Re-Read Review: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

I’ve been wanting to re-read this series for a very long time, and I finally got around to it! I think one of the reasons why I kept putting it off was because I was worried it wouldn’t be as good as I remembered. My first read of Clockwork Angel was in 2015, so quite some time ago, but there was no need to worry; I still absolutely love it.

Reading this again was the weirdest experience. I remembered almost every single tiny detail of the story and it was like no time had passed since I’d last read it. This is probably because I’ve not long read Chain of Thorns and the Last Hours series often refers to this one.

I got so enraptured in Clockwork Angel that I forgot to make any review notes while I was reading, so jokes on me because now I don’t know what to talk about. I say this for every review, but I really need to start making notes.

Will Herondale may still be my favourite Shadowhunter man, but then again I do really love James and Julian, so it’s hard to choose. He really isn’t at his best in the first book though, that was the only thing I really forgot about. In my head he’s always been disgustingly in love with Tessa and was willing to do anything to make her happy, but nope. Obviously, I understand why he acts the way he does in Clockwork Angel, so I still really love him.

Personally, the second time around, I really didn’t get romance vibes between Tessa and Jem. He’s obviously way nicer to her than Will is, but the romantic chemistry really isn’t there for me. I believe this will change in the next book, which I can’t remember too much of as of right now, but I’m sure when I start reading it, it will all come back to me.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, I still really love this book. For the longest time The Infernal Devices was my favourite Shadowhunter series, it isn’t anymore (The Dark Artifices – controversial, I know) but it’s still a five star read for me. It would take a lot for me to not absolutely adore a Shadowhunter book. Although saying that, I don’t know if I’d rate all of The Mortal Instruments books five stars, but I’ll probably get around to re-reading those at some point in the near(ish) future.