Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I... I...
What can I say?
I remember when I first read this book in 2012. I totally swooned for it, and I was so sure of that love until a few weeks ago, when I decided to review some of the books in the TMI series. Why? Because thinking about those books lead me to think about these ones, so of course I decided to read them again.
The thing is... that fascination is not in my heart any more. You see, when I read this, back then in 2012 when I was still a naive and stupid girl, I was new to the world of YA fiction. I read mostly classics before 2012, and Cassandra Clare's books (as well as The Hunger Games trilogy) were the first ones I ever read in that "genre". (I'm not completely sure about the term "YA fiction". What defines it?)
Being new to this kind of things, of course I was easy to impress. Of course I was going to think it was the most original thing I had ever read. It would've never crossed my mind that the theme of this series was overused and that I would grow tired of it.
That was in 2012. Now, I can see no such originality in here.
But all those things don't mean to say that I hate this, because that's not true. I still liked it a little.
First, IMO, the plot of this series, is much more original than that of TMI. The world-building is better, the setting is better, and plus, it's steampunk. In summary, it was more enjoyable.
The cast of characters is also better than that of TMI. Tessa is so much better as a protagonist than Clary ever was. For once, she's not stupid; and then, her powers were more intriguing.
Obviously, there's a love interest. Nay, there are two love interests, but I wasn't that bothered by them because both were... tolerable.
The first one is Will Herondale. Handsome boy with blue eyes and dark hair. What's your bet? Is he a mysterious guy or not? Of course he is! He hides secrets and is a bit cold at times. At least he's neither an abusive man nor a creepy stalker.
The other one is Jem Carstairs. He's the - how to say it? - one that makes everyone feel sorry. He has some kind of sickness and he's in mortal danger because of it. Handsome as well as his "parabatai". But really, how can we not expect a love interest to be handsome? Because obviously all men in the world are swoon-worthy!
I mentioned in my review about City of Bones that the "villain" felt too cartoonish and that I didn't like him. In this case, I think the villain is better crafted and has more essence than in that other series. His motives are more compelling and interesting for me than the ones that moved Valentine to do all his mischiefs in TMI.
And the writing, while not astounding, was more decent than the one of TMI. I didn't like the writing in TMI, just so you know, but in this one, I rather liked it... or at least I didn't mind about it.
One thing that bothered me was those constant change of POVs. It was annoying as hell. She writes for two pages about Tessa, and then she changes to Will, or to Henry, and ten pages later it's Tessa again, and Jem, and I'm bored to hell, and blah, blah. If you're going to do that, can you at least wait for the chapter to end?
Another thing is... the characters. Yes, I've already said I liked them more, but they felt like recycled copies of characters from TMI. Take Will for example. He felt like Jace at some points. His personality was similar. It was as if Clare just changed his physical appearance and there, there, we have a new character. Will didn't feel as flat and dull and I kind of liked him, but still.
Overall, these are good books, and they're better than TMI. I don't recommend them, though. I feel I've overgrown them and the people who might enjoy this are not people who I interact with (13 years old? Hell, my sister is 13 and I don't think she would like this), so I can't recommend this to anyone in particular.
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