Clockwork Princess
by Cassandra Clare
The Shadowhunter Chronicles (Infernal Devices, 3), The Infernal Devices (3)
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When seventeen-year-old orphaned shapechanger Tessa Gray is kidnapped by the villainous Mortmain in his final bid for power, the London Institute rallies to save her, but is beset by danger and betrayal at every turn.Tags
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"Ave atque vale. . . Hail and farewell. He had not given much thought to the words before, had never thought about why they were not just a farewell but also a greeting. Every meeting led to a parting, and so it would, as long as life was mortal. In every meeting there was some of the sorrow of parting, but in every parting there was some of the joy of meeting as well."
By the Angel, Cassandra Clare, the things you do to my emotions should be against the Law. I love you. I hate you. I want to shower you with the tears of my praise. I am truly sad to see this series come to an end, but I feel that everything is as it should be. I laughed, I cried (and cried, and cried), and I am at peace with this parting. Well done, Clare, well done.
By the Angel, Cassandra Clare, the things you do to my emotions should be against the Law. I love you. I hate you. I want to shower you with the tears of my praise. I am truly sad to see this series come to an end, but I feel that everything is as it should be. I laughed, I cried (and cried, and cried), and I am at peace with this parting. Well done, Clare, well done.
Truly, I have never been so spellbound by a book series before. Clockwork Princess is the final book in The Infernal Devices series and the ending is simply a masterpiece. Tiny details from the first book, Clockwork Angel, snowball into major factors in the conclusion. The storylines have spread from focusing on one main character, Tessa Gray, in the beginning of Clockwork Angel to solidifying separate storylines developing minor characters into strong supporting characters that loom together for one beautifully intricate work of art. It is my understanding a few of the supporting characters roll into the next series, The Mortal Instruments, as The Infernal Devices is its prequel series. Cassandra Clare is a magician with words and show more creating this world of Shadowhunters and Downworlders yet sticking to basic human deficiencies such as greed, revenge, misjudgment, and unrequited love. Additionally, she brilliantly creates an ending that (I believe) readers on both sides, Team Will and Team Jem, will be happy. There were so many points where I gasped, I laughed, I swooned, and I cried. Embarrassingly fat tears and gut-wrenching sobs. My apologies to my fellow patrons at my local library.
I try to find one favorite character in a book and I was fortunate to be able to have two favorite characters: Sophie and Will. Will is officially my favorite book boyfriend. He is witty, loyal, a book lover, and brave. In a strange way he is a fairy tale prince but dripping with sarcasm and guilt from his traumatic past. I knew from the first book, Clockwork Angel, that I would be Team Will and I am pleased to have not been forced to change my mind throughout the series. The prologue to Clockwork Prince remains my favorite passage in this series. Sophie is different from Will in almost every sense except her fierce loyalty and her traumatic past haunting her. It was very pleasing to be see her character develop from rigid and distrustful to courageous and warm. I have not been able to look at scones without smiling and thinking of this book.
I would recommend this book for any fan of Young Adult books, romance, steampunk, and fantasy. Also, for those who enjoy listening to the audiobook. The actor Daniel Sharman (of the Teen Wolf and Fear The Walking Dead fame) does a fantastic job of narrating. I also would recommend reading this series in order, starting with Clockwork Angel, because the books evolve on things introduced in there.
I would not recommend this book for those who may be offended by violence, sexual scenarios, mild foul language, kidnapping, drug abuse, and demons. show less
I try to find one favorite character in a book and I was fortunate to be able to have two favorite characters: Sophie and Will. Will is officially my favorite book boyfriend. He is witty, loyal, a book lover, and brave. In a strange way he is a fairy tale prince but dripping with sarcasm and guilt from his traumatic past. I knew from the first book, Clockwork Angel, that I would be Team Will and I am pleased to have not been forced to change my mind throughout the series. The prologue to Clockwork Prince remains my favorite passage in this series. Sophie is different from Will in almost every sense except her fierce loyalty and her traumatic past haunting her. It was very pleasing to be see her character develop from rigid and distrustful to courageous and warm. I have not been able to look at scones without smiling and thinking of this book.
I would recommend this book for any fan of Young Adult books, romance, steampunk, and fantasy. Also, for those who enjoy listening to the audiobook. The actor Daniel Sharman (of the Teen Wolf and Fear The Walking Dead fame) does a fantastic job of narrating. I also would recommend reading this series in order, starting with Clockwork Angel, because the books evolve on things introduced in there.
I would not recommend this book for those who may be offended by violence, sexual scenarios, mild foul language, kidnapping, drug abuse, and demons. show less
I love this series. I read this book until the wee hours of the morning, and I cried my way through most of the ending. I immediately ran to the living room where my husband was watching a movie (we are night owls) and told him he needed to read the book ASAP. Like I wanted him to start right that very second. He instead promised me it would be the next book he read, which is very good but I am still impatiently waiting for that moment.
This book, the third in the series, ties up all the loose ends. ALL of them. I was more wrapped up in who will Tessa would end up with, and with Will and Jem, than I was with the central story of The Infernal Devices. I felt like I was twelve again, but oh well, I loved it. I am a Team Jem girl, I admit show more it. (if my husband were forced to pick, he is Team Will. ) There were a few huge surprises, including the answers to a big secret around Tessa, the question of her parentage and the full nature of her power.
I enjoyed this series more than the Mortal Instruments series. Clare did a wonderful job writing this book - I think it is her best ever. The end was so beautifully written, and could touch the hearts of any person, young, old, or middle aged. And the big question, Will or Jem, is finally answered. show less
This book, the third in the series, ties up all the loose ends. ALL of them. I was more wrapped up in who will Tessa would end up with, and with Will and Jem, than I was with the central story of The Infernal Devices. I felt like I was twelve again, but oh well, I loved it. I am a Team Jem girl, I admit show more it. (if my husband were forced to pick, he is Team Will. ) There were a few huge surprises, including the answers to a big secret around Tessa, the question of her parentage and the full nature of her power.
I enjoyed this series more than the Mortal Instruments series. Clare did a wonderful job writing this book - I think it is her best ever. The end was so beautifully written, and could touch the hearts of any person, young, old, or middle aged. And the big question, Will or Jem, is finally answered. show less
It has been a while since I have felt this bereft at ending a book. I spent the whole last part of the book shedding tears, some of happiness and some of sorrow. Since I ended it a few hours ago I have felt very moved to pick up pen and paper and try to express myself nearly half as eloquently as Ms. Clare does. Her writing makes me never want to utter another sentence unless it's beautiful. I want to adorn myself in quotes from this book, hang them all over my walls and shout them to the world. There aren't enough stars to express how much I enjoyed being lost in this world and in these characters.
My feelings on this books are super complicated and conflicted in places. Die hard fans may want to step away now, because I'm going to start with the fact I kind of had moments of love for everyone who were not Will and Tessa.
Okay, it wasn't that bad, but the only times I really cared about Will was in combination with Jem, Cecily and Magnus. And Tessa really left me mostly bored. The only time I really loved reading about Tessa/Will was during the 2-3% in the 90% through book, near Christmas, even if the entire scene seemed like a rehash of the Downtown Abbey Season 2 Christmas finale ending.
Everyone else though? I was in love with. I love Sofie's biting wit. I loved Cecily figuring out who she was. I loved watching the Lightwood show more boys grapple with and come to terms with who they were, who they might be, and who they wanted to be. The over abundance of romance was a little trite, yes, but I've come to expect that from Clare's books so I sort of white noised it out.
Charlotte & Henry remain steadfastly awesome. I love them so hard. I loved the epistolary exchanges in this book and how it led to the conclusion for Charlotte we all knew was coming.
The fact this book brings us full circle to the other series made the last 20% of the book nothing at all like the ends of her other trilogies, or like the other 100% of this one. Suddenly there were overviews, and an epilogue trying to tie the two characters back together, when I really much rather would have seen so much more of the immortal years than lists of twenty or thirty moments.
I'm a little jaded but I still love the background characters so much, and Jem is my favorite character so I was glued to those scenes, and happenings no matter what. show less
Okay, it wasn't that bad, but the only times I really cared about Will was in combination with Jem, Cecily and Magnus. And Tessa really left me mostly bored. The only time I really loved reading about Tessa/Will was during the 2-3% in the 90% through book, near Christmas, even if the entire scene seemed like a rehash of the Downtown Abbey Season 2 Christmas finale ending.
Everyone else though? I was in love with. I love Sofie's biting wit. I loved Cecily figuring out who she was. I loved watching the Lightwood show more boys grapple with and come to terms with who they were, who they might be, and who they wanted to be. The over abundance of romance was a little trite, yes, but I've come to expect that from Clare's books so I sort of white noised it out.
Charlotte & Henry remain steadfastly awesome. I love them so hard. I loved the epistolary exchanges in this book and how it led to the conclusion for Charlotte we all knew was coming.
The fact this book brings us full circle to the other series made the last 20% of the book nothing at all like the ends of her other trilogies, or like the other 100% of this one. Suddenly there were overviews, and an epilogue trying to tie the two characters back together, when I really much rather would have seen so much more of the immortal years than lists of twenty or thirty moments.
I'm a little jaded but I still love the background characters so much, and Jem is my favorite character so I was glued to those scenes, and happenings no matter what. show less
This is another one of those last-book-in-a-series-I-don't-want-to-end novels that I avoided picking up for a little while because I knew I was going to be super sad when it was over. (I need to get over this aversion, but I can't help it!) Anyhow, needless to say, the other two books in the Infernal Devices really won me over, and the last book did nothing less. Tons of action, lots of lovable characters, and a twist that I guessed at but was happy to see played the way it was. Plus, Jem. To be honest, I'm rather tired of the "hurt and wounded boy with a heart of gold" kind of thing, and even though Will was awesome, Jem really stole the show for me. And, well, without spoilers, the Epilogue had me in a show more sobbing/laughing/depressed/overjoyed state for a good long while. Perfectly done, imho. show less
The first three Mortal Instruments books? I don't care for them. I scraped together a 4-star rating for "City of Glass" because it was fairly fun and less annoying than the first 2, but those books just aren't my thing.
THE INFERNAL DEVICES IS MY THING.
Not only did I not have to read anything about Jace/Clary/Simon (*insert barf emojis here*) but the writing in TID is much more mature and elegant; the characters are ACTUALLY INTERESTING and fleshed out; every relationship is well-crafted and feels honest; and the setting is a beautifully engaging backdrop for this story.
I adore every character. Not just Tessa and Jem and Will (but obviously these three are utterly wonderful) but strong Sophie and her charm, kick-ass Bridget, Henry who show more is such an underappreciated wonder, the frICKING LIGHTWOOD BOIS who totally shocked me, even dear Jessamine - all of them are so very good and I loved their stories.
I am 210% ready for The Last Hours series. Cassie Clare, BRING IT. show less
THE INFERNAL DEVICES IS MY THING.
Not only did I not have to read anything about Jace/Clary/Simon (*insert barf emojis here*) but the writing in TID is much more mature and elegant; the characters are ACTUALLY INTERESTING and fleshed out; every relationship is well-crafted and feels honest; and the setting is a beautifully engaging backdrop for this story.
I adore every character. Not just Tessa and Jem and Will (but obviously these three are utterly wonderful) but strong Sophie and her charm, kick-ass Bridget, Henry who show more is such an underappreciated wonder, the frICKING LIGHTWOOD BOIS who totally shocked me, even dear Jessamine - all of them are so very good and I loved their stories.
I am 210% ready for The Last Hours series. Cassie Clare, BRING IT. show less
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Author Information
242+ Works 177,810 Members
Cassandra Clare was born Judith Rumelt on July 27, 1973, in Teheran, Iran. After college, she lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines. She became a full-time author in 2006. Her first novel, City of Bones, was published in 2007 and received numerous awards including an American Library Association show more Teens Top Ten Award in 2008, the Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award in 2010, and the Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award in 2010. Her works include The Mortal Instruments series, the Infernal Devices trilogy, Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, the Magisterium series written with Holly Black, and The Dark Artifices series. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Clockwork Princess
- Original title
- Clockwork Princess
- Original publication date
- 2013-03-19
- People/Characters
- Theresa "Tessa" Gray; Will Herondale; Charlotte Fairchild Branwell; Henry Branwell; Magnus Bane; Gideon Lightwood (show all 11); Gabriel Lightwood; Cecily Herondale; Sophie Collins; The Magister; James "Jem" Carstairs
- Epigraph
- I held it truth, with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam A.H.H... (show all)." - Dedication
- For the Lewis family:
Melanie, Jonathan, and Helen - First words
- "I'm afraid," said the little girl sitting on the bed.
- Quotations
- (p. 11)
Marry on Monday for health,
Tuesday for wealth
Wednesday the best day of all,
Thursday for crosses,
Friday for losses, and
Saturday for no luck at all.
--Folk rh... (show all)yme
(p. 31)
And much of Madness, and more of Sin,
And Horror the soul of the plot.
--Edgar Allan Poe, "The Conqueror Worm"
(p. 48)
THE INFERNAL DEVICES ARE WITHOUT PITY.
THE INFERNAL DEVICES ARE WITHOUT REGRET.
THE INFERNAL DEVICES ARE WITHOUT NUMBER.
THE INFERNAL DEVICES WILL NEVER STOP COMING.
(P. 48)
MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON OUR SOULS.
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