Review of "Clockwork Princess"

Overall, I'd give this book 5 stars. I would consider it to be one of my favorite books, because it had a lot of suspense and had a good ending. As well as suspense, it made me have feelings towards the characters, especially the epilogue, when one of the main characters dies. I hated this, because in each of the books in the trilogy, the story sets the reader up to absolutely love this character, but then they die. I got over it though, considering I sort of expected it. One thing I absolutely liked about the book is that it takes place in London during the 1800's, and so they use a different set of vocabulary than what we use today, and it was very descriptive of places and people, which helped me to visualize the different parts of the book in my mind. I can't really think about any parts I didn't like within the book, so I was very glad that I decided to finish it. This is why I'd give it 5 stars.

Brief Summary of "Clockwork Princess"

*Spoilers* Ultimately in the end, Will does save Tessa and we find out that Jem had not died after all, but that he became a 'silent brother', basically the doctors and priests to the Shadow hunters, which caused the parabatai bond between him and Will to sever. Also, Mortmain is killed along with his army of robots that tried to destroy the Shadow hunters. Will does go into a period of depression after realizing that he and Jem may never see each other again, considering it was his best friend who he thought died, but is later out of his depression and then he and Tessa get married. I later read in the ending that Will dies, but since Tessa is immortal, and Jem also becomes immortal. They run into each other in present day London and catch up with each other, considering the last they saw each other was during the late 1800's in London. This is basically how the book ends and how the characters are affected. 

Theme for Most of The Book "Clockwork Princess"

As I have been reading, I have noticed an overall theme of the book and I think that the theme is that nothing stays in the world forever. The reason I think this is because throughout the book, there are major character deaths that affect the main characters, for example, in Chapter 14, a quote that shows this is, "He could see that his parabatai rune, just over his heart, was bleeding. His hands were covered in blood, blood mixed with rain, the same rain that was washing the blood away from his chest, showing the rune as it began to fade from black to silver, changing all that had been sense in Will's life into nonsense. Jem was dead." This quote in Chapter 14 is from the perspective of Will Herondale, one of the main characters. He had gotten something called a parabatai rune with his best friend Jem when they were younger, it is basically a bond between two people that makes them stronger when they are in danger and allows them to sense when the other is in trouble. Jem had been close to death for over a year, and Will didn't want to accept this, yet while he was out looking for Tessa to save her, he felt a sort of "cord" snap within him, which indicated that Jem had ultimately died, making Will come to the realization that Jem was not going to live forever. This is how the quote relates to the overall theme of the book, because Will finally realized that he couldn't keep Jem around any longer.

Important Quotes in "Clockwork Princess"

The first quote that I have found in Clockwork Princess is, "But now, in the cold hours of the evening, she knew that nothing she could do would turn back the clock, or unmake the feelings that existed between them all." This quote is from the perspective of Tessa, after she had witnessed her fiancee throwing the only thing that can save him into a fire. This has affected her greatly, because she has tried so much to keep him alive and has tried to find some sort of cure for his disease, yet he just threw that away.  The second quote that is important to the story is, "The habits of a lifetime were not broken so easily, and though Cecily was no longer lonely, since she had come to the Institute eight weeks ago, she had made its inhabitants the subject of her close study. They were Shadow hunters, after all    the enemy at first, and then, as that had become less and less of her view, simply the subject of fascination." This quote is important to the story because most people view the Shadow hunters as an evil type of people, yet Cecily(Will's sister) comes to realize that they are not as evil as everyone else makes them to be, and she realizes that Mortmain's attempt at exterminating them at first was now a terrible thing, rather than something that would provide justice, which was what she had thought before she went to the Institute. These are the two quotes that I have read that seem to be the most important to the story.

Current Opinion on "Clockwork Princess"

*There are spoilers in this post* Currently as I read the book, it is a really good book, I have gotten past the part where I last left off and it surprisingly makes me not want to put the book down. There are many surprises regarding the main characters and it is able to make me feel sorry for the characters, which does not happen too often. In my opinion if a book can make me have actual feelings and emotions(anger, sadness, joy, etc.) towards the characters, then it is a good book. With this book, the main character Tessa has been kidnapped by the main antagonist, named Mortmain, he wants her for her power and to marry her. The power she has is being able to shape-shift to look exactly like another person. Why he wants to use her power is currently unknown, but it does add suspense to the story, which makes me want to read it even more, along with the constant question to if someone is going to be able to rescue her or not. So far, it is a good and enjoyable book to read.

Why I Chose "Clockwork Princess"

For an independent novel, I have chosen the book "Clockwork Princess" by Cassandra Clare. The first reason that I chose this is because about 1-2 years ago, I had read through about a third of it, but I ended up leaving it unfinished, so I figured that I might as well finish the book, which is also the end of the Infernal Devices trilogy. The second reason that I chose to read this is because I really enjoy reading the books that Cassandra Clare writes because she writes with a style that I like because she changes the perspectives of the characters, going from one or two pages being from the perspective of the main character Tessa Grey, to being in the perspective of the other main characters, either Jem Carstairs or Will Herondale. I had also wanted to know what would happen to those three characters in the end of the trilogy, which is the last reason I chose it, because since I quit reading it in the middle of the book, it was basically a cliff-hanger. This is why I have chosen to read "Clockwork Princess".

What does James learn about himself through finding out about hat do we learn about ourselves by understanding more about our parents?

James found out that he was technically Jewish because his mother was born a Jew and he also found out that his grandfather hated blacks which was a little ironic considering Ruth ended up having 12 black children. I think by asking our parents about where they're from, how they're raised, etc. and understanding those things, we can learn a lot about our heritage and where our ancestors and grandparents are from and how they lived and worked. For example, I found out a couple of years ago that my family has German, Irish and Dutch  backgrounds and it surprised me because I had never known that I was part German, Irish and Dutch. This is what James learns about his background and how we learn more about ourselves through our parents past.