"Writing a prequel is hard. Writing one that can stand alone is even harder. Tessa and company are invaluable for fans and new readers alike. It keeps you glued until the last page."
A special thanks to Jane Austen for pushing me to write this review from beyond the grave. This piece is especially written due to my own (many failed) attempts to finish Pride and Prejudice.
The number of times that I have opened Pride and Prejudice, only to scarcely get through more than a page or two, is likely to be alarming to any reader of Austin’s work. The historical record it provided was complete, but I don’t know if I understood much of it. Turning back to my shelves, I discovered an old friend of mine: The Infernal Devices, telling the story of the people who would become the ancestors of the first Shadowhunters I was introduced to.
Tessa Gray, Will Herondale, and Jem Carstairs. Tessa was the only one who had been introduced into the series by that time, and I had an insurmountable desire to know these characters. Specifically, I wanted to know if the Herondale’s sense of humor was a family trait. More time passed, and I returned to the world of Tessa Gray. My first exposure to the Victorian era came- just like Tessa’s exposure to the Shadow World- came in the form of an old friend.
The form of a book.
When Tessa arrives in London, she has no friends and no family. Well, she has a brother, but he’s missing. The misalignment between the current era and that of Tessa Gray’s beginnings may be disconcerting to some readers, but it allows readers to more easily empathize with Tessa’s character feeling so discombobulated. The language of Clockwork Angel further smooths the transition between the modern day and the old one, with the prose being more complex but completely understandable. If you struggled with reading novels such as A Tale of Two Cities, the characters’ reactions to each make the task a bit easier. Tessa’s relocation to London is made easier with the help of those same characters, in particular one Jem Carstairs.
Oh, Jem. His role in this first book is rather as an antithesis to Will’s dark, bitter humor. He’s like a lost puppy following a stranger around- you’d feel guilty just for talking to him the wrong way. As a character, Jem is meant to show the best of humanity in an era where disease was far more deadly than it is now. He also serves to lighten up the mood alongside Henry and is a sort of gentle sunshine in the city that never sees the sun. Tessa's world is newly rife with danger, and it is the Shadowhunters' presence which enables her to evolve.
The characters' last names may be stories, but it is the people behind those names who will make them legends. Clockwork Angel plants the roots of both. It is, after all, words which have the power to change us.
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