Book Review Clockwork Prince book 2 of TDI trilogy

Book Review: Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare, book 2 of The Infernal Devices trilogy

Book Description from Goodreads.com: In magical Victorian London, orphan Tessa found safety with the Shadowhunters, until traitors betray her to the Magister. He wants to marry her, but so do self-destructive Will and fiercely devoted Jem. Mage Magnus Bane returns to help them. Secrets to her parentage lie with the mist-shrouded Yorkshire Institute's aged manager Alyosius Starkweather.

**Warning: strong language and swearing in some parts!**

Hell, it's even worse than Clockwork Angel...I'm seriously NOT AMUSED! In fact for most of the time I had difficulty suppressing my disbelief!

I really, really didn't expect it, but after finishing Clockwork Prince, I found Cassandra Clare actually hit the rock bottom with this second book of The Infernal Devices series. If you thought Clockwork Angel is bad, wait till you read CP! Why would I say that? Here're a few points:

(1) The horrible love Triangle

Don't get me wrong, I like reading about people falling in love, I can even tolerate love triangles when they're well written. But I hate whatever romance Cassandra Clare has to offer with a passion. At first I couldn't quite pinpoint why her romances make my stomach turn so much. But after reading so many woody, uninspiring 'romantic' Will/Tessa and Jem/Tessa scenes throughout CP, I began to realize why Clare's love triangle pisses me off so much...

It's because I can't sense any passion in Clare's writing. It's like she was merely writing a very formalized version of what people should do/think/feel when they're in love. There's no heart, no passion, no real feeling beyond her 'romances'!>_<

Whenever I read a good, heartfelt romance, I would cheer the couple on and feel happy when they finally get together, but I never do that with any of Clare's couple.

Plus, we are supposed to believe Jem and Will were all head over heels for Tessa, but what's so adorable about her? I don't get it. If Tessa was kind and brave, then isn't Sophie just the same!? So why Will and Jem never notice her as a love interest? Why?

Well, the romance might actually have worked out well if only Tessa is a likable character, but sadly she never is; for her creator Clare has always mistaken bitchiness, stupidity and selfishness with bravery and independence when it comes to her female characters. *sighs*

(2)Clare's failed attempt to make Will sympathetic

Will, he was a major jackass in Clockwork Angel, but starting from Chapter One of Clockwork Prince, Clare intended to let us see the 'different' side of Will's character by throwing off hints that he had feeling for Tessa, throwing off hints that there's a reason for him to be so much of an asshole to everyone, blah blah blah.

But dose Clare's attempt to make Will sympathetic work? My answer to that is a big fat NO.

**major plot spoiler warning**

Let me get down to Will's curse. Supposedly when Will was 12 years old, he accidentally released a demon, the demon cursed him that every person who looks at him with love will die, unless he removes himself from their presence. This is the condition of the curse. And at the same night he was cursed, Will's sister died painfully, causing Will to believe her death was the curse at work, so he escaped from his family without looking back.

First there're many holes in this story, for example why would Will's father, an ex-Shadowhunter be allowed to keep a trapped demon? Why would the man be foolish enough to keep said demon under the same roof with his own wife and children? Was the father really that stupid? But what I want to discuss is how idiotic Will had reacted to his 'curse'.

After he was 'cursed',  Will never mentioned it with any of the adult, not his parents, not Henry and Charlotte, no one.

What the hell? Did the demon ever forbid Will to mention his curse to anyone? No? Then why wouldn't he tell the Shadowhunters about his curse? Weren't the Shadowhunters experts of dealing with curses and demons!? Even when the Shadowhunters can't handle it, wouldn't there be Silent Brothers around to do the job? Why would Will be such an idiot!?

Plus, I don't even want to mention how unlikely it is for the demon to cast a fake curse on Will which couldn't even work out! Wouldn't it be easier for the demon to tear Will and his sister from limb to limb, then wait for their parents to come back if the demon really wants revenge for his imprisonment!?

**end of spoiler**

This one is for all the Will-defenders out there: Please look me in the eyes and explain to me why should I feel any sympathy for someone who said the following line to someone else:

"Lord, you're Irish," said Will, "Can you make things that don't have potatoes in them?"

Will said that to the new cook once he realized she was Irish. What a total racist dickhead he  is. He makes me sick.

my GR friend Andre joked about "So Will was  cursed to a life of assholeness" and I can't agree more with him. The whole thing about Will and his curse is just pathetic. It's just a bucket of nonsense in my eyes.

Just for the record, I think the demons in The Demon's Lexicon Trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan are 1000% more awesome, evil and frightening than what Clare has to offer

(3) The flat, uninteresting characters

Tessa: She's not as hateful as she was in CA, but my goodness she's dull and uninteresting. Can't see what Jem and Will saw in her.

Will: He's an ass. He's an ass who reads through someone else's letters without permission, who had humiliated a girl in the past by reading her diary entries aloud to a whole roomful of guests. Will is a horrible person. The reason why he's  parabatai with Jem only highlighted how hateful and selfish he is--My goodness Will didn't even tell Jem the real reason why he agreed to be parabatai with him all along! WHO NEED ENEMY WHEN THEY HAVE *FRIEND* LIKE THIS!? Plus, the reason why he wants to break his curse is because he doesn't want to hurt Tessa's feeling. Oh, great. So Will doesn't care if he hurt Jem, Henry and Charrlotte's feeling throughout five long years, but he cares about himself hurting Tessa's feeling!? I can't believe how selfish this guy can be and how little he had thought of his best friend and the two adults who had bothered to raise him up! That's hateful!

Jem: He's still the nice guy and there's nothing more about him. But how could a half Chinese-half British with bright sliver hair mixed person go unnoticed in the Victorian London? And he also suffered no race discrimination? It makes no sense.

Jessamine: She's only there to be the total bitch so Tessa could look good. Full Stop.

Sophie: I don't know why she has her own storyline in the book. She serves no real purpose other than to be one of the Lightwood brothers' love interest. And even that romance with the Lightwood brother could have been done off-screen.

Charlotte and Henry: They barely showed any maturity and leadership in the book. I hate to say that but Charlotte's behaviors show that she has yet to proof herself a capable leader! I like Charlotte, but still...

Nate: A cardboardcutout. I have nothing to say about him.

(4) The Shadowhunters' idiocy

I had talked about Henry and Charlotte's lack of leadership, but the Shadowhunters as a whole continue to act like they are a bunch of idiots. They were even more lousy than they were in CA. For example, in the mask ball scene, Tessa and Will simply started making out when they should have been busy trying to escape from the villains! That's damn stupid!

Worse still, they(mostly Will) seemed to think the bad guys were as stupid as they did!

**plot spoiler warning**

For example, Tessa Changed into Jessamine in order to meet Nate in a mask ball, but after leaving the ball under suspicious condition, the Shadowhunters still thought Nate would fall for the same trick again?!?**end of spoiler**

Shit, the Shadowhunters still thought it's a good idea for Tessa to play the same trick again? They really think the bad guys are THAT stupid?

Not to mention the mask ball scene doesn't make any sense at all. **plot spoiler warning** Why would the bad guy met the spy who he had planted in the enemy camp in a ball, where everyone can see them!? Plus why would the bad Shadowhunter think it's a good idea to host a ball with Downworlders doing illegal activities within his own mansion!? That's just damn stupid!**end of spoiler**


(5) Where's the villain!?

**plot spoiler warning**

The arch villain, Mortmain has been nowhere in sight throughout the entire book, leaving only Nate--who isn't all that bright nor frightening in his place. My goodness, I had never, never read a second book in which the arch villain is absent.

**end of spoiler**

So what's the point of Clockwork Prince's very existence? Seriously, I think Clare is wasting my time here.

(6) The boredom, oh the boredom!

There're some 500 pages in CP, but at least 1/3 of them can be cut off for good. Mostly I want to complain about the space which is wasted on the romances. The Will/Tessa and Jem/Tessa scenes are equally woody, boring and pointless. Plus, I don't know why Sophie got her own storyline when said storyline serves no purpose other than throwing one more romance into a story.

(7) The supposed 'Victorian' background

I am not an expert of history, but I cannot help but noticing hardly any of the character in TDI act like they are people of the Victorian era.

I have problem suppressing my disbelief when Will, Jem, Henry and Charlotte all went "OH I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU!!" on us. My goodness, I know that during the Victorian era, even husband and wife wouldn't express their feeling so freely.

Plus I want to point out at 1870s, Chinese people were very subtle when it comes to expressing romantic love, they were as subtle as the British. But somehow Clae made Jem say "I love you" to Tessa in Chinese. Oh my goodness, did she ever know expressions such as "I love you" was introduced to China *after* the Republic of China was formed? That "I love you" simply isn't part of the common language in the 1870s?

I also have problem suppressing my disbelief when Jem made out with Tessa and had his hands up beneath her nightgown. Just...What is that? A Victorian gentleman would never treat a woman like this, not if he respected her. But no, realism has to make way for steaming hot make-out sections, right?

I also can't suppress my disbelief when I read that a Shadowhunter asked Sophie "to see him" outside of training. I can't believe a Victorian gentleman would do that when in this case Sophie was a maid. Not that there's anything wrong about liking or loving a maid, but I can't believe for a second that any man of Victorian polite society would actually do that.

Then I want to point out the issue about Jem's parentage.

In the Victorian era, race discrimination was common, and marriages between different races were...rare, especially within the polite society. So why would Jem's parents be faced with no objection when they got married? I don't quite buy this "Shadowhunters have no race discrimination" claim---for how would there possibly be no race discrimination against people of colors when the Shadowhunters had such a bad attitude toward Downworlders and were so against the idea of women being the bosses? Plus unlike J K. Rowling's wizards who didn't have to interact with Muggles directly, the Shadowhunters had to live among humans and moved in the humans' society, so I can't believe the racism at that time could have no influence on the Shadowhunters.

Furthermore, my good GR friend Andre (www.goodreads.com/user/show/64…) also informed me that Opium War took place four years before Jem was born, and you can imagine how the Chinese might feel toward British and half British-half Chinese mixed children at that time. So why would Jem never mentioned having racist problems during his childhood?

I also want to point out how unrealistic Tessa's reaction to Jem is.

I found it unrealistic for Tessa not having any negative feeling or doubt toward Jem when they first met. She wasn't even being taken aback when she learnt there is a half Chinese among Shadowhunters. It's highly unlikely because...back in the time of 1870s, race discrimination against Chinese were wild-spreading among American general public. During the time of TDI, discrimination against Chinese was widely common, especially among the working class people---who believed their jobs were stolen by the Chinese, and the mainstream media of that time was eager to paint Chinese as evil invaders or scary criminals who had a lot of immoral bad hobbies (e.g. opium smoking, gambling and whoring, etc) which were against the Christian values. The media of that time happily and self righteously fed those stereotypes to the public.

That, was how unpopular the Chinese had once been in America, no kidding. And I can't think for a reason for Tessa to be unaware of Chinese and/or mixed blood people's bad reputation of that time. Tessa only acted like "Oh so Jem is a half-Chinese? Oh, I had never seen a Chinese before!" That's quite unrealistic.

Conclusion:

In one of my statuses, my GR friend Ceilidh (www.goodreads.com/user/show/32…) commented that: "Oh honey, you really are a literary masochist. First the Tiger's Racist Curse books and now this? "

Okay, I admit that Ceilidh is right, reading C. Clare's books really makes me a literary masochist. Because for what reason else would I be reading Clockwork Prince, when the author (1)  has became very very lazy, (2) had done no research on the historical London, (3) hasn't taken her creations and her readers seriously, (4) has been giving us increasingly shitty plots and characters, (5) didn't even TRY to make her story and characters make sense.

I'm serious, after reading seven of Clare's novels, I don't think this woman respects her readers, nor her own stories.