Monday, October 13, 2014

The Infernal Devices Series by Cassandra Clare

In a time when Shadowhunters are barely winning the fight against the forces of darkness, one battle will change the course of history forever. Welcome to the Infernal Devices trilogy, a stunning and dangerous prequel to the New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series.

The year is 1878. Tessa Gray descends into London’s dark supernatural underworld in search of her missing brother. She soon discovers that her only allies are the demon-slaying Shadowhunters—including Will and Jem, the mysterious boys she is attracted to. Soon they find themselves up against the Pandemonium Club, a secret organization of vampires, demons, warlocks, and humans. Equipped with a magical army of unstoppable clockwork creatures, the Club is out to rule the British Empire, and only Tessa and her allies can stop them....

My Thoughts:
Could not put down this entire series. It's like Jane Austen meets Stephanie Meyer. So fun. And waaaaaayyyy better than the Mortal Instruments series. The love triangle/whining got a little irritating but I still could not stop reading. Addictive.

Ok, so book one, Clockwork Angel, was an immediate hook with Tessa (our main character) being kidnapped in the first chapter. Not only kidnapped, but taken by creepy/supernatural witch ladies. They were seriously scary. And the whole series goes on like that: Fast-paced, fun with crazy action. Some of the fun of this book was the mystery about who Tessa really was. Was she a Shadowhunter? Was she a demon? No one knew what to make of her and it was fun to guess about it. I will say that reading The Mortal Instruments Series did help me understand the whole Shadowhunter world; Had I not read that series first I would probably have been very confused. But I don't recommend that series at all, really. Maybe you could just read the first book in it to get all the basics? 

These books actually contained a decent amount of creepiness with all the vampires and monsters and demons and magic and whatever else going on. I appreciated that. The world Clary built for both this series and The Mortal Instruments series was very complex and evolved; I appreciated that, too. There are layers and rules and different types of beings and it was fun to read about.

I really enjoyed the brotherly relationship Jem and Will had. And the reasons Will had for pushing everyone but Jem away were interesting. Will's progression, especially, was fascinating to watch. But, honestly, Jem and Will both felt a bit too immature for my taste. But that may just be the author's personality because just about all of the characters I've read in her books have been severely immature. But throughout everything the bond between Jem and Will was strong and I did enjoy that. The bond between Tessa and her brother was kind of depressing, on the other hand. 

And then there was the love triangle. This was an especially annoying love triangle. I got really sick of reading about how beautiful Will's face was. There was a lot of whining and pining and confusion and it just. Kept. Going. Up until the very end. And even then it didn't end, which won't make sense until you read it. I was actually surprised by the ending, which is something I loved about this series. A couple of things surprised me. Yay. 

The last book got a bit whiney and over-explainy. I thought Will's reactions were understandable but Tessa's were strange. Her character somehow evolved into an emotionally bizarre person. I don't know how to explain that without spoiling. And once again, this series was waaaaaayyyy better than the Mortal Instruments series. I would so much rather see these books made into movies. I hope this movie will be better than the Mortal Instruments one, anyway.

So, overall, these were fun, quick reads that have no real, lasting value but are entertaining enough for a fluff book.  The characters were immature but I still connected with them enough that I wanted to keep reading. There was actually a significant fun/creep factor in here because of all the monsters and supernatural powers and dark things going on. There were some steamy scenes and in the last book it got especially steamy. But they were fun. I don't know if I would recommend them, per se, but I would definitely recommend them over The Mortal Instruments series. Your call.

Sexual Content: Moderate
Language: Moderate
Violence: Moderate
Drugs/Alcohol: Moderate (I guess this is a pretty solid PG-13 rating)


Clockwork Angel: 4/5
Clockwork Prince: 4/5
Clockwork Princess: 3/5

Whole Series: 

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