Warning: The following reviews contain spoilers. If you have not read the books and would appreciate discovering the twists and turns as you read along, you could stop reading this right now. Otherwise, proceed to the rest of the *pretty long* post. Enjoy. 😉

The Infernal Devices is a recently concluded trilogy by Cassandra Clare (author of The Mortal Instruments series) comprised of the following books:

Infernal Devices coversThat’s Will Herondale, Jem Carstairs and Tessa Gray on the covers respectively

Here are my individual ratings and comments:

Clockwork Angel – ★★★☆☆

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

The truth is I was not enamored with the story. It has its high and low points, but nothing really stood out for me. Will seems to be the combination of two lead characters in The Mortal Instruments, a fusion of Alec’s dark hair and blue eyes and Jace’s wit and sarcasm. Aside from her ability to shape-shift, I could not find anything all that special in Tessa. Jem is a good soul, a gentle young man with silver hair and eyes. Oh, and our favorite warlock Magnus Bane is here too! 😀

The story seems to have promise, but instead of liking the twist and turns here, I just feel like the plot is dawdling and meandering its own scattered course with its goal a very far unforeseeable distance ahead. I could not wait for the next books just to know what the infernal devices are and what the series really is all about.

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Clockwork Prince – ★★★★☆

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.

The story picks up pace from Clockwork Angel and I enjoyed this much more than I did the first book. There are plenty of revelations and betrayals. More of the Magister’s plans are revealed, as well as the motivation behind them. The Will-Tessa-Jem love triangle is already in place, albeit the two boys unknowing of each other’s feeling for Tessa at first. I found myself rooting for Will, though Jem is a pretty decent guy too. Dunno, I guess I just like the bad boy better than the boring nice one in this case. My heart broke for Will when just as his “curse” was broken and he finally allowed himself to love Tessa, he found out that she and Jem had just gotten engaged. And yes, up to this point I still could not find what it is that makes Tessa special. Sue me.

Magnus Bane figures prominently in the story and provides a refreshing break from all the gloom and doom. I don’t know, he’s just that cool he makes any chapter come alive no matter how dreary the situation he is involved in. Or maybe I just like his character a little too much compared to Tessa, who’s the lead character.

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Clockwork Princess – ★★★★★

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

The story kinda dragged for the first 1/3 or so of the book. I was like, I’ve been reading for so long and so much has already happened and there’s still about 2/3 more? :o But in the end it was all worth it. I love how all the loose ends in the first two books were neatly tied up. Tessa’s murky lineage is finally revealed. We finally know what manner of Downworlder she is and why the Magister (Mortmain) will do everything to get her. She was able to fully utilize her awesome powers to save the day when all hope seemed lost, and that totally kicked ass since I only figured out what she was gonna do a few breaths right before she actually did it. So yeah, I only began to like her in this book. The Will-Tessa-Jem love triangle was also resolved in a quite unexpected but very satisfying way. Tessa had it good; she got both guys after all, and not in an obscene threesome way either. You could say Tessa had her cake and ate it too;)

As well as tying up loose ends, the book also laid out some of the premises and lineages for the then-future events and characters in The Mortal Instruments (the Fairchilds, Lightwoods and Jace) and subsequently the yet-unreleased but already highly-anticipated The Dark Artifices (Emma Carstairs). I initially thought that Emma is one of Jem’s direct descendants since they bear the same family name, but upon closer look at the family tree in the beginning of the e-book (which was pretty low-res so I did not give it any attention at first, only at the end when Tessa and Jem met again) it turns out she came from Jem’s uncle’s lineage. In Clockwork Princess, this uncle, Elias Carstairs, tried to give Will the Carstairs family heirloom after Jem became a Silent Brother. Will refused and Tessa told Elias to keep it for his own heirs. I just have this feeling that that heirloom, the sword Cortana, would make a reappearance in The Dark Artifices in Emma’s possession. Another hunch is that Tessa and Jem would resurface in the upcoming series as well.

Even from the first book Clockwork Angel, I have been thinking that parabatai Jace Wayland/Herondale and Alec Lightwood (from The Mortal Instruments) seem to be the perfect split-up of Will, with Jace having his wit and sarcasm and Alec  his physical traits (this was actually mentioned in The Mortal Instruments by the vampire Camille Belcourt). And then in Clockwork Princess, it is revealed that they are actually related through siblings Will and Cecily, their ancestors respectively. Ang galing lang, nakakatuwa. 😀

All in all, the book managed to thoroughly satisfy me. Not merely a perfect ending to a great series, but also a precursor or portent of sorts to the other Shadowhunter Chronicles that comes after it chronologically, story-wise. Oh, and I just have to mention that this is the first book in a while that had me pulling an all-nighter just to finish the story. Yeah, that good. 😀

Kudos to Cassandra Clare for coming up with such a brilliant world of stories! 🙂

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2 thoughts on “Review: The Infernal Devices (Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess)

  1. i got excited reading with the topic/title of your post cause i love infernal device and mortal instrument. i just started reading the clockwork princess. but the thing that excites me the most is seeing jace, clary, alec, et al in the big screen! sana its august na! =)

    1. Will definitely be watching the movie too, hopefully with the BF in tow if he gets here on time. 😉 The cast of City of Bones is pretty decent compared to my imaginings of the characters with the sole and glaring exception of Jace, of all people. I just could NOT see Jamie Campbell Bower as the legendary Jace Wayland. Just, no. Will see if the movie would change my mind about him. 😛

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