Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Synopsis:

In a time when Shadowhunters are barely winning the fight against the forces of darkness, one battle will change the course of history forever. Welcome to the Infernal Devices trilogy, a stunning and dangerous prequel to the New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series.

The year is 1878. Tessa Gray descends into London’s dark supernatural underworld in search of her missing brother. She soon discovers that her only allies are the demon-slaying Shadowhunters—including Will and Jem, the mysterious boys she is attracted to. Soon they find themselves up against the Pandemonium Club, a secret organization of vampires, demons, warlocks, and humans. Equipped with a magical army of unstoppable clockwork creatures, the Club is out to rule the British Empire, and only Tessa and her allies can stop them...

Review by Patrick:

 Okay, so Rachel has been BEGGING me to read this series. She also insisted that I start with this series (the prequel) instead of the publishing order. I can't speak about whether I agree with the order yet (because I haven't read the entire series), but I can say that I should have read this book a long time ago, when she first asked me to.

Suspense, thriller, historical, London-centric, supernatural, love-trinagle-ish, automatons, vampires, magic, nephillium, poetry, betrayal, a plot twist, demons, ... it has just about everything you need for a good story. There wasn't a car chase scene (it was set in 1878), but there was a horse that was rode hard for about twenty minutes straight; does that count? Seriously, this book had all the makings of a good story. If you like stories with any of the above elements, this book will down your soul obsessed dark alley.

Cassandra Clare did an amazing job putting you in the time period. There was magic, so some artificial light was available to the characters, but all the dresses, the character's attitudes, the descriptions of the environment, everything felt real. It was as if she studied Austen, Dickens, and Doyle thoroughly so that the whole bit was as realistic as possible. I felt as if she had maps of London from back then, and was able to draw inspiration from that.

This book really has a good tempo. Every chapter led you to the next, and you kept wondering what was going to happen. If you can stay awake for the whole thing, you could read this in one sitting. It also left you with enough questions to make you want to read the next book, but with enough resolution of the story to feel good about it.

All in all, this book was a good one. Thanks, Rachel, for making me read another good book/series. This book gets a solid four stars.