Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices # 3) by Cassandra Clare Review

Name: Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices # 3)
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release Date: March 19th, 2013
Format: E-book copy
Buy the book on Amazon
568 pages

Summary:

Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy

Tessa Gray should be happy - aren't all brides happy?
Yet as she prepares for her wedding, a net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute.
A new demon appears, one linked by blood and secrecy to Mortmain, the man who plans to use his army of pitiless automatons, the Infernal Devices, to destroy the Shadowhunters. Mortmain needs only one last item to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. And Jem and Will, the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa's heart, will do anything to save her.

Goodreads

My Review:

I say it time and time again, but boy do I love Cassandra Clare!  I love her brilliant writing style, her intricate and complex characters, her witty remarks, her unique love stories, and everything else about her books that make them one of a kind.  I have always been a bigger fan of The Mortal Instruments series than The Infernal Devices, but I would be lying if I said that this book didn't knock The Infernal Devices up many points in my book.

Let's start with the main characters: Tessa, Will, and Jem.  All three of these characters go through extreme emotional changes throughout this book, making them all the more exciting.  Tessa finds more faith in herself and her magical abilities, all while coming to terms, as best as possible, with the fact that she will have to outlive all of her beloved shadowhunters.  Will learns to live away from the shadows of his curse, and Jem struggles through some very difficult mortality questions.  Clare did a brilliant job of making these characters' transitions seem realistic and I love the way they all progressed throughout the course of the series.

Everyone always says that you can't have the highs of life without the lows, and man did Clare do an amazing job with both of these.  There would be one chapter that was so sad that I felt like crying, and then the next one just made me feel so insanely overjoyed.  Most of the characters, especially Tessa, seem to deal with sadness by trying to find happiness in what they have left, and I love that about them.  Clare did a brilliant job at writing the happiness in this book, yet without forgetting to weave the underlying sadness throughout almost every chapter.

And that brings me to the best part of this book: the ending, and of course, Tessa's choice.  Let me start by stating how much I love Clare's love triangle.  Most love triangles involve two boys who fall in love with a girl and the girl loves them both back; however, that is not really a full triangle.  In Clockwork Princess, Tessa loves both boys, both boys love her, and the two boys love each other just as much as they love her (not in a romantic way, but in a way much, much stronger than a regular "brother" to "brother" way).  Each person loves the other in unique and different ways, yet they love each other completely and entirely.  I love the way that Clare makes it clear how even though they love each other in different ways, there is no reason why that should mean one love is stronger than another.  They are simply different, and not any less intense or truthful than another.  Who Tessa ends up with is quite interesting and I would not want to include any major spoilers in here, but Clare's ending (and the reasoning behind it) is definitely one of a kind.

I also loved how the epilogue was in the future, or in this case, the present time.  It is clear that one of the character's story fits in with The Mortal Instruments series, and I really hope that plot line is more fleshed out in the final Mortal Instruments book; after all, I know that how that character was brought back into the main story was not strictly speaking important to the ending of Clockwork Princess, but I am still curious to know!  But overall, I absolutely loved this book!  I have yet to find a book by Cassandra Clare that I have not loved, but this one was quite exceptional in and of itself.  That being said, you should definitely read this conclusion right away, and if you haven't read any of The Infernal Devices books, I would highly, highly recommend them!

My Rating: