Monday, May 15, 2017

The Infernal Devices - Trilogy Review - by Cassandra Clare

Hey all! 

I just finished re-reading The Infernal Devices trilogy, by Cassandra Clare! This is a part of my Shadowhunters Marathon, and I loved every moment of it!



I'm writing this as one review so there will be major spoilers. Don't say I didn't warn you! As this is one review, and I'm guessing you are reading this having read the books, I'm not going to be introducing each of the books this time. 



This is a series that definetly goes cresendo. Clockwork Angel definitely gives us a good start to a series - it has a good idea and an amazing setting, and we start seeing some character dynamics. You get some deciet, tensions and shadowhunter politics. But it's nothing mind-blowing. 

Next you start Clockwork Prince, and you start feeling attachments to some characters. You start to really understand Will and Jem, there is more intrigue with Jessamine, Mortmain and a deeper interaction with the main characters and side characters. You start to really see the love between Jem, Tessa and Will. Overall this book is more impressive than the first one. 

But then you get to Clockwork Princess, and that blows the other books out of the water. It is absolutely incredibly written: you feel what the characters feel, there is a great plotline, and an incredible finale. Now, I'm not usually someone who will cry when I read, but in Clockwork Princess, the emotions and character relations are written so amazingly that I cannot help but cry until the pages are blurry. 

As we could see with the first three books of The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare's writing style improves with each book, giving incredible finales. Reading these back to back really makes you realize the time and thought put behind each and every one of the characters, weather they are in the main group or a minor side character. 

I absolutely love the setting of this trilogy - I generally enjoy books taking place in Victorian England, but here, the combination of the 1800's, steampunk and shadowhunters was done perfectly! 

Now, I want to talk about emotions. This trilogy made me giggle and smile with its adorable times (such as in Clockwork Prince, when Jem is super shy around Tessa), but it also made me ugly-cry over and over again in the second half of Clockwork Princess! This was especially when Jem 'dies', and Will feels their Parabatai connection snap, and he leaves Jem's knife by a tree with his own blood on it. Oh goodness just writing this is getting me emotional agian! Of course, the feels are also strong when Jem is back in the institute as a Silent Brother, to talk to both Tessa and Will, and when Tessa is thinking of her life with Will, until his death, when she is waiting for Jem on Blackfriars Bridge (Which I went to visit a few weeks ago and was amazing!)

Cassie Clare, you kill me with this book. 

Tessa, Will and Jem are an amazing trio. I love how the love triangle isn't annoying - Tessa doesn't try to choose between the two, Will and Jem love each other enough to never have their love for Tessa come between them, and they each trust, respect and love each other to bits. It is amazing to read about! 

I also adore the side characters - Magnus goes through quite a bit of character development in this series, and you get to see the histories of some of the shadowhunter families we know and love from The Mortal Instruments. I actually love the ships with the Lightwood brothers and Cecily and Sophie! I feel like they really fit well and bring some sweet relief to the story during some hard times. 

Henry is awesome - he is such a dorky inventor, and I honestly think he at least deserves his own chapter, or short story! 

What I did realize is that Cassandra Clare seems to really like the whole brother-sister issues. In this book, Will has a strange relation with his sister - he wants to keep Cecily away from him just as much as he wants to protect her. Tessa believes that Nate is her brother, even though he is not. I haven't read The Artificial Devices yet, but I'm sort of expecting more sibbling issues now, haha! 

So, here is where I stand on the whole "team" thing:
- Jem is my book bae
- I love Jessa and Wessa equally
- TID is way better than TMI
- Parabatai relations struck me more than love relations

Overall, this trilogy gets better and better, is written gorgeously and can easily surprise you with how attached you get to each of the characters, and each of their stories. 

I'm giving the whole trilogy a 5/5 feathers! The first two books would get 4-4.5 feathers, but the third book brings the entire series back up to a 5! 



It took a lot of self-control to not gush all of my emotions into this review! But I'd love to fangirl with you in the comments! 

Have a great day

Stay bookish, 



4 comments:

  1. Oh Caroline, you summed everything up perfectly, I completely agree with everything you've said - especially as I'm re-reading Clockwork Princess right now and am overflowing with feelings! I love these characters so much and my favourite part of TMI was when Magnus brought these characters up, and when Tessa and Jem appeared in COHF! And I never thought about it before, but Cassie really does love sibling relationships - and you're right that is a big part of the Artificial Devices! And also in TMI with the Lightwoods and Clary and Jonathan - even when she thought she and Jace were siblings! Huh, it's really obvious now!

    Great review!

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    1. Hahah thanks! This review was so hard to make coherent, just because my emotions were all over the place! I'm re-reading the mortal instruments now, and I can't wait to see all of the subtle references!

      And I wonder if Cassie has some kind of strange sibbling relation herself - that would explain a lot!

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  2. I'm 100% with you on everything! The number of EMOTIONS that this series brought...I never knew it was possible to drown in the tears of book feels as badly as this. I love Wessa and Jesse equally too! Though I prefer Jem for myself ;) I mean, so much of this series was pure beauty. It was gorgeously written, with amazing Victorian descriptions, and all the characters were interesting and so easy to become emotionally invested in. Ahhhh, just reading this review makes me want to also reread the series too...it was better than TMI, 100%! A fantastic series review as always, Caroline :) Just recalling the ending of Clockwork Princess... *gasps as book feels begin hitting* SEND HELP.

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    1. Hey Erika!
      ^Your comment exactly! You definitely should re-read it, it's better the second time around! :D

      Thanks so much!

      *comes to help*

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