Review: Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope to enjoy the rest of the trilogy.

View all my reviews

Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices Book 1) by Cassandra Clare-Notes & Highlights

I bought this when I was teenager and wore it often. That's why it looks worn down a bit.

I rest this necklace on Clockwork Angel because of the hardback.

“‘You—you've come bursting into my room, scared me nearly to death, and now you demand to know my name? What on earth's your name? And who are you, anyway?’

‘My name is Herondale,’ the boy said cheerfully. ‘William Herondale, but everyone calls me Will. Is this really your room? Not very nice, is it?’” (37).

“He stared at her for another long moment, the corners of his mouth twitching, then held out his hand. ‘Give me the witchlight.’ At her blank expression he made an impatient noise. ‘The stone. Give me the stone’” (40).

lol

“‘As for the temperature of Hell, Miss Gray,’ he said, ‘let me give you a piece of advice. The handsome young fellow who’s trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. Not even if he says the sky is purple and made of hedgehogs’” (40).

So witty! I love it! XD :P

“Jessamine ignored him. ‘Is it dreadful, being so evil? Are you worried you’ll go to Hell?’ She leaned closer to Tessa. ‘What do you think the Devil’s like?’

Tessa set her fork down. ‘Would you like to meet him? I could summon him up in a trice if you like. Being a warlock, and all.’

Will let out a whoop of laughter. Jessamine’s eyes narrowed. ‘There’s no call to be rude,’ she began—then broke off as Charlotte sat bolt upright with an astonished shriek” (68).

Lol I’m like, “You tell her, Tessa!” XD

“‘Henry,’ said Charlotte, who appeared to have recovered from her shock, ‘if you set yourself on fire deliberately, I will institute divorce proceedings. Now sit down and eat your supper. And say hello to our guest.’

Henry sat, glanced across the table at Tessa—and blinked in surprise. ‘I know you,’ he said. ‘You bit me!’ He sounded pleased about it, as if recollecting a pleasant memory they’d both shared” (70).

lol, “You bit me!” he says with a smile on his face! :) XDXDXD

“It was Will who spoke next, leaning forward to look intently into her face. ‘You can keep it a secret,’ he said softly. ‘But secrets have their own weight, and it can be a very heavy one’” (72).

This is so true, Will.

“It was always the same: nothing at first, then the flicker of something at the back of her mind, like someone lighting a candle in a dark room. She groped her way toward it, as the Dark Sisters had taught her. It was hard to strip away the fear and the shyness, but she had done it enough times now to know what to expect—the reaching forward to touch the light at the center of the darkness; the sense of light and enveloping warmth, as if she were drawing a blanket, something thick and heavy, around herself, covering every layer of her own skin; and then the light blazing up and surrounding her—and she was inside it. Inside someone else’s skin. Inside their mind” (73-74).

I always find it so interesting and intriguing when Tessa describes her transformation.

“‘One must always be careful of books,’ said Tessa, ‘and what is inside them, for words have the

power to change us’” (87).

This is such an inspirational quote.

“‘Well, I want novels,' said Tessa. ‘Or poetry. Books are for reading, not for turning oneself into livestock.' 

Will's eyes glittered. ‘I think we may have a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland about somewhere.' 

Tessa wrinkled her nose. ‘Oh, that's for little children, isn't it?' she said. ‘I never liked it much—seemed like so much nonsense.' 

Will's eyes were very blue. ‘There's plenty of sense in nonsense sometimes, if you wish to look for it.'

But Tessa had already spied a familiar volume on a shelf and went over to greet it like an old friend. ‘Oliver Twist!’ she cried. ‘Have you any other of Mr. Dickens’s novels?’ She clasped her hands together. ‘Oh! Do you have A Tale of Two Cities?’” (88).

“It was a large squarish volume bound in dark blue velvet. There was a pattern cut into the velvet, a swirling symbol reminiscent of the marks that decorated Will’s skin. The title was stamped on the front in silver: The Shadowhunter’s Codex. Tessa glanced up at Will. ‘What is this?’” (89).

Hey! I own that book! LOL XD

“‘I saw you waving that hacksaw at the Dark Sisters,’ Will pointed out. ‘And if I recall correctly, Lady Audley’s secret was, in fact, that she was a murderer.’

‘So you’ve read it!’ Tessa couldn’t hide her delight.

He looked amused. ‘I prefer The Trail of the Serpent. More adventure, less domestic drama. Neither is as good as The Moonstone, though. Have you read Collins?’

‘I adore Wilkie Collins,’ Tessa cried. ‘Oh—Armadale! And The Woman in White … Are you

laughing at me?’

‘Not at you,’ said Will, grinning, ‘more because of you. I’ve never seen anyone get so excited over books before. You’d think they were diamonds.’

‘Well, they are, aren’t they? Isn’t there anything you love like that? And don’t say “spats” or “lawn tennis” or something silly.’

‘Good Lord,’ he said with mock horror, ‘it’s like she knows me already.’

‘Everyone has something they can’t live without. I’ll find out what it is for you, never you fear’” (94).

“He laughed. ‘Will is angry with everyone,' he said. ‘I don't let it color my judgment'" (102).

“He interrupted her, bemused. ‘You ask a lot of questions, don't you?’ 

‘My brother always says curiosity is my besetting sin'" (102).

Besetting = plague, (of a problem or difficulty) trouble or threaten persistently

“‘She’s dead,’ said Jem.

‘Are you certain?’ Will could not take his eyes off the woman’s face. She was pale, but not with a corpse’s pallor, and her hands lay folded in her lap, the fingers softly curved, not stiff with the rigor of death. He moved closer to her and placed a hand on her arm. It was rigid and cold beneath his fingers.

‘Well, she’s not responding to my advances,’ he observed more brightly than he felt, ‘so she must be dead.’

‘Or she’s a woman of good taste and sense.’ Jem knelt down and looked up into the woman’s face” (130).

lolz

“Tessa took the opportunity to turn to Jem, who was sitting on her right side. ‘Shanghai,’ she said in a low voice. ‘It sounds so fascinating. I wish I could travel there. I’ve always wanted to travel.’

As Jem smiled at her, she saw that gleam again at his throat. It was a pendant carved out of dull green stone. ‘And now you have. You’re here, aren’t you?’

‘I’ve only ever traveled before in books. I know that sounds silly, but—’” (168).

“So that was the hollowness, the strangeness that she felt. Her heart was still, in her chest like a dead thing. She took another sobbing breath. It hurt, and she realized that while she could breathe, her new body did not want or need to.

‘Oh, God,’ she said in a soft whisper to Jem. ‘I—my heart’s not beating. I feel as if I’ve died. Jem—’

He stroked her hand, carefully, soothingly, and looked up at her with his silver eyes. The expression in them had not changed with the change in her; he looked at her as he had before, as if she were still Tessa Gray. ‘You’re alive,’ he said, in a voice so soft only she could hear it. ‘You’re wearing a different skin, but you’re Tessa, and you’re alive. Do you know how I know that?’

She shook her head.

‘Because you said the word “God” just now to me. No vampire could say that.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘Your soul is still the same’” (186-187).

Jem’s quote at the end made me melt.

“Camille smiled. She was beautiful, Will had to admit—but then, a lot of vampires were beautiful. Their beauty had always seemed to him like the beauty of pressed flowers—lovely, but dead” (191).

That is so true, Will. Vampires are like dead flowers.

“As the coach rattled along the Strand, Will raised a black-gloved hand and drew one of the velvet curtains back from the window, letting a splash of yellow gaslight find its way into the carriage’s dark interior. ‘It rather looks,’ he said, ‘as if we might be in for rain tonight.’

Tessa followed his gaze; out the window the sky was a cloudy steel gray—the usual for London, she thought. Men in hats and long dark coats hurried along the pavement on either side of the street, their shoulders hunched against a brisk wind that carried coal dust, horse manure, and all sorts of eye-stinging rubbish in its wake. Once again Tessa thought she could smell the river” (222).

I thought this was nice scenery.

“His steady gaze held hers. His blue eyes were very dark, uniquely so. She had known people before with blue eyes, but they had always been light blue. Will’s were the color of the sky just on the edge of night. His long lashes veiled them as he said, ‘Sometimes, when I have to do something I don’t want to do, I pretend I’m a character from a book. It’s easier to know what they would do.’

‘Really? Who do you pretend you are? D’Artagnan?’ Tessa asked, naming the only one of the Three Musketeers that she could remember.

‘“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done,”’ Will quoted. ‘“It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”’

‘Sydney Carton? But you said you hated A Tale of Two Cities!’

‘I don’t really.’ Will seemed unabashed by his lie.

‘And Sydney Carton was a dissipated alcoholic.’

‘Exactly. There was a man who was worthless, and knew he was worthless, and yet however far down he tried to sink his soul, there was always some part of him capable of great action.’ Will lowered his voice. ‘What is it he says to Lucie Manette? That though he is weak, he can still burn?’

Tessa, who had read A Tale of Two Cities more times than she could count, whispered, ‘“And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire.”’ She hesitated. ‘But that was because he loved her.’

‘Yes,’ said Will. ‘He loved her enough to know she was better off without him.’ His hands were still on hers, the heat of them burning through her gloves. The wind was brisk outside, and had ruffled his ink black hair as they had crossed the Institute courtyard to the carriage. It made him look younger, and more vulnerable—and his eyes, too, were vulnerable, open like a door. The way he was looking at her, she would not have thought Will could, or would, look at anyone like that. If she could blush, she thought, how she would be blushing now” (224-225).

OMG! The way Will held Tessa’s gaze for so long and he was holding her hand at the same time while he told her that! It is such foreshadowing!

“She wanted to reach for Will’s hand, but a vampire baroness would never hold the hand of her human subjugate. She straightened her spine, and beckoned Will to her side with a quick snap of her fingers. He looked up in surprise, then moved to join her, clearly fighting to hide his annoyance. But hide it he must. ‘Now, don’t go wandering off, William,’ she said with a meaningful glance. ‘I don’t want to lose you in the crowd.’

Will’s jaw set. ‘I’m getting the oddest feeling that you’re enjoying this,’ he said under his breath.

‘Nothing odd about it.’ Feeling unbelievably bold, Tessa chucked him under the chin with the tip of her lace fan. ‘Simply behave yourself’” (229).

OMG XD LOL

“‘You act like you don’t care about anything,’ she said on an exhale of breath. She felt as if she had been running, and had crested a hill and was racing down the other side, and there was no stopping now. Gravity was taking her where she had to go. ‘But—everyone cares about something. Don’t they?’” (288).

I think so, Tessa. I also just wanted to say that Will and Tessa remind me of the main characters in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.

“She sat up, reached for the cake of lavender soap on the edge of the bath, and scrubbed her skin and hair with it until the water turned black with ash and dirt. Perhaps it wasn't actually possible to scrub away your thoughts of someone, but she could try” (295-296).

“‘Sometimes,’ Jem said, ‘our lives can change so fast that the change outpaces our minds and hearts. It’s those times, I think, when our lives have altered but we still long for the time before everything was altered—that is when we feel the greatest pain. I can tell you, though, from experience, you grow accustomed to it. You learn to live your new life, and you can’t imagine, or even really remember, how things were before.’

‘You’re saying I’ll get used to being a warlock, or whatever it is that I am.’

‘You’ve always been what you are. That’s not new. What you’ll get used to is knowing it’” (308).

“‘I go to my favorite place in London,’ said Jem, ‘and I stand and look at the water, and I think about the continuity of life, and how the river rolls on, oblivious of the petty upsets in our lives’” (308).

“Remembering the chaos of the street during the day, Tessa was comforted to see how much quieter it was in the evening, the thronging crowds reduced to the occasional figure striding along the pavement, head down, keeping to the shadows” (311).

• I just wanted to say that Jessamine reminds me of Cordelia in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

• I also wanted to say that at the end of chapter 15 Nate has disappeared. He was last seen with Jessamine by Tessa. I suspect that Jessamine took Nate with her. They probably went somewhere where Jessamine thinks people won’t find her and Nate being normal mundanes. This is mainly because Jessamine doesn’t want to be a Shadowhunter.

“Tessa held her breath. In her mind she saw Will—Will as he had looked in the Sanctuary—but, almost to her surprise, he was not all that her thoughts contained. There was Jem, with his kindness and gentle hands; and Henry making her laugh with his odd clothes and funny inventions; and even Jessamine, with her peculiar fierceness and occasional surprising bravery” (459).

“‘Church? Is that the cat's name?’ Tessa was amused despite herself. ‘Goodness, didn't it used to be one of Mrs. Dark's familiars or some such thing? Perhaps Church isn't the best name for it!’ ‘He,’ Jem corrected with mock severity, ‘was not a familiar but a poor creature she planned to sacrifice as part of her necromantic spell casting. And Charlotte's been saying that we ought to keep him because it's good luck to have a cat in a church. So we started calling him “the church cat,” and from there . . .’ He shrugged. ‘Church. And if the name helps keep him out of trouble, so much the better’” (468).

“‘It is better to know the truth.’ Tessa was surprised by the conviction in her own voice. ‘I know the truth about Nate, now, and painful as it is, it is better than being lied to. It is better than going on loving someone who cannot love me back. Better than wasting all that feeling.’ Her voice shook. 

‘I think he did,’ said Jem, ‘and does love you, in his way, but you cannot concern yourself with that. It is as great a thing to love as it is to be loved. Love is not something that can be wasted.’

‘It is hard. That is all.’ Tessa knew she was being self-pitying, but she could not seem to shake it off. ‘To be so alone.' 

. . .

He held up a slender hand. ‘I am not blaming you,’ he said. ‘Perhaps you are here because you are otherwise alone, but so am I. So is Will. So is Jessamine. And even, to an extent, Charlotte and Henry. Where else could Henry have his laboratory? Where else would Charlotte be allowed to put her brilliant mind to work the way she can here? And though Jessamine pretends to hate everything, and Will would never admit to needing anything, they have both made homes for themselves here. In a way, we are not here just because we have nowhere else; we need nowhere else, because we have the Institute, and those who are in it are our family.’ 

. . .

‘Will is . . . difficult,’ Jem said. ‘But family is difficult. If I didn't think the Institute was the best place for you, Tessa, I would not say that it was. And one can build one's own family. I know you feel inhuman, and as if you are set apart, away from life and love, but . . .’ His voice cracked a little, the first time Tessa had heard him sound unsure. He cleared his throat. ‘I promise you, the right man won't care.’ 

…

Jem tuned from the open window, the wind ruffling his hair. In the yellow light, shone like white gold. ‘What is it?’ Tessa smiled. ‘My angel,’ she said” (469-472).

CLOCKWORK ANGEL BY CASSANDRA CLARE: booktalk with XTINEMAY (ep 11)