Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Source: Bought
Series: The Infernal Devices #1
[ Goodreads ] [ Book Depository ]
Blurb:
In a time when Shadowhunters are barely winning the fight against the forces of darkness, one battle will change the course of history forever.
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...
I'm so glad to be finally getting back on the Cassandra Clare book wagon! I have just started reading more of The Mortal Instruments series and decided it was time to read The Infernal devices before I accidentally spoiled myself!
So this book started off badly for me. It took me a long time, maybe 150 pages, before I felt any connection to the characters or felt the plots pace was picking up. The very beginning of the novel with the dark sisters was written very slowly and I found myself quite bored. Thankfully, the book picked up and I found myself enjoying the steady pace of the novel.
Tessa was an up and down character for me, I found myself loving her one minute and then cringing at her the next. I know the book is set in Victorian England, but Tessa's anti-feminist views and slight stand offish relationship with other women was not my favourite thing to read about. I especially cringed / eye rolled when she said she wanted to move into a flat with her brother and clean the house and cook for him all day long...
It was nice reading about Tessa's love for books though, always nice to read about another bookworm in a novel!
I found myself questioning the familiarity Tessa developed with Jem and Will so quickly, it seemed very sudden that they were so close. Although I can see why everyone loves Will, I found him to be such an irritating character (please don't kill me Wessa fans). I felt he was so mean and tried to go out of his way to say hurtful things to people to make himself look big. He also kind of took over the limelight of this book, we hardly got any page time with Jem so hopefully we see more of him in the next book..
Jem was the softest boy in this book. He's so gentle and kind and I can't wait to learn more about him. My favourite scene was when he was showing Tessa around London.
The secondary characters in this novel were so good, much better than TMI. Charlotte was amazing and strong, Henry was funny and awkward, Sophie was lovely and I adored Thomas too.
Jessamine was I character I felt could have been amazing, but was written in such an unlikeable way? I hope we see more character development from her in the future books.
The writing style of the novel was typical Cassandra Clare. Although I felt the plot and pacing of this novel was a lot slower than her previous books, I did find myself enjoying it a lot. Although I wasn't surprised by any of the plot twists or moments in the novel I did very much enjoy it. I felt the "romance" aspect came out of nowhere and wasn't really engaging or interesting as it was too quickly developed but hopefully the next 2 books can draw it out more.
Looking forward to hopefully picking up Clockwork Prince this month too to continue my Cassie Clare binge! Let me know your thoughts on CA below!
No comments:
Post a Comment