Book Review – Clockwork Princess

As any of you who might have been around my blog at all might know, I’ve been working my way through the Shadowhunter’s universe. I jumped in to join Ellie and Fiona for Shadowhunter Saturday a few books ago, which has been really great fun, but there were a couple of books ahead of me. Luckily the Infernal Devices trilogy is a side story and a jump back in time that I was able to take by myself, and I’ve now finished them! You can find my reviews here for Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince, books one and two respectively.

Synopsis
A net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of pitiless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters. He needs only one last item to complete his plan: he needs Tessa Gray.

Charlotte Branwell, head of the London Institute, is desperate to find Mortmain before he strikes. But when Mortmain abducts Tessa, the boys who lay equal claim to her heart, Jem and Will, will do anything to save her. For though Tessa and Jem are now engaged, Will is as much in love with her as ever.

As those who love Tessa rally to rescue her from Mortmain’s clutches, Tessa realizes that the only person who can save her is herself. But can a single girl, even one who can command the power of angels, face down an entire army?

Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment, and the tangled threads of love and loss intertwine as the Shadowhunters are pushed to the very brink of destruction in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.

Review
The Infernal Devices trilogy have proved to all be five star reads from me, and have been some of my favourites from Cassandra Clare. This book was clearly written with so much emotion that it genuinely reduced me to tears multiple times as the events unfolded.

Tessa has already proved herself to be a brilliant heroine and protagonist in previous books, but this conclusion really did show her to be so much more than that. Despite everything that has already happened to her, and everything she goes through within these pages also, she demonstrates that she is as capable as any Shadowhunter, and able to weather any storm.

I found myself growing to like the Lightwood brothers in this book more also, which was unexpected, as it turned out that with the right companions to keep them company, they were rather amusing, and Gabriel in particular showed he was made of much stronger stuff than had previously been demonstrated. I finished the book with huge respect for both him and Gideon, along with the rest of the Institute’s residents.

Cassandra Clare manages to balance out deep upset with moments of brilliant humour, and it’s with this I really think she shines, when coupled with historical fiction. I have enjoyed the more modern of the Shadowhunter books – the Mortal Instruments, and The Red Scrolls of Magic – but I do think that historical fiction as a setting is one of her strengths. Evidently well researched as well as well imagined, I did love this trilogy, and while I’m sad it’s over, three books is the perfect number to encapsulate the story.

As is my preference, I listened to part of this as an audiobook as well as reading some in a physical format, and I have to say that the narrator was hugely complementary to the story he was telling. The different voices he gave to the characters remained consistent, and he paced it beautifully depending on the moments that occured throughout.

You can find my reviews for the rest of the Shadowhunter’s books below:
City of Bones
City of Ashes
City of Glass
City of Fallen Angels
City of Lost Souls