THE INFERNAL DEVICES by CASSANDRA CLARE

Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess

by Cassandra Clare

Published: August 2010, December 2011, September 2013

Publisher: Walker Books

Genre: YA, Fantasy

"The Infernal Devices is a series of novels by author Cassandra Clare, centering on a race called the Shadowhunters introduced in her The Mortal Instruments series. The series is a prequel series only in that it takes place in an earlier time period to the Mortal Instruments series, and contains some of the character's ancestors. Clare has insisted that the series' can be read in any order" -Taken from Wikapedia

After devouring this trilogy I think that it is safe to say that it is now firmly in my top 10 favourite series/trilogies of all time. 

Honestly, it baffles me how Cassandra Clare can write these fantastic, complex character that actually communicate and have relationships that are both believable but also heartbreaking. There isn't a single character in this trilogy that I hated and not just because you were supposed to hate them, I just hated them because the were so one dimensional and boring, which was the issue with The Mortal Instruments. 

I do feel as though I cant help but compare TID to TMI because the difference in the writing and characters is astounding.  I feel as if this trilogy really showed that Clare can form a fantastic world with equally compelling characters. 

I felt like Tessa, Will and Jem, whilst being in a love triangle it wasn't as tedious as Simon, Clary and Jace because each of the characters took each other's feelings into account. For the most part I felt like these relationships, and not just the love-relationships but the friendships were real and raw and when they could they shared their thoughts. Throughout the books you couldn't help but route for them all, what I really enjoyed about this trilogy is that all the characters had their limelight, Sophie, Charlotte and Henry and the Lightwood brothers all shone in their own right and that was amazing. The villain, Mortmain, was unpredictable and constantly threatening unlike the pathetic Valentine in TMI. 

My only issue in the whole three books is that in my opinion there was a bit too much Welsh involved that sometimes felt forced and just necessary, and I'm am saying that as a speaker of the language, I just felt like it was a bit clunky, it was specifically irritating in the Clockwork Princess but that is really my only pet peeve. 

Basically what I am trying to say is that you have read any of the Mortal Instruments series and have despaired, then I would urge you to give the Infernal Devices a go as it is all of the good of TMI but so, so much better. 

All 5/5 STARS

The Mortal Instruments- Cassandra Clare BOOK REVIEW

Possible spoilers if you’ve not read all of the books in the series

Fuelled by the release of the Mortal Instruments being made into a film franchise and by the recommendation from a friend I began reading these books a while ago.  The first in the series of five books (so far, I believe that there will be a sixth coming out soon) called The City of Bones kickstarts the series.

It follows the characters of Clary, Jace, Simon, Isabelle, Alec, Magnus and the standard villain Valentine. Clary realises pretty soon into the book that she isn’t the normal human that she thinks that she is but has Shadow Hunter blood in her, and Jace, Isabelle and Alec, similar to herself are Shadow hunters that only she can see, the only difference is that they are trained fighters and she is not. Simon is what the Shadow Hunters call a mundane. It’s a pretty good book with a pretty good plot. However, there is a twist at the end of this book that makes me want to cry, because it is just so horrendous and gross, if you’ve read the book then you will know exactly what I am talking about.

It’s neither ground breaking nor something to be ignored, as it clearly hasn’t been. I believe that the general consensus of this book and all of the others in the series is you either love it or you hate it. Of course, I have to be awkward and say that I am completely passive about this series of books.

The second in the series is City of Ashes. Originally I couldn’t even remember what had happened in this book and had to re-read the blurb and a synopsis online before I could refresh my memory: take that, as you will. It just goes to show that this is a building block in the series, a filler if you will, a book that needs to be there so the next makes sense but doesn’t really fulfil your needs. Clary and Jace’s ‘relationship’ makes me want to throw up, seriously that is messed up.

This book is a lot more fast paced than the first, I’ll give it that but then the first in a series of books is always fairly slow. Simon is really developing as a character now that he is a vampire. I feel as if the most disappointing character in the entire two books is Valentine; I am not scared of him, nor do I think he a very good villain, he’s by no means sneaky or conniving enough, considering he is supposed to be trying to overthrow the clave he’s pretty predictable. Villains in novels like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games even Twilight for goodness sake are characters that you fear and you are constantly worried for the character. You don’t know that everything will be solved and be okay but with this series you just know that they will sort everything out in a way that is so ridiculously simple its stupid.

Third is City of Glass, this is my favourite in the series. This shows the ‘gang’ going to Alicante to basically fight a war. Can I just remind you all that Clary is a non-trained Shadow Hunter with absolutely NO experience. Suddenly just because she can use Runes she is undefeatable and yet Jace, arguably the best Shadow Hunter there is gets killed, then brought back to life. Really? Oh and Valentine is defeated. Okay fine, I know this sounds like I am bashing the book but it was the best to read but possibly the one with the worst plot. So much happens that you’re left feeling like “what the hell just happened” and not in a good way. Also why is it that Clary always seems to be making out with people she thinks are her brothers? What is going on in the author’s mind?

The fourth book is City of Fallen Angels. This book is incredibly slow right until the very end when all the action happens within about 5 chapters. (that’s an estimate number, don’t quote me, but lets just say it wasn’t long enough and was squeezed into a ridiculously short space when it should have been the focus of the book). After the finishing the very last page you are left with the sentence on most people’s lips “seriously, are you being serious Clare? This is ridiculous”.

She should have stopped writing these books after City of Glass. It makes no sense to carry it on, the main villain is dead, and everything has been resolved. Why bring up a can of worms now? Clary and Jace’s relationship is again a huge source of annoyance for me but for a completely different reason than last time. This time is because it is foolish- they finally are able to have each other in a non-gross way and yet they find fault with each other and there’s yet another reason why they cant be together.

URGHHHHHHHHHH there are so many faults in these books. I haven’t read the fifth one, I have it waiting on my shelf but I don’t think it will be read any time soon. This is another case of what I was talking about here when the author wants to milk the story for as long as possible but in short she/he weakens the plot by doing so. I think that you should read these books and come to your own conclusion because apart from the fourth book, whilst I was reading, I was fairly happy with the story, its only when I sat down to write this review that I realised the faults with it. So my advice is to read them and never review them.

If you don’t want to take my view for this then I suggest you go on Goodreads and read the reviews left by others on there; there’s definitely some interesting ones on there for your entertainment.

Pet peeves of a fiction obsessed sixteen year old

I have probably done plenty of these posts that either tell you more about me or more to the point what annoys me, but this time I'm going to make it more topical. I am going to talk about things in literacy, films and music that irritates me to the end of the earth and back again.

1. When people bend the page of their books and/or bend/break the spine on their books.
Okay, I do think I have a slight OCD when it comes to looking after books and if you look at about 95% of my books in my bookcase, despite having read each book several times, you will not find a single break in the spine or a bend in a page. (Apart from the dreaded initial break that you get just from opening it, but even that one is so faint you can barely see it). Literally whenever I see anyone doing either of those things I just want to slap the book out of their hands and repair the damage immediately. This is also why I very, very rarely lend my books to people unless I know they can be trusted to treat it carefully. This is also another reason why I cannot deal with library books and have never ever read a book from the library because they are always so tatty and broken that it just takes the enjoyment out of reading for me. The care of books is something I do not take lightly, my friend.

2. When there is a misprint or spelling error in a book.
This is just careless on the publishers part; although, granted, its a very rare thing to happen and even more rare with printed books. However, I've noticed especially on E-Books there can be careless mistakes and it takes you a few time to read over the sentence to understand what was trying to be said. It's extremely frustrating because the amount of times that a book is read and re-read and re-re-read before its published silly mistakes should be seen and sorted out.

3.When films based on adaptations just get the casting all wrong.
I know that everyone has their own ideas about what a certain character looks like when they are described in a book. For example, when I read a book I imagine most of my characters as cartoons and so I find it hard to describe a character to another person who is not inside my head. However, sometimes I really do question if the casting people have read the books at all; take the new Divergent movie for example, Shailene Woodley and Theo James look nothing, absolutely nothing like how I would have imagined them (you know if my brain wasn't weird and turned everyone into cartoons) I just feel like its disappointing for the fan of the books. I understand that it would be impossible to find an actor that everyone loves and imagines in the place of their favourite character but at least attempt it. Harry Potter is a fine example of brilliant casting and costume; you can just tell that the casting people took the time to read the books and study the characters with detail. I am just left feeling like that in today's Hollywood, film companies are more interested in whacking out as many films as possible without really investing too much time into them.
p.s I'm sure these actors mentioned above are good, I've yet to see them in anything but this comment is made purely on their looks (vain, I know right).

4.When books could have been finished but the author tries to milk it.
This is extremely frustrating when you find a decent new book series, you read the first few and it seems that all of the events have been rounded off well and nicely, however, then the author keeps writing new books with weaker plots. This makes the series loose its integrity and makes the reader get bored and disengaged with the writing. Authors need to know when its best to put a series to bed: know when to quit, go out on a high. Particular examples of this are The House of Night series and The Mortal Instrument series. The House of Night currently has 10 books in the series when realistically they could have stopped writing them at about book 5/6, I really cannot be bothered to continue reading the rest in the series because it is getting boring and silly. The Mortal Instruments could have been finished on book 3, that would have left the reader wanting more but not really needing it, the 4th book was lacking compared to the others and took me a long time to get through it. What I am trying to say is that if you want to write a successful book series then you need to know when enough is enough, you want the reader to want more but that they don't necessarily need to have any more because the story is strong enough without it.

5.When films change what happens in the books in a very sucky way.
Sucky isn't the most sophisticated adjective but it describes what I am talking about in the best way possible. When a film is based on an adaptation, I understand that somethings have to be changed so that they make it cinematically pleasing but when they completely change the way an event happens in the book to something that to anyone who has read the books just does not make sense, then you know you have a problem. Take Harry Potter (probably the first time I am criticising it on my blog, take note because it wont happen very often, haha) in the last film (Deathly Hallows part 2) Harry snaps the Elder Wand in half and throws it away... however, in the book, Harry uses the Elder Wand to repair his old trusty wand and then returns the Elder Wand back to Dumbledore's grave. According to the film Harry no longer has a wand after he does what he does because it does not show him fixing his previous wand. To any fan of the books this will come as a very large annoyance, it would have taken the film makers literally about 2 minutes to show what happened in the book but instead they decided on a scene that is just stupid.

New books!

I can only apologise for completely abandoning my blog this past week (reasons for why here) but unless you wanted a rant and worry over my knowing absolutely nothing about either biology, chemistry or physics and my exams are only 11, 17 and 20 days away respectively then I'm sure you will thank me for staying off the blog. Also revising for several hours after a long and arduous day at school completely drains your inspiration for decent blog posts, oh the setbacks of teenage life.

Anyway enough about mundane life; I thought I would share with you a few book purchases I have made in the past few weeks. Although I can't read them yet because of lack of time, they are definitely motivating me and yes, making me very excited to finish my exams so I can read without feeling guilty about not revising.

City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls

Cassandra Clare

Oh so excited to read these after reading the other books in the series it seems almost nasty that I have to hold off from finding out what happens next. I am slightly dubious to how and why Clare has written two other books (and I'm told there is a sixth book on the way) when the third book- City of Glass, finished nicely... I suppose I can expect character death as this doesn't seem like the type of series that is going to let me off lightly and happily. 

Quiet

Susan Cain

I picked this book up on a whim along with the book underneath in Waterstones because they were buy one get one half price and when it comes to books I can't resist a deal like that. It seems like an extremely interesting book which I am sure will have plenty of mystery about it; the thing that attracted me most was the cover; it is completely white even the title which implies simplicity which excites me very much (although I couldn't find a decent picture on the internet). I like the idea of introverts, like myself, not always getting ignored because we aren't the ones who are the centre of attention, which is what this books seems to be about. 

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry 

Rachel Joyce

As I mentioned above I got this in Waterstones, it was in the section where they have the best sellers which if you are stuck for what book to read next, or if you're like me and just like seeing what everyone else is reading then have a look in this section first. This book is very strange and it immediately made me want to read it. It seems like a very dystopian theme in a normal world (if that makes any sense). I am sure that this book will keep me on my toes and enthralled throughout: at least I very much hope so. 

Clockwork Prince and Clockwork Angel

Cassandra Clare

I chose these books because of the author, I thought seeing as I am enjoying the Mortal Instruments series I would try out her other series the Infernal Devices. They follow the same type of theme by the looks of it except it is set in London and in a very different time period. I really hope that these books are as good, if not better, as the Mortal Instruments and I will be just as excited with the characters as I am now.

So for now I have to have them sitting in my bookcase mocking me as I revising completely pointless and irrelevant things that will never help or affect me in life! Fun times.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones film CAST

I am currently in the middle of reading The Mortal Instruments series for the first time, I'm on book three: City of Glass at the moment. I am loving the series and although some of it makes me have to re-read what I just read because it is just plain wrong, for the most part I love the interesting storyline, the characters are well developed and I am super interested in what is actually going to happen to them. So this being said I thought I would show you the cast, this is triggered after the trailer being released this week. At first I was somewhat disheartened because the cast wasn't what I imagined but I have to remember that I felt this way about the cast of Perks and I ended up really liking that film so I will reserve reservations for now.

Clary/Clarissa Fray played by Lily Collins 

 Jace Wayland played by Jamie Campbell-Bower

Really not how I pictured Jace at all so this is seriously disappointing for me

Simon played by Robert Sheehan 

Such good casting choice I love Robert Sheehan

Alec Lightwood played by Kevin Zegers 

Isabelle Lightwood played by Jemima West 

Luke Garroway played by Aidan Turner

Magnus Bane played by Godfrey Gao

Hodge played by Jared Harris

I thought he was like 35 in the books? What happened Hodge??

Valentine Morgenstern played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Why is he not wearing a shirt? Again not how I pictured him but who knows