Synopsis: The Clockwork Price is Cassandra Clare's final installment in her The Infernal Devices trilogy. It follows Tessa's journey towards marriage and the troubling illness which seems to be catching up to her fiancée with haste. After a few shocking discoveries about Mortmain's whereabouts and his intentions, and after a sudden kidnapping of a much loved Downworlder, the race begins to save Tessa's life whilst Jem's progressively nears the end. The members of the London Institute face a big decision to make, betray the Clave or betray each other?
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SPOILERS
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So I just finished reading Clockwork Princess and was left
literally shattered. The book throws so many different emotions at you that
it's seriously too much to deal with. When Jem died, or when we at least
thought he had, I cried for about 3 hours straight. The way Cassandra described
Will's pain and then Tessa's grief made me feel like I myself had lost someone
and without him in the story it kind of felt like I had! Admittedly, I think
Cassandra should have left Jem dead. He had said his goodbyes and made peace
without everyone (except maybe Tessa) and I had just about managed to stop
crying when WHOOPS JEM POPS UP AGAIN. I was so confused at first and felt kind
of angry to be honest because I didn't want some miraculous cure to have popped
up last minute which would have been completely cliché and predictable. I
didn't expect him to become a silent brother, he never really mentioned even
considering it before and I'm sure he told Tessa he would never wish that life
for himself? What changed? We never really found out...
I don't mean to rant because I genuinely did love this book
but I did not like the epilogue. I thought the ending was perfect; Tessa was
going to marry Will which was what I had been rooting for since the very first
chapters of Clockwork Angel, basically everything ended happily. The epilogue
was sad, the description of Will's death was heartbreaking but it was expected.
I half expected Tessa to make some big gesture of suicide so she would not have
to see all her loved ones die but it because obvious pretty quickly that that
wouldn't happen. The description of modern day London was strange, I was so
absorbed in the 1800s that i'm not entirely sure I liked the transition to
2008. When Jem turned up as his old self, I knew I would be irritated by what
came next. How could Tessa simply swap the love of her life like that? I felt
it was a kind of betrayal of Will's memory but I do understand that she loved
both of them.
Overall however, this was an amazing end to the trilogy. The
way Mortmain was defeated was suprising and a realllllly bizarre plot twist
which I loved! I'm glad that everyone was together with someone in the end,
Sophie had Gideon and Cecily had Gabriel. I really liked the character
development of the Lightwood brothers in this book, I felt it was convincing
and a nice addition to the Institute family. Cecily was also a really likeable
character, she reminded me of Will and I simply love him and she was just
really straightforward and likeable.
Now to the second part of this blog post, which was better,
The Infernal Devices or The Mortal Instruments?
I loved the The Infernal Devices probably because it was set
in London, it was set in one of my favourite periods of history and the
characters were really well developed because there were less of them.
The two books obviously shared the same characters but the
storyline in The Mortal Instruments was much more detailed and in depth simply
because it is spread out over more books. I found myself surprised more in The
Mortal Instruments, there were more shocking twists and more subplots within
the overarching plot.
The Mortal Instruments however was not perfect, some books
in the series were better than others, City of Glass being the best and City of
Ashes being the worst in my opinion but I feel The Infernal Devices generally
sustained the same level of quality.
The Infernal Devices was definitely written better, I feel
Cassandra gets better at writing with every book she publishes and this trilogy
was well thought out, the storyline of all three books was clearly carefully
planned and it was generally a very easy read without too many unanswered
questions.
Overall, I feel The Infernal Devices was better because the
characters were more convincing and a story is nothing without its characters.
The research for this book was extensive; Cassandra must be well travelled and
well read to be able to write about places in London which I myself have not
even heard of despite living there for 18 years. With the release of City of
Heavenly Fire being released in a matter of months, my opinion may change
depending on how the series in rounded up and how heartbroken Cassandra's
ruthless and inevitable slaughter of main characters will leave me.
Please let me know which you think is better, TID or TMI?
