Review: Clockwork Prince

Title: Clockwork Prince
Author: Cassandra Clare
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: December 6th, 2011
Series: The Infernal Devices #2
How I Served It: Hardcover
How I Got It: Own

Summary:
"In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.

With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, but her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart." 

--Goodreads

Review:
I liked this book so much better than the last one, which admittedly is saying something because I loved the first book in the series too!  It just, had all all of the elements of a good novel and God knows seconds books in trilogies are so often disappointing.  This one was awesome.  So awesome in fact, that I don't even know how to tackle reviewing it... So I'm just going to do what I do best.  That is, make lists!  Spoilers abound.


Top 5 Things About this Book!

1. The sneakiness.  So many plot twists!  I was surprised so many times when I didn't expect to be!  Gideon Lightwood is a stand-up dude!  Jessamine is basically every sixteen year old girl when they try to "fix" that bad boyfriend! Will's deep dark secret is so terribly tragic that it gets it's own number.
2. Will's deep dark secret.  Oh my God, this was so sad!  Such a case of tragic everything.  The fact that demon lies to him about the curse and leads Will to spend five years actively trying to be as unlovable as possible... His story is so cool in this.  I mean, yeah, totally tragic, but it's such an interesting way to rationalize the bad boy.  In fact it like is the epitome of what every girl dreams of deep down; a bad boy who's only bad because he's actively protecting those he loves.  Totally impossible in real life, but in books we can dream.  Plus, adding to the tragedy is the fact that Will found out the truth after he unwittingly loses Tessa to Jem and now he has to live with it.  
3. The Love Triangle that I actually don't hate.  Okay, after Twilight love triangles became the unnecessary, overused trope of the YA genre.  Literally every trilogy had one or acted like they would.  Over the year's I've essentially grown to hate them simply because of overdose. This love triangle is honestly the first one in years that I did more than tolerate.  It's tragic and angsty and amazing.  I am obsessed with the way Clare managed to write a love triangle that didn't make me put the book down.  There's Jem who's dying but beautiful and quiet and soft-spoken and so clearly the good boy, the obvious 'right choice.'  And then there's Will who is a jerk, and honestly I was going to root for him even before knowing that he has such a good reason to be that way!  I always pick the bad boys.  Damon (TVD), Logan (VMars), Spike (Buffy)... I have yet to root for the 'right choice' in a love triangle. Nevertheless, I support this love triangle. I can live with either outcome and will be sad for either loser.  I am dying to know how she resolves this.
4. Really just all of the relationships. Sophie is actually one of the most dynamic characters in this book.  I said in my review of Clockwork Angel how much I appreciate that Clare doesn't spare any of her characters from a tragedy, and it's true. I've always been a sucker for background relationships, and Sophie's relationship with Gideon is easily one of the cutest I've seen.  She's essentially doing what Jessamine could not do, which is giving Gideon a reason to betray his father and join Team Charlotte.
   Speaking of team Charlotte, can we just acknowledge the level of cute that is Charlotte and Henry?  They are easily the best couple in this book, winning the awards for obliviousness, unnecessary sadness and for happy endings.  Plus I just like both of the characters so much, it's perfect.
5. The Plot. Cop-out fifth item? Maybe, but it's no less true.  This isn't like the Harry Potter series or anything where each new book has a clear-cut objective.  Still, this book had just enough new information and left/introduced just enough questions to make me still want to read the third.  Enough things, like Nate, were tied up that I didn't feel like this book was filler or anything.

Three Things I didn't Like

1. Nate.  I mean yeah, we as readers are definitely supposed to despise him, so that's not what I mean.  I didn't like his sudden turn around as he lay dying.  His sudden profound interest in helping Tessa survive... a part of me wonders if his insistance in her wearing the Angel is a trap? Even weirder, a part of me hopes that it is.  See, Nate was painted as a despicable, unremorseful man-child.  To me at least, he did what he did because he wanted to, not because he absolutely had to.  If he was doing it because he was forced, than surely he would have shown some guilt.  I know when people are dying they might get a new perspective on life, but still, I felt like his change was too much out of no where... maybe I just lack compassion?
2. The Absence of Mortmain.  Don't get me wrong, his hand was definitely felt, but I feel like the book could have benefited from a sighting maybe... or like, an interlude with the villain just for the readers to see what he's up to... Maybe I'm reaching for straws to pick at, but I just felt like we didn't get enough information about what he's really doing... I guess this will just have to wait for Princess.
3. Jessamine.  Again I get that I'm not supposed to like her.  I also get that she is, in many ways, broken.  My main issue with Jessie is not that she betrayed her pseudo-family and threw away everything for what she perceived as a chance to be mundane, but rather the fact that I cannot understand why she did this.  What is broken inside of her that makes her so desperate to flee the Institute?  I'm fairly sure that Princess will address this, but I would have liked a bit more explained.  Is it just that what she witnessed was so tragic that she cannot recover/grow past the girl she was when it happened?  Or is there something darker?  I think there's something darker.

Final Noodle:  I liked this format for reviewing.  Maybe I'll adopt it for some future books, it seems like it would be easier to read... just a thought.  Anyway, I loved this book and so far highly recommend the trilogy to all fantasy fans, especially those who are a fan of Clare's existing work :)