Cassandra Clare - Clockwork Angel

This year, Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was released in the cinemas, having been adapted from Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series, particularly the first book, City of Bones.  I have already read this series but I stole the prequel series Clare wrote from my sister and have decided to review it for you lovely people, if there's anyone out there.

Clockwork Angel is the first in Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices series which is a prequel to her already successful The Mortal Instruments series; this world focuses on the hidden world surrounding the normal one with various mythical beings known as Downworlders and Shadowhunters who police them.  Downworlders include vampires, werewolves and warlocks, all with their own leaders and needs and Shadowhunters are half-human half-angels with great strength and reflexes; Shadowhunters use their gifts and runes to ensure Mundanes (normal humans) don't become aware of this strange world.

Rating: 8

Recommended To: Mortal Instruments fans; fantasy lovers

Favourite Characters: Will - something about him; Charlotte - true female Shadowhunter

Favourite Part: Slowly Jessamine lowered her hand from her mouth, her face still pale.  "Goodness, my nose is enormous," she exclaimed.  "Why didn't anyone tell me?" - Page 74

Good Points: Expansion on the already established world; hints to the Mortal Instruments characters; Tessa's implied to be a new kind of Downworlder

Bad Points: Not enough steampunk; the Victorian gender roles

Clockwork Angel follows Theresa "Tessa" Gray, a sixteen year old American girl who has just travelled to England to be reunited with her brother, Nate, after her aunt's death; unfortunately, Tessa is kidnapped when she arrives in England by the Dark Sisters and forced to shape-shift into various people over the course of several weeks even though she never knew she had this power before.  She only complies under the pretence that her brother is being held captive by someone called the Magister and will be unharmed if she does as they say.  One night when she is in her room alone, having worked with the Dark Sisters earlier that day, a young man of similar age to Tessa breaks into her room and introduces himself as Will Herondale; Will then helps Tessa escape the Dark Sisters' home and takes her to the Institute, the Shadowhunters' home in London.

As this book was written following the already successful series, The Mortal Instruments, there is an already established world and readers can be expected to know the basics behind this series from the Shadowhunters to the Downworlders and how it is governed.  I have already read The Mortal Instruments series up until City of Glass so I know about the different creatures in this world but what is great about this series is that it expands on this already established world with Tessa being a new kind of creature, a shape-shifter, because it makes her stand out against the other characters of this series and The Mortal Instruments.

I love that there are hints at the characters of The Mortal Instruments with the use of the surnames of the already established characters such as Herondale and Lightwood, hinting at a biological connection and possibly these characters of The Infernal Devices being the great-great (and so on) grandparents of The Mortal Instruments characters.  I've always loved Jace Herondale and Alec Lightwood and I found it interesting to find out their family history and how they came to live in America.  While the Lightwoods aren't as significant as they are in The Mortal Instruments, the fact they are mentioned alludes to having some significance to the story.

What's interesting about Tessa is that she is implied to be a new kind of Downworlder but is first assumed to be a warlock of some kind because shape-shifting is considered a warlock power.  However, everyone around is unsure about her being a warlock because she shows no other signs of being a warlock as she can't perform magic so there is a hint the series is going to focus on Tessa searching for what she really is and how she will handle living in this unusual world.

While Will is considered mean in comparison to Jem and brings up much debate among the fans of this series and the Mortal Instruments series, I actually like Will and find him to be my favourite character because there's something about him, a mystery, which I find interesting.  As he is shrouded in mystery, it made me want to read more about him because I want to find out what's making him so mean towards Tessa and everybody else so I may just steal my sister's copies of the sequels eventually rather than buying my own.

Even in a time when women are expected to stay at home and let the men do all the fighting, even in a world where women have the capacity to be Shadowhunters because of their genes, Charlotte Branwell doesn't cave in to the gender stereotypes and behaves and dresses like the male Shadowhunters which I found great because I was able to understand her way of thinking as it was more relevant to this time and place.  While this makes her a radical in the Victorian era, she can act as an inspiration to other female characters around her like Tessa and Jessamine, even though they find her unusual.

The major selling point for this book when it was first released was that it was The Mortal Instruments but with a steampunk twist but for me, there weren't enough steampunk themes other than the automatons that attack Tessa and the others throughout the book.  Steampunk for me is test tubes and a metallic looking Victorian era but Clare has kept a normal Victorian era except for some robots that were a bit clunky so I was left disappointed.  Next time I read something in the steampunk genre, I want Victorian themed androids that I would see in Doctor Who or something but maybe I have a high standard for science fiction based books.

I don't know why but the way Jessamine behaved, believing in the gender roles, annoyed me because she was a Shadowhunter and had the ability to fight but she chose to think that this was a bad thing because she wanted a husband so she could be looked after and not have to work as was expected from a well-off Victorian woman and in turn thought that the way Charlotte acted was improper.  The Shadowhunters were a force of good in the world and were needed to help keep the Downworlders in line and with one member not wanting to fight and leaving it all up to the younger male Shadowhunters is not very inspiring even though she was clearly capable as demonstrated when she was forced to fight.

Slowly Jessamine lowered her hand from her mouth, her face still pale.  "Goodness, my nose is enormous," she exclaimed.  "Why didn't anyone tell me?" - Page 74

I loved this part because it just showed how self-absorbed Jessamine was because it made me laugh and summed up her character well from my point of view because she believes in the Victorian gender roles and thinks that she has to be good-looking to get a good husband and knowing her nose is big (from her point of view) is horrifying as she believes it could harm her chances to get away from the Shadowhunter life.

While I wasn't overly thrilled by this series as it felt a bit too similar to The Mortal Instruments series with the female protagonist not knowing what she really was and one of the male protagonists is shrouded in some kind of mystery and isolates himself from the female lead, the story works well in the era it is set and could have more appeal to those that have read The Mortal Instruments series rather than going in with this series straight away.

Predictions

1. Will's secret is revealed

2. Jem's condition gets worse

3. Tessa finds out what kind of Downworlder she is