Book Review: Clockwork Princess

Clockwork Princess Review

Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭

Title: Clockwork Princess
Author: Cassandra Clare
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, YA, Romance
Format: Paperback, 565
Publication: 2013
Source: Personal Copy

"Most people are lucky enough to have even one great love in their life. You have found two."

- Woolsey Scott, Chapter 5, 121

Lucky for me, I've found three. Clockwork Princess is the last book in beautiful The Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare. This novel is about secrets, betrayal, love and sacrifice. Tessa prepares for her wedding but is disrupted by chaos in the Shadow and mundane world. The Lightwood boys encounter trouble of the demonic kind and they turn to the London Institute for help. To make matters worse, Mortmain is still after Tessa; the girl that both Jem and Will have devoted a piece of their heart's too.

Clockwork Princess was an amazing conclusion to The Infernal Devices. I enjoyed every single part of it. Cassandra Clare found a way to weave the stories and pasts of the characters into the page of the novel and make it easy to follow and understand. The wit and humour in this book never failed to impress me; I loved the bickering between Gabriel and Will throughout book. I'm a massive fan of how, when reading this book, I was able to understand things about the Shadowhunter world and The Mortal Instruments better as revelations surfaced. It was like figuring out who killed who in a CSI episode before the detectives do. Clockwork Princess is also a lot more emotionally driven and darker than the previous two books in the trilogy.

The only thing that really disappointed me about this book was the lack of action. The whole book was based on finding Mortmain only for him to be squashed like a bug in just a few pages at the end of the book. So to say, the chapters were patchy with action and needed a bit more to speed up the pace of the book. To make up for that, the plot was driven by character motives and not solely for convenience (a bookish pet peeve of mine). To address the ending, it finished on a bitter sweet note, if you did not know already. I thought it was heart breaking, beautiful and satisfying and served was it was meant to. All ties were severed cleanly, romantic entanglements were solved and all characters got their happy ending one way or another.

One of the main themes of this book is the measure of love (also the name of the last chapter), whether it be fraternal or romantic. Every character was given the lime light in this novel and through that they were all able to be developed remarkably well. Each of their stories and dilemmas melded well with the plot and a different side was able to be seen in each of them.I loved reading about them and the way they are constantly maturing and learning new things, especially the heroine, Tessa. The love triangle between Jem, Tessa and Will was probably one of my favourite elements of this book and if you read it, you will understand why. As a result of Cassandra's amazing character building, loving these characters was completely unavoidable and inevitable, all part of the wonderful reading experience that comes with reading The Infernal Devices trilogy.

I find it harder to write reviews for books I personally love so much. It's hard to turn piles of myriad thoughts and emotions into a few paragraphs of cohesive ideas. Its fair to say Clockwork Princess is unrivalled in its glory and perfectness. The book was overall amazing, even though it had its flaws. I whole heartily recommend this book - and series - for everyone who loves an adventure that explores the world of fantasy, love and humour.

             Ave atque vale. Hail and farewell The Infernal Devices.

View all my reviews // Goodreads // Amazon // Booktopia // Book Depository