters that are witty, lovable, and have quite the perfect dynamic.

When Will says 'enterprising', he means 'morally deficient.'"
"No, I mean enterprising," said Will. "When I mean morally deficient, I say, 'Now, that's something I would have done."

And that ladies and gentleman is will hero fake for you!

The world and settings are relatively similar to the mortal instruments with the difference of the timeline. Needless to say there is something quite alluring about a secret world right under the noses of the 'mundane'. While I read the mortal instruments first, I recommend reading the infernal devices prior to picking up TMI, it acts as a prologue. A very entertaining, well written, heart wrenching prologue.

While I could rant on and on, since I had read the mortal instruments, the world of shadow hunters was familiar to me. So it was like a sense of de javu, the good kind! ...more

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Jul 12, 2019 jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

okay. where do i start? how about with how freakin’ relieved i am that i actually enjoyed this!? i nearly wept tears of gratitude when i didnt feel indifference towards this, like i did with TMI #1-3.

that being said, this very much feels like a recycled version of TMI. there are massive similarities between the characters (i mean, will is basically jace. i get that they are related, but im not sure being an obnoxious jerk is hereditary. lol. i have a feeling the reason for his standoffishness w ...more

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Jan 30, 2016 Beth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: the-tears-are-real, swoony-swoony, re-read, 2017-reads, book-series, 2018-reads, 2020-reads, 5-stars, characters-i-loved, faves

I literally cannot give anything less than 5 stars for this book, this is my all time favourite series and I'm SO happy to be re-reading it.

"It is as great a thing to love as it is to be loved. Love is not something that can be wasted.

So, as we all know this was a re-read for me. I've never wrote a review for this, so this is all fresh and new. I'm so excited to write this and have been wanting to do so for a long long time! I can finally do so now. I was so scared to re-read this, I thought may ...more

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Jul 11, 2018 Chelsea Humphrey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Chelsea by: ☆ Annie ☆

Shelves: suspenseful-clues-and-thrilling-rev

Don’t get me wrong... I have really enjoyed TMI series so far, but THIS one is my jam. I somehow picked this up at precisely the right time as I was in the mood for something historical along with an intriguing adventure and this was it. If TMI are my guilty pleasure/angsty teen romance, the TID are the more grown up and slightly darker version of those guilty pleasures. I was going to initially try to alternate these with my remaining TMI books, but I think I’ll stick with this trilogy first an ...more

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Mar 26, 2011 Kiki rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: decent-vampires, ya, angels-and-demons, meh, werewolves, lost-the-will-to-live, will-read-the-next-one, faeries

What a load of bloody melodrama. This book ought to be sung in operatic fashion by a cast of three in a slightly seedy theatre in Brooklyn. It's the sort of book that's dreadfully self-important but really, when you think about it, nothing happens: a few people appear, some technology gets destroyed, two things kiss and stuff, and between all that is a metric ton of filler.

Listen, I'm not going to lie and say I didn't kind of enjoy it. This was my third attempt at reading this, and I guess thir What a load of bloody melodrama. This book ought to be sung in operatic fashion by a cast of three in a slightly seedy theatre in Brooklyn. It's the sort of book that's dreadfully self-important but really, when you think about it, nothing happens: a few people appear, some technology gets destroyed, two things kiss and stuff, and between all that is a metric ton of filler.

Listen, I'm not going to lie and say I didn't kind of enjoy it. This was my third attempt at reading this, and I guess third time's a charm. I got through it in two and a half days, and two of those days were spent mostly at work and doing other things. It's not something you need to funnel a lot of time into and it's not something that requires a great deal of thought. All of the deep talk about humanity and love and family and quoting from books I never intend to read is just a smokescreen to disguise that this book is thin, its characters are thin, its mythology is particularly thin, and even some obvious fanservice in the form of Magnus Bane couldn't spice it up.

It's not a bad book; it's not a good book, either. The problem with Cassandra Clare is that she creates great side characters and shite main characters. Tessa and Will are straight-up shite. They're bad people and absolutely tone deaf to what's going on around them, even when it's endangering the lives of the people they "care about". Those air quotes are for real. Neither of them are particularly interested anything other than each other's smell. They're like dogs at the park; the leaves and the trees and the brisk wind is cool and everything but when there's another dog in a ten-foot radius, oh-ho. Forget comfortable lead walking. Actually, just say goodbye to that dog. Nothing else matters.

I love Jem, but that's the problem, isn't it? He's a side character and yet he's so much more more worthy of being a protagonist than Tessa. I want to follow Jem. I want to know Jem. But instead we're trailing along on Tessa's skirts, watching her waffle from room to room of this unnecessarily massive Institute, ruin plans, beg for Will's attention, and generally oscillate around the library while everyone else does the work. I don't expect Tessa to be Xena, because she's not been trained in combat, but if she isn't trained, don't take her on a mission into a vampire nest. Jesus Christ, how have these Shadowhunters survived so long if they're so dense?

There's something almost creepy about this fad of asshole love interests; I know it started long ago, with Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, experiencing a Renaissance with Bedward, and soaring to unprecedented heights in anything written by Cassandra Clare. I mean it - anything. There's probably an asshole love interest on her shopping list. There's probably one written into the alphabet magnets on her fridge. Will is a nasty piece of shit, and he's rewarded for that by having so many people around him who love him. Someone like Will, who victim-blames, who taunts women, who throws Tessa's confidence and her affection back in her face, doesn't deserve to be surrounded by people who are constantly forgiving him. I know Clare well enough to be certain that there's some sort of "I push people away to protect them" backstory buried under all of this, but that's not enough. Will is simply a nasty bastard with a piss-poor attitude.

I think my biggest problem with this book is that it's just sort of limp. The setting felt sort of half-hearted, a kind of par-boiled vision of stereotyped London. At one point Jem says to Tessa, "You're thinking, If they call this damp nastiness summer, what must winter be like? You'd be surprised. Winter's actually much the same." I live on the east coast of Scotland. This summer I got sunburnt three times and lay out in a tank top in the park, sunbathing with the dogs. I am much farther north than London, which is in the south of England, and experiences a warm temperate summer and mild springs and autumns. The rainiest months in the UK are the winter months, and April and July. Every few years the dryness in southern England causes a hosepipe ban. So fine, set your book outside of America. That's cool. I'm sick of books about New York. But for god's sake, ask. Read a few blogs. Ask the people who live there what's it's like. "It rains in Britain". Yeah, it rains in the desert too. Your setting is a sad shoehorn for mean boys and bland girls.

This whole Shadowhunter thread just rubs me up the wrong way. I don't like Shadowhunter culture, politics, or mythology. I don't like the way the Shadowhunters mock the Silent Brothers, who are also Shadowhunters but apparently undeserving of respect because they're ugly; I don't like the way the Shadowhunters profess to protect humans but treat them like animals and slap them with a label as demeaning as "mundanes"; I don't like the way they use Downworlders, but how this is excused by the narrative, which tells us that the relationship is edgy between the Clave and Downworlders, but it's fine because the Shadowhunters only hunt the Downworlders whom the narrative dubs "evil" and stroke the ego of those it proclaims "good". No grey area there, then! As long as we only kill the "bad guys" and have sex with the "good guys" (in secret), then it's not about power and control and it's not a privileged few creating a dichotomy out of those they deem less worthy than them. Right? RIGHT?

I'm assuming that this is to swiftly avoid the Shadowhunters being labelled problematic, but it's not the way they use Downworlders that makes them so fucked up. It's the small things, like Jessamine being demonized for not wanting to hunt monsters, the othering of the Silent Brothers, the amount of money that is poured into maintaining the absolutely massive Institutes that house about five Shadowhunters each. The Shadowhunters wonder why demons and warlocks and vampires hate them, and maybe it's not because they hunt them, but because they're so corrupt.

Even things we're supposed to think of as charitable, like Sophie and Thomas and Agatha being employed at the Institute, is fucked up. The Shadowhunters employing those people is as good as signing their death warrants. How can they possibly justify swanning around and calling humans "mundanes", then inviting them into their home to work for them, then leaving them to die in the name of an exclusive creed that they're not allowed membership of. How dare the Shadowhunters drag human Sophie, Agatha and Thomas into their war? And of course, after the clockwork (fucking steampunk. Ugh) creatures attack the Institute, all of our precious Shadowhunters are alive without a scratch, and only the humans who they looked down upon died.

The Shadowhunters have no connection to the outside world - they exist inside a glass case of superiority, supposedly protecting humans that they attack with slurs and have no interactions with. Even in the Mortal Instruments, it was said that Jace, Alec and Isabelle had only met a handful of people their own age, and they never ever mixed with humans. What sort of protectors are they, if the thing they're protecting is looked at with such disgust? Why are the Shadowhunters even doing this job? For their own satisfaction? It's got nothing to do with protecting the world. It's about bloodlust, because they don't care a whit about the everyday "mundane" on the street, unless it's to laugh about their deaths or have sex with them.

God, fuck the Shadowhunters. What dicks. ...more

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Feb 14, 2019 Hamad rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: good-covers, 2019-reads, paperbacks

This Review ✍️ Blog 📖 Twitter 🐦 Instagram 📷

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

“Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.”

After almost a month of finishing this book and a year of finishing the first trilogy, here I am reviewing this! Yes, I think this was better than the first trilogy, but my taste kind of changed and I am harder to please than ever! I was planning to give this 3.75 stars but I am settling for 3.5 stars now and I think I feel satisfied with tha ...more

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Mar 20, 2010 Cara rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: A must for TMI fans

Shelves: fantasy, paranormal, series, 2010, awesome-covers

Oh you guessed it I read this to up my book count! So, granted it's not an entire book but I really needed to catch up.

For those of you that didn't know about it here is the link. It's the attic scene from the Will's perspective.

This just made me more excited for Clockwork Prince to come out. Goodness I am not patient these days!

Merged review:

Seriously blown away doesn't even cover it. I have to admit I had my doubts and reservations about how this book was going to turn out. We have the eve Oh you guessed it I read this to up my book count! So, granted it's not an entire book but I really needed to catch up.

For those of you that didn't know about it here is the link. It's the attic scene from the Will's perspective.

This just made me more excited for Clockwork Prince to come out. Goodness I am not patient these days!

Merged review:

Seriously blown away doesn't even cover it. I have to admit I had my doubts and reservations about how this book was going to turn out. We have the ever present love triangle, a girl that doesn't know her powers, and some other similar plot lines. I was thinking "Oh no not a rehash of The Mortal Instruments!" My worries were stupid really. I should have trusted Clare's remarkable way of telling a story. To be sure I won't make the same mistake twice and never doubt again.

Tessa is an American girl coming from New York to London in search of her brother. Things apparently go wrong from the onset. Her brother, Nathaniel, isn't there and she is taken by the Dark sisters. She learns fairly quickly that there is a whole new world she didn't know about. Where terms like Downworlders, Nephilim and Shadowhunters are commonly used. Her path will cross with that of the Shadowhunters and with them she will figure what happened to her brother, but like always there is something lurking behind the scenes. Something that will change the foundation of both the mundane and magical world.

When I first read the City of Bones I had thought the author could have set this in the past, and wondered why she didn't try that. Obviously she was just holding out on us! The cast of characters like always are utterly compelling and you get attached to them almost right away. I want to refrain from making too many comparisons with this series to TMI, but I'd like to point out that I admired Tessa more readily than Clary. They both are strong female characters but I just clicked with Tessa better. The action certainly did not disappoint, and is one of the reasons why I just can't get enough of these books. I'm so ready for more guts to spill. There is of course the question of love interests: the unpredictable Will and the caring Jem. Both equally gripping characters and at the moment I'm just Team Tessa cause I want things to work out well for her.

The wait will be most agonizing for Clockwork Prince. Actually the word agonizing doesn't quite show the gravity how much I want to read the next book right now. ...more

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Jul 15, 2013 Reader-ramble rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: Absolutely no one.

Shelves: why-does-this-make-money, ya-to-avoid

Cassie Clare. We meet again.

I apparently have gained a following because of these reviews, and they have convinced me to use my analytical powers on The Infernal Devices series. You could say I'm easily swayed because I lack dignity. But this is really just too much fun. It's so much fun, I need to be stroking a cat.

First, the usual disclaimer. This review contains spoilers, griping, whining, over thinking, and general ranting. Trolls need not apply.

Let's get started.

Ladies and gents. Gather 'ro ...more

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Sep 13, 2012 MischaS_ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: english, stupid-ending, e-book, series-finished, pb

Well - I still prefer Mortal Instruments. I didn't like this story as much, it was harder to get into. Also, I was slightly thrown off by the similarities/parallels between this and TMI. In certain moments it felt like the same story just in a different setting and dress-up.
I wish there would be more of Magnus Bane because he seriously made this book for me and is the main reason why I wanted to continue with the rest of the series.
Plus I need someone to finally start giving me some more answe ...more

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Feb 10, 2020 ✨ A ✨ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: four-and-half-stars, mystery, re-read-in-2020, trope-forbidden-love, historical, read-in-2020, young-adult, fantasy, romance

“Sometimes, when I have to do something I don't want to do, I pretend I'm a character from a book. It's easier to know what they would do.”

4th Read

Tessa Gray expects to find her brother waiting for her when she arrives in England. What she finds is much worse. Kidnapped on the docks, Tessa is kept for weeks having to endure torture and brutal training by the mysterious Dark Sisters.

They force her to discover her ability as a shape changer and prepare her for their master, the Magister, who ...more

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Addicted to YA: Clockwork Angel - Starting August 11	105	142	14 hours, 8 min ago
❀The Never-ending...: The infernal devices Elimination Game- Round 1	83	73	Aug 28, 2021 07:02AM
Addicted to YA: Will, Tessa, and Jem	121	1352	Aug 05, 2021 06:32PM
Word Game Starting On "Will"	1530	1013	Jul 21, 2021 08:31AM
YA Buddy Readers'...: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) by Cassandra Clare - GBR - Starting June 1st 2021	12	171	Jun 29, 2021 03:12PM
Book Discussions :): Clockwork Angel	8	21	May 20, 2021 11:19PM
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About Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare

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Hello Goodreadsers. Here's my official bio:

"Cassandra Clare was born overseas and spent her early years traveling around the world with her family and several trunks of fantasy books. Cassandra worked for several years as an entertainment journalist for the Hollywood Reporter before turning her attention to fiction. She is the author of City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments trilo ...more