In a time when Shadowhunters are barely winning the fight against the forces of darkness, one battle will change the course of history forever. Welcome to the Infernal Devices trilogy, a stunning and dangerous prequel to the New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series.
The year is 1878. Tessa Gray descends into London’s dark supernatural underworld in search of her missing brother. She soon discovers that her only allies are the demon-slaying Shadowhunters—including Will and Jem, the mysterious boys she is attracted to. Soon they find themselves up against the Pandemonium Club, a secret organization of vampires, demons, warlocks, and humans. Equipped with a magical army of unstoppable clockwork creatures, the Club is out to rule the British Empire, and only Tessa and her allies can stop them....
This is the first book in the Infernal Devices Series, which is the prequel to the Mortal Instruments Series. It's the same Shadowhunter world, simply with a new cast of characters. Between this series and the Mortal Instruments there are many characters, places and events that overlap, so it's fun to read them together.
Spoiler-Filled Review
Honestly, after City of Glass this book was really really hard to get into. I was suffering from post-book depression. All I wanted was more Clace. A lot more Clace. And in the beginning I didn't care at all about Tessa or Will or Jem. But I pushed through the book (mostly so I could get to City of Fallen Angels and as the book progressed, I began learning the characters and their personalities, so it wasn't as bad.
Our main protagonist was Tessa Gray, a warlock/shawdowhunter/who the heck knows. She has the powers of a warlock, but no mark. She looks completely human, but obviously isn't, no one can really define what she is. Her power of Changing was really cool, although I do think she was fairly useless throughout the beginning of this book. Throughout the book, she began to learn that there were actual, useful uses for her power, which gives her a lot of potential in the next books.
Then we have our two boys: Jem and Will. Honestly, I like Jem. His personality is sweet but quite dull. I think his disease/ addiction to the demon poison is really interesting and I'm excited to see this develop and maybe interfere with the main plot? Then we have Will. Will is honestly a complete mystery. From the Internet, I know that Will Herondale is the Jennifer Lawrence of book boyfriends, but I cannot figure out why. Don't get me wrong, he's a well written character with a sense of mystery that keeps me still reading, but nothing really particular stood out to me about him. Maybe in the next few books I'll start loving him, but as of now nothing about him screams "LOVE ME" to me. Although Will seems to be snarky and rude to pretty much everyone, I think his and Gabriel's feud runs a bit deeper and I hope there's more to it than Will just messing around with Gabriel's sister.
Within the Institute, living with Charlotte and Henry, there's Jessamine. It's really strange because I think I actually liked Jessamine? Super girly characters like her tend to annoy me, but I felt some sort of respect for Jessamine. Although she was a skilled Shadowhunter, she knew what she wanted, and she wasn't going to let anything stop her.
Finally there's Nate. This little *&@#*. He is not cool at all. I don't know what it is about YA books but the brothers always turn out evil (thank god I don't have one). I don't understand how you can give up a loved one for power, fame, and fortune. The fact that he lied to her face and set her up after she did everything for him is so low and despicable, I hope he dies, and I hope Tessa gets to kill him.
The writing in this book was very different than that from the Mortal Instruments Series. Respective to the time era, the writing was in a more of a proper English, which I didn't enjoy as much. However I do respect Cassandra Clare for creating such distinct forms of writing. It was really fascinating how the various time periods heavily affected the personalities of the people who lived in the era, even the Nephilim. For example, the way women were handled was much different than in the Mortal Instruments. Women weren't considered as independent, so for Charlotte to be leading the Institute wasn't considered right. People were also a lot more formal with each other. For a good part of the book Will and Tessa called each other "Ms. Gray" and "Mr. Herondale." Then there was the clothing aspect. I was so used to Clary's shadowhunter gear or just jeans and a t-shirt, it was interesting to see Tessa in the long petticoats of the 1800s.
Overall, I thought the plot was a bit slow. Since I had just finished City of Glass, which is so action-packed, I was in a momentum. But starting this book really slammed the brakes. About halfway into the book, the pace began to pick up as we delved deeper into the plot. There were also a lot of twists (like the Magister not actually being De Quincey but Mortmain) which helped the book move forward.
I honestly don't know where this series is going to go. Based on the titles I feel like a majority of it is going to deal with the automaton army that was built and perhaps prevent binding them to demon energies. Maybe they could try binding them to angelic energies to make them good? I really have no idea.
What do you guys think is gonna happen? Let me know in the comments below!
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