132. CLOCKWORK ANGEL

The INFERNAL DEVICES Book 1

Cassandra Clare 2010

This is my first venture to the supernatural world of Cassandra Clare, having not read the Mortal Instruments books and I can say that this part paranormal, part steampunk book is a nice and welcome change. Set in Victorian London 1878, 16 year old Tessa travels from New York to find her missing brother Nathaniel but instead is thrown into the world of Shadowhunters, warlocks and vampires. She also discovers that she herself is a Shape-changer. The first in a series of three books, the story is fast paced, action packed, with a subtle romantic angle and enough unanswered questions to keep me waiting for the next one.

'The demon exploded in a shower of ichor and guts. William Herondale jerked back the dagger he was holding, but it was too late. The viscous acid of the demon's blood had already begun to eat away at the shining blade'(opening lines)

'Tessa could not remember a time when she had not loved the clockwork angel. It had belonged to her mother once, and her mother had been wearing it when she died. After that it had sat in her mother's jewelry box, until her brother, Nathaniel, took it out one day to see if it was still in working order.'(6)

'If no one in the entire world cared about you, did you really exist at all?'(17)

'Suddenly she heard Aunt Harriet's voice in her head: When you find a man you wish to marry, Tessa, remember this: You will know what kind of man he is not by the things he says, but by the things he does.'(33)

'Charlotte nodded. 'I am one of the Nephilim -- the Shadowhunters. We are ... a race, if you will, of people, people with special abilities. We are stronger and swifter than most humans. We are able to conceal ourselves with magics called glamours. And we are especially skilled at killing demons."'(59)

'It was always the same: nothing at first, then the flicker of something at the back of her mind, like someone lighting a candle in a dark room. She groped her way toward it, as the Dark Sisters had taught her. It was hard to strip away the fear and the shyness, but she had done it enough times now to know what to expect -- the reaching forward to touch the light at the center of the darkness; the sense of light and enveloping warmth, as if she were drawing a blanket, something thick and heavy, around herself, covering every layer of her own skin; and then the light blazing up and surrounding her -- and she was inside it. Inside someone else's skin. Inside their mind.'(74)

'Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.'(87)

'Now that she had worn other faces, seen through other eyes, how could she ever say any face was really her own, even if it was the face she had been given at birth? When she Changed back to herself, how was she to know there wasn't some slight shift in her very self, something that made her not who she was anymore? Or did it matter what she looked like at all? Was her face nothing but a mask of flesh, irrelevant to her true self?'(111)

"I believe in good and evil," said Jem. "And I believe the soul is eternal. But I don't believe in the fiery pit, the pitchforks, or endless torment. I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness."(175)

"Sophie said to me once that she was glad she had been scarred. She said that whoever loved her now would love her true self, and not her pretty face. This is your true self, Tessa. This power is who you are. Whoever loves you now -- and you  must also love yourself -- will love the truth of you."(197)

"Whatever you are physically -- all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have a soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. Whatever the color, the shape, the design of the shade that conceals it, the flame inside the lamp remains the same."(283)

'Twenty bridges from Tower to Kew

Wanted to know what the River knew

For they were young and the Thames was old,

And this is the tale that the River told.

-Rudyard Kipliing, "The River's Tale"'(310)

a Margaret K McElderry Books First Edition

478 pages

Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge