Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Clockwork Angel

as a main character, tessa is more interesting to follow than clary primarily because of the mystery concerning her existence. i do miss my malec tho but this copy had a delightful bonus story with magnus' pov, which i enjoyed. i'm not incredibly intrigued by the romance or the love triangle as others seem to be; both boys are enjoyable characters, but the romance is not particularly exciting so far. i'm more interested in the plot than the romance. 4 stars for the plot and characters and for being a fun read, but missing that last star for not living up to my expectations in the romance department and for being a bit slow at times.

Content Warnings

katyfayyyx's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

God Will you do make it hard to love you! Jesus. I will always be on team Will okay but god he is just so a dick in this one, to the point when I hated him at times like fucking hell calm down. Like I know why is doing he but Jesus it is just so annoying like he is the Original gaslighter, but I do still love him. Also I will always be on team Will and Tessa as well but girl I was have pushed him down some stairs if I was her. This was a re-read for me as I wanted to re-read the Infernal Devices before I read the Last Hours series but I read Chain of Gold and I have totally forgot what happens in it and now the series in complete I do in fact need to read them. Also I love revisiting my queen Sophie and Charlotte 🧎🏻‍♀️ also I will say I actually didn't hate Tessa this time which is some kind of miracle because god I kinda hater her when I first read this series as I thought it was a bit of a cry baby like no where near as bad as Clary because I will always be a hater of her in the Moral Instruments because she is fucking annoying, I said what I said. Also I have missed my sweet wholesome and fluffy bean which is Henry, I would be willing to be fight the entire Clave for my man because I fucking love him and I think he is a genius and I love him. I just love all these characters chaos like I just know that Charlotte is just so over their shit. Also Will is just a dick but god him and Tessa have soooo much chemistry, like the Attic from the whole just pissing each other off to the bit when Will thought Tessa was dead, I would die from them and I just know the pain that I am about to thought and I don't think if I am ready to got though it again but I will. Also don't get me wrong I fucking love Jem he is a sweetheart and he is so kind and does make me cry a number of times but Will just Will and you can't compete which him and some how I don't know why I some how hated Nate more than a did the first time, which I didn't know what possible but.... it is happen. <3 Church, you are the icon<3 However, the reason why this one is an only four stars is that i think the start is a bit slow and hard to get into it and at times it just felt like nothing was happening and that we were struck in one bit of the story.

Epilogue

'Magnus reached behind himself and locked the parlour door. Very well, he said Why don't you tell me what the problem is.'

*Please note that is review was written after my third time reading this book *

Content Warnings

amberkaylynn's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

nickoliver's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I've read this book for the first time in the summer of 2015, and I had absolutely adored it. Like, half of my diary entries from around that time - and even some months later - were basically just me fangirling over Will. He was essentially what I imagined my perfect boyfriend to look and act like (which, lol @ 2015-me for thinking I even liked guys). Overall, I found the Infernal Devices to be so much more interesting than the Mortal Instruments, and the characters to be way more intriguing and entertaining than, say, Jace and Clary. (Also, Will and Tessa never think they're siblings, so there's that added bonus of not having to deal with incest.)

This year, I finally got around to re-reading the book for the first time, and I'm very pleased to announce that I still loved it just as much the second time around! I did find a few things that bothered me that didn't occur to me five years ago, but they were minor and really didn't take away from my enjoyment, which is why my rating of 5 stars is still standing.

My absolute favourite aspect of "Clockwork Angel" were undoubtedly the characters. Obviously, my focus was a lot on Will and Jem, because their personalities just gave me a lot of entertainment. Will was very sassy and unapologetically himself , which made his scenes so funny that I chuckled out loud a lot and had a lot of fun reading the book. I also headcanon him as bi; he just really had "chaotic bi energy" written all over him (don't ask me why, I have no idea). Upon re-reading, he intrigued me even more, because I knew why he acted the way he did (read: very rude and mean at times) and could clearly see how tortured he was.

Where Will was the storm in the middle of the sea, Jem was the quiet after everything calmed down. He was extremely kind and sweet and just absolutely perfect in my eyes. He always knew just what to say to comfort others, but he also didn't hesitate to criticise Will if he didn't agree with him. At the end of the day, Will and Jem just really complemented each other very well, and I loved seeing them together.

Now, when I first read the book, I didn't particularly care about Tessa. I didn't hate or dislike her, but next to Will and Jem, she just paled in comparison. Which is why, when I started my re-read, I didn't expect anything from her; I just figured she'd be a nice main character but not as interesting as the boys. So imagine my surprise when I realised just how sassy she could be if needed! She certainly could hold her ground next to Will, and I loved their dynamics a lot!

Tessa had a lot of internalised misogyny, especially at first, which is something I completely forgot about. She was surprised at a lot of things that we don't blink an eye at anymore nowadays, like Charlotte wearing pants in a battle or girls being able to be violent and bloodthirsty. It was kind of interesting to see her have to challenge those views she grew up with and grapple with them.

I also loved all the other characters . They all differed from each other in some way or another, from Charlotte basically being their mother (and let me tell you, hearing that she was younger than me by now just about shoved me into my existential crisis of the month) to Jessamine and Will acting so much like siblings that it cracked me up. I also thought the villain was build up nicely; I did remember who they were, so I wasn't surprised, but I do think the way they were introduced was interesting. Jessamine did make me roll my eyes at times (definitely a victim of the patriarchy), but I did find it refreshing to have a Shadowhunter who didn't actually want to be a Shadowhunter.

I did think that the romance was a bit rushed; Tessa's first kiss with her love interest came a bit too early and took me by surprise, and not in a particularly good way. It wasn't unbearable and like I said, I adore the characters, but the romantic relationships weren't build up as well as they could have been. Plus, Clare wasn't really subtle about there being a future love triangle, which I found a bit annoying.

I know that a lot of people ship Tessa, Jem, and Will all together, and while I personally don't really do that, I can 100% see why people do. Even in this first installment, where the romance has only steered in one direction so far, you can already see how deeply they all will care for each other in the future. And I know the sequels will just get more intense.

Really, there were only two negative things that I realised this time around that I apparently didn't five years ago.

Number one is the fact that there wasn't that much action happening in the story. For most of the book, Tessa learnt things about the world and about herself, but it wasn't necessarily in a suspenseful setting? There were a lot of conversations and a big focus on the characters themselves, and I think that rather slow pace is part of the reason why it took me a while to finish the book. I can imagine that some people might be bothered by the pace.

The second thing were the descriptions. Clare loves to describe things in detail, be it people, buildings, or objects. I found it to be rather redundant after a while. Then again, I often have trouble picturing how things look like, no matter how much description is provided by the author of a book, so maybe this is just a me thing.

Overall, I just love this book a lot. The characters, especially Will and Jem, have my entire heart at this point.

Content Warnings

More...