Book Review
Title: Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3)
Author: Cassandra Clare
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Paranormal/Romance
Rating: *****
Review: After the emotionally devastating ending of Clockwork Prince, I couldn’t wait to see what the final instalment had for me. It is my first time reading this book in the series and despite being spoiled for a few things I was still excited to see where the story goes and final uncover what Tessa is once and for all. Clockwork Princess opens with a flashback to Aloysius Starkweather and his granddaughter, the same one who died but I am not so sure about it now as I have many theories about Tessa’s origins and the fact, she might be Aloysius’ granddaughter is one of them. That theory doesn’t seem likely as we see Adele’s Marking Ceremony where she receives her first rune but it doesn’t go to plan as it causes her agony meaning she isn’t strong enough to take them which usually leads to death or the person becoming one of the Forsaken. We also get to see the first time Will and Jem meet at twelve years old and it made me love Jem even more than I already do. When we re-join our characters, we see Tessa being fitted for her wedding dress when Gabriel Lightwood turns up covered in blood. They manage to learn that Benedict Lightwood has transformed into a demonic worm and killed all the servants but Gabriel managed to escape. Now, everyone bar Charlotte and Sophie are heading to the Lightwood estate to deal with Benedict. We can see that Will and Tessa don’t interact unless they have to and he treats Cecily the same way but he does want to protect her despite her insistence that he contact their parents despite it being against the Law. The group deal with the worm but it gives them a run for their money but surprisingly it is Cecily who manages to deal the worst blow but this is completely overshadowed when Jem collapses. Despite his gruff behaviour we do see that Will cares for his sister and he is worried about her but he isn’t the only one that has eyes on Cecily, it seems Gabriel Lightwood does too.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, they group have return to the Institute where the Silent Brothers have been summoned to help him. In the aftermath, Jem asks for Will and explains that his supply of yin feng is almost gone despite having enough to last months since he has been taking more of it to have a life with Tessa even though it is killing him quicker. Will obviously relays this information to Tessa and she is the one to suggest that Jem becomes a Silent Brother to heal him but he counters this by saying that he would have to come off the drug which might kill him and even then, he might not be strong enough for the runes he would be required to take. Will immediately heads to the East End to buy more followed by Cecily only to learn it is all gone which spells disaster for Jem as he needs it to survive. Jem has also given Will permission to search for a cure again but he may not live long enough to get it which is a devastating blow to them both as they are bound by their love for Jem and don’t want to see him die. In-between this we do get to see a lot of Shadowhunter politics as a new Consul is going to be elected and the Council have recommended Charlotte but the current Consul is against this and want his nephew to take the role but the Council are against it because of his young age and is lack of leadership skills which might come into play later on in the novel. Charlotte’s storyline is also expanding as she is pregnant and she learns that Jessamine is being released from the Silent City and is returning to the Institute because she has nowhere else to go now that her husband, Nate is dead. Tessa and Will pay a visit to Magnus to see if he will help them but this Magnus isn’t the same one, we see in City of Bones as he is far more closed off and unwilling to help Shadowhunters but eventually gives in because he feels that Will is his responsibility, he agrees to help them but time is running out for Jem.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, we see more political struggling as the Consul has gone against everything he said in favour of Charlotte in the previous book and even tries to enlist the aid of the Lightwood boys in spying on her to gather evidence that she is unfit to be Consul in his place. However, the Lightwood boys are double crossing him as they will spy on Charlotte but report false information to him in order to mislead him which might play a big role later on in the novel. So far, Clockwork Princess is feeling a little weak to the previous two book as I am almost 30% in and nothing has really happened so I am waiting for it to pick up. It certainly does pick up in this section as we see several things happen at once from Mortmain’s letter arriving confirming Will’s suspicions that he has bought up all the yin fen and wants to trade Jem’s drug for Tessa and Tessa agrees to this as she wants to hold onto Jem but he throws both the yin fen and letter into the fire which Will tries to retrieve. Afterwards the three make it up to each other and Jem and Tessa decide to marry sooner than they planned so they can spend their remaining time together as husband and wife and while this hurts Will he understands why they are doing it and doesn’t say anything about it. During this time Sophie also discovers that Gideon and Gabriel are spying on Charlotte and they show her their letters to prove that they aren’t betraying Charlotte and she finds it hilarious that their letters are designed to both tell the Consul nothing and infuriate him at the same time. However, all of this is overshadowed by the return of Jessamine but before we even see her a second carriage arrives driven by an automaton that attacks on the Silent Brothers and it seems the war Mortmain was referring to has finally begun.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the automatons slip out attacking the Shadowhunters who have their work cut out for them but this isn’t the worst of it as Mrs. Black is with them and seizes Tessa before tossing her into a carriage and riding away. Jem tries to chase after it but he quickly loses it before returning to the Institute and collapsing and doesn’t even seem fazed by Jessamine’s death. In the aftermath, everyone is stunned by Jessamine’s death but the loss of Tessa is even more profound as they know she is what Mortmain wanted all along. With Tessa gone and Jem close to death, Will doesn’t know what to do so he summons Magnus as he is the only person who can understand what Will is going through right now. Magnus tells Will that Jem would want him to go after Tessa and offers to watch over Jem and tell him where Will had gone when he awakens. However, Jem was awake through the whole conversation and now knows that Will is also in love with Tessa, he begs Will to go after her and gives them both his blessing as he is on death’s door and Will agrees despite the fact leaving Jem is hurting him so much because of the oath he swore to his brother. Cecily finds Will as he is preparing to leave and wants to go with him but Will refuses confessing everything, he has kept hidden from her and tells her that he loves her. Will even agrees to her terms that he will visit their mother and father to ease their pain even if he can’t return home much like she can’t because they are Shadowhunters through and through if he returns with Tessa alive and he sets out to rescue her. Meanwhile, Tessa awakens in a carriage with Mrs. Black with no means of escape and it turns out Mrs. Black continues to help Mortmain as she wants an automaton body to replace the body she was torn from and handing Tessa over is the key to that. However, we still don’t know what Mortmain wants with Tessa exactly, we do know it has something to do with her not being human but there is more to it than that. As Will advances of his destination he is unaware that Tessa has thrown herself from the carriage and presumably to her death or to some terrible injury but before that Mrs. Black explains that she is to be the ruin of the Nephilim because of what she is and she also confirms that Tessa mother was a Shadowhunter and doesn’t confirm whether her father was a demon. We also see the rest of Institute working to save Jem as that is the only way they can help Will and Tessa. In this we also see the clashing of the old Shadowhunter ways and the new era that Henry is trying to bring into the light.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Will continues on his journey to find Tessa unaware that she has escaped but she finds the necklace the Jem gave her and pushes on. While he stops at an inn his parabatai rune bleed and begins to fade and he knows for certain that Jem is dead and for a moment he goes mad taking on a pack of young werewolves that attacked him but Woolsey Scott stops them and gives Will the advice to carry on as his brother would have wanted and what Jem wanted was for Will to find Tessa. Back at the Institute everyone is grieving for the loss of Jem when Aloysius Starkweather arrives and in a private meeting with Charlotte, he explains that his granddaughter, Adele was replaced with a sickly human child by the faeries as revenge for what he and other Shadowhunters had done to Downworlders before the Accords were passed. The real Adele was given to a human family where she was raised and eventually married Richard Grey meaning that Tessa is his great-granddaughter. Mortmain having discovered that Tessa’s mother was a Shadowhunter that didn’t know she was a Shadowhunter and bore no runes sent a demon to her in the shape of her husband where she conceived Tessa. While many Shadowhunters believe that the children of demons and Shadowhunters are stillborn all these cases are Shadowhunters who are aware of what they are and have the runes that mark them as a Shadowhunter. Aloysius asks Charlotte to do all she can to retrieve Tessa and to let her know that she will be welcome under the Starkweather name as it is hers by birthright and even since meeting this man, I am actually starting to like him just a little. Back with Tessa, Mrs. Black catches up with her and recaptures her and Tessa is too tired and injured to put up much of a fight. Now in Mortmain’s hand, he explains to Tessa what she is and why he needs her, it is true that she is the product of a Shadowhunter and a Greater Demon meaning that she has the blood of the angel and magic but without the warlock mark and Mortmain intends to use her to breed a new race that will destroy the Shadowhunters. While she initially refuses, he agrees to send all the yin fen to Jem now he has her, if she will change into his warlock father for him and she agrees not knowing that Jem is already lost to them. Mortmain wants his father to give him the spell he needs to perfect the automatons and while Tessa fights the change, she can’t stop it as John Shade’s will is stronger than hers. Back at the Institute Consul Wayland, refuses to help Charlotte but Gabriel confesses what the Consul asked of him and that he didn’t send the last letter which would have damned Charlotte because he respects her. Together they decide they 9 of them at the Institute are going to use Henry’s portal to get to Wales and rescue Tessa even if it means losing the Institute for good as Tessa is more important to them than their positions.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Charlotte sends a letter to the Clave asking for help in defeating Mortmain and as a result Consul Wayland is going to relieve her of her position as Head of the London Institute but it doesn’t really matter to them. We bounce back and forth between Tessa and Will as Mortmain shows Tessa what his infernal devices can actually do now there are animated with demon energy and that none of the Shadowhunter’s weapons will work on them. Mortmain takes Tessa to a village where the infernal devices are slaughtering everyone there to show her that there is truly no mercy in him and she doesn’t realises that Will is also in this village and heading to the mountain where she is being kept. When Will finally arrives, he doesn’t think about the protections around Tessa and gets stuck on the wrong side of the invisible barrier with her where he has to tell her that Jem has died and the pair grieve together but after both confess that they have feelings for each other and if they are going to die the next day then they should go together and they spend the night together. When Tessa awakes, she finds her clockwork angel has left a mark on Will although she doesn’t know what it means, Tessa’s angel is going to be something very important I think in this final part of the novel as it contains the spirit of a real Angel who has spoken to Tessa even if it were only in her dreams and he has protected her since before she was born and I have a feeling he is going to protect her still but the mark it left on Will could also be a symbol of protection.
With the final battle between the Shadowhunters and the Infernal Devices rapidly approaching I had no idea what to expect from the climax of the novel. As Magnus and Henry have finished the Portal, they are relying on Cecily who is the only one with knowledge of where they are heading but it works perfectly and Magnus even comes across Will and Tessa and informs them that everyone has come for them. While Magnus is waiting to escort them to the other, the others have found the room with the automatons and Henry dissecting one realises it has been animated but before they can do anything it comes to life, crushing Henry and killing one of the Silent Brothers, which is obviously going to alert Magnus, Will and Tessa to what is happening. The battle is short and brutal and it seems Mortmain has the upper hand as the Shadowhunters are outnumbered but Tessa suddenly remembers what Mortmain said about her clockwork angel containing a small part of the spirit of an angel and she calls to it in order to change into the angel. She manages to do it and kill Mortmain which stops the infernal devices as well but the cost was great. With the angel’s fire leaving Tessa’s body she is in great pain and nothing seems to be able to bring her back not even Will as she continuously calls out for Jem and Will asks Charlotte to use her power to make it possible. Charlotte who has been offered the position of Consul agrees to take the position but has 3 conditions; Will is to become the head of the Institute and she wants to lead the Clave from the Institute for the first few years and the final condition she keeps secrets until she knows whether it has been accepted.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Tessa does recover after talking to Jem and calling off their engagement which allows her and Will to be together although not right away as they are grieving. Henry also recovers but he will never walk again but slowly the London Institute is rebuilding itself as even with Lightwood brothers are doing well as Gideon marries Sophie and Gabriel makes his feelings known to Cecily. Afterwards, Will keeps his promise to his sister and visits his parents after proposing to Tessa and Gabriel is also there with Cecily and it seems everyone got their happy ending. The epilogue was by far my favourite part as we see Will and Tessa’s long life together even as he grows old where she does not, we see their children including their first born son, James named after Jem and their grandchildren. The scene were Will dies with Tessa and Jem by his side was absolutely heart-breaking but in a good way. We then jump forward to 2008 where Tessa is going to meet Jem as she has done for over a hundred years only to learn that a cure has been found and he is now free of his service to the Silent Brothers meaning he and Tessa can finally be together. I am a little sad this is the end of these characters as we know Jem is mortal again and will ultimately die like Will but Tessa is immortal and I am looking forward to hopefully seeing more of her in some future books as well as her children and grandchildren. Overall, Clockwork Princess was my favourite book in the trilogy and I am eager to read more in the Shadowhunter universe very soon.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: City of Bones
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