Clockwork Angel review

The Basics

Book Title: Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1)

Author: Cassandra Clare

Pages: 476

ISBN: 978-1-4169-7586-1

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Defining Quote

"Sometimes," Jem said, "our lives can change so fast that the change outpaces our minds and hearts. It's those times, I think, when our lives have altered but we still long for the time before everything was altered-that is when we feel the greatest pain. I can tell you, though, from experience, you grow accustomed to it. You learn to live your new life, and you can't imagine, or even really remember, how things were before." - p. 308

Summary

A group of people called Shadowhunters exist in which to protect humans (or mundanes) from the supernatural creatures of the world (or Downworlders). The story follows Tessa, who is trying to find her brother after recently discovering that she has the ability to shape shift. 

Thoughts

If I read this book in high school, or even college, I probably would've rated this book 4 or 5 stars. I feel like it was a good plot (which is what kept me going through the book) and the characters are developed well enough for a young adult audience (which is the group targets for this book). I rated this 3 stars for a few reasons. 

One is a tiny reason, but a reason nonetheless. There are multiple times throughout the book where Tessa and Will, the main characters, quote classics and poetry to each other. Now, I know that there are a lot of teenagers who do read classics and they may enjoy them, but I found it a little unrealistic for teenagers to be quoting and referring to classics so often and to know them SO well that they can quote long passages from the books. I'm a book nerd and I don't quote from classics as much as these characters do, and that's me at my current age (which is about 10 years older than these MCs). Again, not a big thing, but it was part of the reason that I declared a little bit from the book. 

Another reason is that I felt my interest in what was happening going in and out throughout the book. The book started off engaging, and then they're at the Institution and it seemed like a waiting period until the next big thing happened. Now, I know that it's important for there to be a break between action scenes in order to allow some breathing room, but for me, I could feel myself engaging in it and detaching from it throughout. Again, I think if I was younger, I would eat this up and not be able to put the book down. But I'm not. At 27, almost 28, I've dived into some adult fantasy that is written well (such as Brent Weeks and Brandon Sanderson) and loved the engaging characters and the information revealed even during the non-action moments. Going back to reading this book, obviously aimed towards teens, was difficult for me to stay engaged 100% because it dialed down too much during the non-actions scenes. I hope that makes sense. I love reading YA books, but this one seemed to not be able to branch out to older audiences (ex. Harry Potter, A Court of Thorns and Roses). 

My final reason for detracting on my score is the relationship between the two main characters. Now, I'm all about a bad-boy-who-is-actually-kind as my main love interest, but I'm finding Will to be a little too angsty for me. Again, as a teen, I would probably eat up the romance and love every word of it. As an adult, I didn't care for it AS much. I still enjoyed it to a point, but wasn't as invested. 

Overall, if you're a teenager or really just interested in an easy-to-read fantasy novel, this is a great book to check out. Like I said before, I found the plot very interesting and I'm considering continuing on with the series purely to find out the answers to the mystery they left dangling at the end of the book. If you're looking for something a bit more complex (let's say the A Court of Thorns and Roses series), you're not going to find that here. 

Pros vs. Cons

• Pros
• Good plot
• Interesting characters
• Has a good mystery throughout
• Cons
• Written on the simpler side
• Male love interest a little too angsty for my taste
• Main characters have some traits that seem a little unbelievable

Overall Rating

⭐⭐⭐