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Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1)

Cassandra Clare

Start date: February 1, 2015

Finish date: February 28, 2015

Discussion: Currently Reading

Why we're reading this: It won the BOTM Poll
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What Members Thought

May 27, 2017 Chip rated it really liked it

She couldn't have been named something awful, like Mildred. Just as I thought the name Tessa isn't the most feminine or even attractive name there is, Will mentions this. Will likes the name Tessa. I don't. So my image of a Tessa isn't exactly of a woman of ravishing beauty, but rather plain, boring, forgettable, and peasant-y. Names matter to me, but this isn't really a big issue (well, at least she wasn't named Mildred, Alma, Jaya, nor thankfully, Concepcion).

Comparison with the Mortal Instru She couldn't have been named something awful, like Mildred. Just as I thought the name Tessa isn't the most feminine or even attractive name there is, Will mentions this. Will likes the name Tessa. I don't. So my image of a Tessa isn't exactly of a woman of ravishing beauty, but rather plain, boring, forgettable, and peasant-y. Names matter to me, but this isn't really a big issue (well, at least she wasn't named Mildred, Alma, Jaya, nor thankfully, Concepcion).

Comparison with the Mortal Instruments: I've read the characters are just exactly the same except they have different names. I'm starting to see it. The protagonist is a girl clueless about her exact identity (Clary, Tess), flanked by two guys that hint they can be both more than friends with her simultaneously (Simon and Jace, Will and Jem). And there's sidechick who fortunately doesn't have a doormat, ready-to-please-you personality (Isabelle, Jess). But it stops there (I hope).

Tess, just like Clary, doesn't seem to have anything special to her except to what she was born as. Weak female characters who need the help of men.

Will is twice the asshole that Jace is: still the snide guy who whips out the perfect sarcastic reply, always thinking he's better than you, never failing to think he is the best looking of them all. Why do some girls find this irresistible?

Jem seems to balance out the douchebaggery that is Will. He is impossibly nice, unbelievably gentle with his mysterious white hair. Still, how do some girls find this attractive? But predictably, nice guys like Jem will never get the protagonist because it's always guys like Will and Jace who do.

In the Shadowhunter universe, Magnus Bane's ability to catch my attention is constant. If I belonged in the book, I wouldn't mind being his love interest. It seems he can lighten up whatever the situation is. I trust that he has tricks up his sleeve to save the day (and so far, he's always had).

Again, I felt the development of the Will and Tessa's romance to be sudden (just like TMI). In other novels, a love story is subtly built by dropping details about how one looks into the eyes of the other, the feeling of their skins brushing accidently, etc etc stuff like that, but Clare just drops the bomb on her books. Like, I'm left to figure out by myself that there has been something going on between the two, but I totally missed it. And the only time I know is when they're kissing already. Am I too dense? But it's only with Clare's books anyway.

With regards to the setting, I'm actually quite neutral about this. It's set in historical London, which is the same as Sweeney Todd, my favorite movie. So my imagination has sort of a Tim Burtonish backdrop, bleak and gloomy just as it is in the book. I expected to like it very much, but there will really come a time when you've had enough dark and dreary. ...more

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