Clockwork Prince - Book Review

I'm reading CP for the second time right now, so while the events are still fresh in my mind and I still remember everything, I've decided to write a book review. For those of you who don't know, it's the second book in the Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare, who has also written The Mortal Instruments.

THERE WILL BE SPOLERS IN THIS REVIEW

So, as we all know, Tessa's aunt is dead, she comes to the great gray city of London, learns about the Shadowhunters, and finds out that her brother is a traitor and is working for Mortmain, who is trying to kill them all with clockwork creatures, after which the series is partially named. (Oh, and Tessa has the power to turn into anyone she wants. There's that. I actually forgot that.) We all know this. It was sort of the plot of CA. Now, in the second book, Tessa and her Shadowhunting buddies are trying to figure out why Mortmain wants to kill them all, and more importantly, the love triangle is established by now and Tessa tries to decide between Will and Jem, although she does insist on constantly saying that Jem is just her friend and that they're not attracted to each other. Like, at all. Which is of course obviously a lie. (UPDATE: Actually, she just says that at the beginning. I've now read more and remembered that the engagement is in this book, not in CPR [CPS? CP the second? The initials are the same WHAT DO I DO?] like I thought)

(Gideon, Sophie, Henry, Charlotte, Will, Tessa, Church, Jem, Gabriel, Cecily, Magnus and Jessamine. From the official site of Cassandra Clare.)

The first time reading this series, I really wanted her to end up with Jem instead of Will, and I still do, but now that I've read the ending I love how she got to be with both of them. Also, re-reading the series (I also re-read TMI right before that) I realized that Will is not actually Jace (surprise surprise!) and has much more promising, nice qualities. For one, he can quote poetry and he reads a lot, so that's a plus. Also, he doesn't actually get drunk or have sex with a stranger once during the entire series, so he's just lying about his foul nature to protect those he loves. Aww. So after realizing that Will is not Jace I like him much more now (even though I absolutely love Jace. It's just... Will with that personality was difficult for me) and am ready for him to end up with Tessa again. Because I've already read this and I know what's going to happen.

On a different note, I've decided that this is the more romantic of the two series, TID and TMI. It has London, which is Romantic Series basic, only 3 books, which means that the plot is simpler (though still intriguing and genius!) and has more room for actual romance and love-triangle-ity, and we have a literature-loving heroine and Will, who apparently sits around in his free time and memorizes poetry and books. Actually, if I lived in the 19th century and looked as cool as Will I'd probably do that too just so that it would add to my coolness. Also, I wouldn't have a computer and access to as many books, so I'd just sit in front of my Already Read shelf and wonder what to memorize next.

I'd like to say one more thing here, which comes to debunk the myth that 'Cassandra Clare just didn't have any new ideas so she stole her first Institute Trio'.

Jessamine≠Isabelle

Jem≠Alec

and, as I've already established,

Will≠Jace

Sure, they're similar. Alec and Jace and Will and Jem are Parabatai. Isabelle/Jessamine is the only girl and she likes fashion.

Izzy

Jessie

Iz

Jess (once, by Jem)

Sure, I get it. But Isabelle is also a fighter. She's a Lightwood and she had Shadowhunter pride. Jessamine hates fighting and getting dirty. Sure, it's the time period, but that's a huge difference. Also, while Jessamine is a lady, Izzy is the second best Shadowhunter of her age (after Jace).

Alec is shy. Insecure. Doesn't care about his own life (or cares more about others' lives).

Jem barely has a life to care about, but he's still full of life. He's funny and sarcastic and very open to Tessa about his feelings, once he's sure of them. Also, not gay.

And Will is just not Jace if you notice the small things. They love differently, push people away for different reasons and in different amounts, and even make different kinds of jokes. So she ran out of family names and thought that these two characters were a lot alike. That's understandable.

So maybe she liked the combo of two Parabatai boys and a girl and wanted to work with that again. They're completely different.

So that was that for CP. I might do a book review for Princess too but I don't have much left to say about this series now. We'll see :) Have a nice day!

~Tal