Monday, August 9, 2010

Clockwork Angel

Book Details:
Genre: YA Fantasy
Page Count: 496
Publication Date: Aug. 31, 2010
Why I read it: ARC Tour
Grade: A

Cover thoughts:
The cover is pretty cool. It looks kind of steampunky. I think for the most part it correlates to the story pretty well.

About the author: Cassandra Clare is the author of the Mortal Instruments series. You can visit her website here.

The plot:
Tessa travels to London to live with her brother, but upon arrival, two sisters, who are part of a secret organization, are there to pick her up instead. They kidnap her, and force her to use a power she didn't know she had, which is transforming into another person. She escapes with the help of Will, who is a Shadowhunter (warriors who fight demons). She joins with the Shadowhunters searching for her brother, and trying to find out more about the secret organization, and who is behind it all. It's a very interesting start to a new series--the only downside is the insane cliffhanger. Why does every author do this now?

Characters:
I adored Tessa. She's a strong character, and she's also very witty. The best part about her is that she loves to read. Who doesn't love book characters that share our passion for reading? The other characters are well fleshed out, and for the most part are pretty likable, except for the bad guys, who aren't supposed to be. :) Will was kind of a jerk, and it seems as if there's something behind it all, but we never find out why. We don't really know his background at all, but I assume that's something that comes out in other books.

Setting:
The setting here was wonderful. It felt very dark and mysterious, and went along with the story quite nicely. Clare always does a good job with world-building.

Notable quotes:
"One must always be careful of books," said Tessa, "and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us."
"Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry."

Read this if you're in the mood for: A fast moving plot with likable characters. If you like Clare's other books, you'll like this one--she just keeps getting better.

Continue or part ways? I'll keep on reading this series, for sure.

4 comments:

Aarti said...

Wow, I love the cover, and the premise sounds interesting but based on the cliffhanger ending... I am going to wait on the rest of this series coming out ;-)

Brenda said...

The cliffhanger wasn't really about the central plot, it was more of a side story cliffhanger, if that makes sense. So it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Felicia H. said...

I have this on my to-read list. I have been in a bit of a reading slump lately. I need to finish up the Iron Daughter and move on to books that are different, I'm a bit tired of the half mortal half magic creature books for a while.

Brenda said...

Felicia, I'm with you. I'm in a bit of a slump myself, and I'm also sick to death of the paranormal YA books right now.