"Honesty is as Blonde does..."
THE INFERNAL DEVICES WILL NEVER STOP COMING
A net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of pitiless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters. He needs only one last item to complete his plan: he needs Tessa Gray.
Charlotte Branwell, head of the London Institute, is desperate to find Mortmain before he strikes. But when Mortmain abducts Tessa, the boys who lay equal claim to her heart, Jem and Will, will do anything to save her. For though Tessa and Jem are now engaged, Will is as much in love with her as ever.
As those who love Tessa rally to rescue her from Mortmain’s clutches, Tessa realizes that the only person who can save her is herself. But can a single girl, even one who can command the power of angels, face down an entire army?
Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment, and the tangled threads of love and loss intertwine as the Shadowhunters are pushed to the very brink of destruction in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.
I want to start this review off saying that I have honestly not been reading this series for the actual story/mystery happening in the plot. I have continued to read these books for the enjoyment of the characters, mostly Jem Carstairs and Will Herondale, and which of these two fascinating and complicated characters the protagonist will choose to love. If that mushy character-love-triangle-complicated mess-of-heartache is the kind of thing you like, definitely read this book. Maybe it's just me, but I get way too emotionally attached to these characters, and I spent a lot of this book sobbing over the pages for the situations that the author has set them up to be involved with.
I will continue by adding that I love the world that is presented in this series, and I was a little disappointed by the lack of "London" we had in this final installment. I missed the seedy backstreets and the actual going after Downworlders and the action. There was a lot of running around the English and Welsh countryside, I guess, but not a whole lot of good, thought-provoking plot or hunting or action happening.
Basically, as I see it, this book was less a conclusion to figuring out what Tessa Grey really "was" (Shadowhunter? Warlock? Faerie?) and the real reason why Mortmain wanted her so much as to plot out her birth from basically her mother's birth, not even simply Tessa's conception. It was more of a clusterfuck of all of the characters falling in love really really quickly so we can see where certain items or characteristics come into play in the Mortal Instruments series.
There was some weird Consul drama that had never made itself known before this installment and seemed really random, but the way it presented itself (in the back-and-forth letters to Charlotte Branwell, and the Council and the Lightwood brothers) was a cool perspective to peek into.
[HUGE SPOILERS]
I was disappointed with how my favorite character, Jem, was portrayed in the first half of Princess. He was weak and a push over, and when he found out what should have been shocking and enfuriating news, he sat back and took it like a wuss. It wasn't until the second half -which came about as a HUGE surprise and was set up/hidden beautifully -that he developed back into the Jem I loved from this series. I was left very confused about the whole process of how he came to be in his weird and tentative "Silent Brother" position, and I am excited to see how his transformation is possible in City of Heavenly Fire. Honestly, though, I was satisfied with his "ending" and I'm just hoping we can get glimpse of him in the upcoming Clare books.
One of the things that I will always like about Clare's books is her writing style. It is so easy to read, but also incredibly descriptive and inclusive, despite the third person POV, which could have a tendency to leave the reader feeling distant. The writing in this book saved it from the less than exciting plot. Clare's prose is beautiful, and it has a way of going into you as if they were your own thoughts and words, making reading her work a special kind of personal experience.
I also really like the way she incorporates what the characters are wearing, especially because their clothes are the biggest aspect of the book that puts them in the time period.
Why didn't we get any better peramiters about what Tessa can Change into? The "surprise" end battle came very suddenly and a little anticlimatically. Also, Tessa has been training with Sophie and Cecily for months -why is she so useless in a fight? Literally, she's either being told to run away, stay on the sidelines, or is getting abducted! She should be better at this, especially if she was training to be a Shadowhunter to Ascend for the freakin' wedding!
Plot Rating: 2/5
There wasn't a whole lot of changing elements going on in this book. There were four main plot points happening in this installment, and all 563 pages of it were devoted to ringing out every bit of emotion the reader could have possibly had to feel bad or angry for the characters directly involved in these plot points.
The story of The Infernal Devices was neatly wrapped up, however, and that's more than a reader usually gets in a trilogy.
Emotional Rating: 4/5
This book was definitely meant to pull at the fans' hearts and make them cry...a lot. If I represent the normal reader, then this strategy worked very well.
Satisfying Ending Rating: 3/5
At first I was really happy about the way this ended, both in the regular story and the Epilogue. But then I stopped for five minutes and realized that this ending was way too convenient for Tessa and, in a very un-Clare-like fashion, both "endings" ended happily. WHAT? That is not what I've come to expect from these Shadowhunter stories.
Overall: 3.5/5
While I expressed a lot of disappointment in this review, the prose was beautiful, all hanging plot points were closed up (the ones that were intentionally left secret I can't account for, obviously -visit Cassie's Tumblr for info on that), and my favorite couple won. I was sad and cried, and I was happy and cried.
This definitely won't deter me from continuing to read Cassandra Clare's other works, and it was satisfying enough so that I can continue my tradition of rereading my favorite series every once in a while.
As part of a whole, the first being the introduction, second rising action, and third the climax and resolution, then yes, I do believe that this was a successful end to a trilogy, though I hope there will not be any surprise continuation of Tessa's personal story, unless it is in the form of occasional appearences in the future/present-time series.
That's all for now,
The Blonde
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