Clockwork Princess
Ratings291
Average rating4.4
This month I feel like I've gone on such a wonderful journey through the world of Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters and her Infernal Devices Trilogy, I've been what I would term a transient reader for the past year and have struggled to read sometimes one book a month but somehow in May I have managed to read this entire trilogy and a few other books besides. The other books were there as fillers to stop me from reading The Infernal Devices books back to back but my desperation to return to Clare's world meant I found myself devouring those books quickly too lest it takes me too long away from the world of Jem, Tessa and Will.
I had tried to begin The Mortal Instruments, the companion series to these books, and each time I had stalled. I just couldn't build that picture in my mind of the world Clare was building but now I can see it as clearly as day. I feel it's been fundamental for me to read this series, essentially the prequel to The Mortal Instruments books in order to be able to fully prepare myself to go back and delve into the modern world setting of the other books. I think I needed to have that gothic, historical setting and wonderful love stories to make me fall in love with the Shadowhunter world and to build the family background of all the characters that I will meet as I move into The Mortal Instruments.
And what a story this was, from the opening chapters it is full of a wonderful mix of adventure and suspense and emotion and love. It picks up immediately after the end of Clockwork Prince where we find that Will Herrondale's sister Cecily has arrived at The Institute and is training now to be a Shadowhunter. We are still trying to track down the mysterious Magister and his army of clockwork automatons and to piece together how Tessa forms such an integral part of his plans. We also are still questioning how Tessa has the ability to shapeshift when both of her parents were apparently mundane's. All of the characters we've come to love are there and it's like coming home to family, you feel like part of the Institute and care about each and every single one of them. From Bridget the cook and her somewhat annoying if not insightful singing to Charlotte, head of the institute who is now pregnant with her first child.
Alongside all of the adventure of this book, the story is fundamentally about the one story we are all desperate to know the end of, the love between Jem, Will and Tessa. When we left them Tessa was engaged to marry Jem but his health is failing and unbeknown to him his best friend and parabatai Will is also in love with his fiancee. For the first time in any love triangle, I was so desperately rooting for them all. Jem and Will are so intricately a part of each other and such wonderfully written characters that you want to be able for Tessa to love them both. This book had me wrung out emotionally throughout, there were so many moments of wonderful writing where Clare would move their story forward but also take great care not to rush past the difficult emotions that were going on within. At times there is humour and light moments to lift us from the darkness and this balance is a very special thing.
We do reach a wonderful and very satisfying conclusion at the end of the book, one I certainly didn't see coming. In fact, throughout this book, there were so many moments where Clare would so utterly surprise you with how the story changed and moved that I found myself catching my breath and in sheer joy or amazement. Those surprises you don't see coming make this an amazing end to her wonderful Infernal Devices series. Coming away from them I feel like I've made a whole group of new friends, not real friends but as a book lover, I'm sure you know that feeling that the people you read about when written well leap so off the page that they feel as real to you as can be. I am still utterly enraptured by Magnus Bane, I don't know what it is about him that makes Clare write him so vividly that each time he is on the page he totally consumes it, he is so utterly three dimensional you feel you could reach out and touch him. I want to learn so much more about how each of the families of Shadowhunters will move forward in The Mortal Instruments. I want to see how their children's children and great grandchildren will reflect the characters of their ancestors.
These books have been such a wonderful experience to read this past month. Someone said to me recently that if you are in a reading slump maybe it's not the reading that's the problem but what you are reading. Never has a truer word been spoken. To break away from my usual genre's and to enter a world unfamiliar has paid me such dividends and rejuvenated me so much that I feel more enthusiastic about reading than I have in such a long time. For that, Cassandra Clare, I thank you.
Ah what an ending! I loved this series, it was so much better than the TMI series. I enjoyed the characters, the historical London setting and the plot was just more enjoyable too. I did have some issues with this book which brought the rating down slightly for me, but overall a very good conclusion.
Fantastic prequel series to the Shadowhunters series.
Makes me want to re-read the entire series all over again!
When I first read this book/trilogy I gave them all 5 stars. I was so hooked!! Mostly on the romance of course!! This time around I was still hooked on the romance but because everything wasn't new to me I wasn't as hooked. Also I noticed things like how long the chapters were which now drives me crazy and the fact that nothing much happens with the main plot throughout any of the books until the last one. It is dragged out and then is resolved pretty easily in my opinion. I still really enjoyed my reread I just lowered my rating to 4 stars instead of 5. Below is my original review.
It has been a while since I have been so into a book or book series that I couldn't put it down. That is the case with this trilogy. Every time I put the book down I found myself constantly thinking about it. This is by far one of the best series I have ever read I cant believe it took me so long to read them. I cant decide on how I feel about the ending. On one side I am completely heart broken but then again I think that it couldn't have ended any better. I read this series first before the mortal instruments and I found that I understood everything without a problem. If you have not read this series yet I highly suggest that you do
Oh, edningnya.... Bagaimana Cassie menyelesaikan cinta segitiga, yang juga kurang aku sukai apabila penulis menyertakan cinta segitiga. Aku membaca epilog hingga berkali-kali karena sungguh membuat hatiku teremas-remas namun sekaligus bahagia.
: UTTERLY PERFECT.
One of the best, cleverest, most beautiful books I've read so far. I have no words, I'm in love with every bits of those words, of those characters, of that universe. The amount of romantism out of here is on a whole new level in my opinion, and it's just magnificent. You can't predict the plot as much as it is well rounded, so beautifully thinked. Now I'm frustrated to know that there are no more to read about Tessa, Will, Jem and the others because they've become my babies and I don't want to leave them and... EWWWW HUG ME. \o/
“I have come to understand something about novels,” Tessa said.“And what is that?”“They are not true.”
Ave atque vale,
WOW! I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting with this book, but what I just read completely changed my thoughts. That book was so emotionally draining, I'm not even sure where to begin with my thoughts. I think I'm just going to leave it by saying that it was a fantastic way to finish the trilogy and I cannot wait for The Last Hours to read more about Tessa.
I was pretending to write a review in english but... I have a lot of things to say.. so, let's do it in portuguese.
Sentimentos confusos sofre esse livro. Ainda sou MUITO TEAM WILL - pois o moço arrasava, um real príncipe com PhD!, que dava e conseguia deixar qualquer pessoa sem ar... Completamentamente.
O que me leva a pensar do por que não Will não ter se tornado imortal ou ele e Jem dividirem um mesmo corpo embora almas distintas, o que me pouparia, também, de um choro quase convulsionado que apenas quem sofre grandes perdas com o envolvimento na leitura pode entender. Team Will e Team Jem, ambos saem felizes com o término das peças infernais. Embora, como fã louca pela história, falatou a explicação do Jem sobre esta longa história que envolvia Lightwood, Fairchild e Herondale. Really, I want to know. Não é/são todos os dias que vemos um Irmão do Silêncio voltar a ser lindo! Por mais que ela o amasse igualmente, falta o QUÊ de Will Herondale no James.
Cassandra Clare ... Você se superou. Um nível muito acima de Os Instrumentos mortais, e o mais enriquecedor, com certeza, fora ver essa mudança na visão do mundo e a mudança de costumes e tradições que atinge até mesmo uma sociedade fantástica como a dos Caçadores de Sombras. Como por exemplo, o preconceitos por mulheres no governo, pelas invenções científicas as quais no mundo atual nenhum Shadow Hunter consegue imaginar ficar sem (o portal, o “rastreador” de demônios, dentre outros).
Acho que ainda estou muito na euforia de ter terminado a leitura.l Meus olhos ainda estão marejados pela morte de Will por mais mortal que a personagem seja (acho que é um dos primeiros livros que leio onde o autor comenta como a personagem mais carismática e desejada morre, como fora sei leito de morte, envolvendo com tanto sentimentalismo e significado cada cena e cada momento do texto). Ainda acho que Tessa merece a carteirinha de Biscate Grossa.. Poréém... relevando tudo, o livro surpreendeu.
Série recomendabilíssima
Honestly, I'm still not sure what to say about this book.
I did enjoy it, even more than I did the previous two. I'm not sure if that's because Ms. Claire's writing is improving or I'm just getting used to it. It did seem like there were fewer instances of eye color repeating.
To a degree, I liked the love triangle resolution as it really seemed like the only realistic way those three people would be happy - however, it did also feel like a major cop-out. I did occasionally wanted to rap Jem or Will over the head, because of the painfully honorable way they insisted on behaving. You definitely get the feeling that either of them would step back, letting the other be with Tessa, for the sake of friendship and the love of a Parabatai. Of course, their honor towards each other tends to ignore what Tessa herself wants, which was a little frustrating too.
I liked the addition of other characters to the story also. Of course, after awhile it did seem like every character was introduced just to be a love interest for another character. Thankfully enough, they didn't read that way.
One thing I didn't like was the epilogue. I've never been a fan of stories that feel the necessity to lay out a person's whole life in front of you. It often serves to distance me from the character.
On the plus side, my absolute favorite moments of these books are when the whole group is together, (whoever comprises the group for that book, anyway) usually eating, and trading witty barbs, snarking, and generally being absolutely hilarious.
If you've read and enjoyed the other two in this series, I'd recommend you read this one. (‘Course, if you enjoyed the other two, you're probably already planning to read this book so my recommendation is moot point.)
Now, I will leave you with two parting words that I shall now find disproportionately funny for the rest of my life: Enormous worm.
(Originally posted on my blog: http://pagesofstarlight.blogspot.com/)
I cannot express my love for this book enough. I just love it so much. The fact that this book gives me such desire to continue with books set nearly 150 years later is just so amazing. It is just so good. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I give this rating because the majority of the novel did lag a lot for me and I think chunks of the book–mainly the minute details of certain lakes, and forestry and overall description–could have been edited out. I did, however, absolutely adore the last third of the book, and the epilogue was fantastically executed. I just think it could have been more impressionable were it 100-150 pages shorter.
El Extraño Gato del Cuento
A la pregunta: ¿escritores que te hace sufrir? Es inevitable pensar en Cassandra Clare (Cassie para los amigos). Princesa Mecánica más que un libro esperado, es un libro temido.
Teorías, teorías. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr y demás redes sociales estaban llenos de teorías. Los que se iban por Jessa o Wessa/Twill (¿? Juro que nunca recuerdo como es pero siempre me da la risa tonta cuando pienso en los nombres) e incluso el fandom HeronStair y Team Share se daban duro, todos querían ganar.
Personalmente era difícil ponerme de un solo lado. Dos de los tres protagonistas son amados por mí. Sí, dos de tres, Jem y Will, no me cae muy bien del todo Tessa. De acuerdo, acepto que me iba por el HeronStair (Herondale + Castairs) Así que entenderán lo difícil y toda la fuerza de voluntad que tomó de mí el leerlo, los dos primeros libros no nos auguran un final feliz para todos y conociendo como conocemos a Cassie con su afición de hacer sufrir a todo el fandom en general, los iratzes ya estaban listos.
Les voy a decir la verdad, yo me “arruiné” el libro. No sé...
Reseña Completa: El Extraño Gato del Cuento
A wonderful (and heart-wrenching) ending to a wonderful (and heart-wrenching) series!
So wonderful and amazing. The book was an emotional roller coaster of epic proportions, I can't even measure the amount of tears I cried reading this.