Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Infernal Devices #1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: August 31st 2010
My Rating: 3 cups
Blurb (from Goodreads):
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....
Disclaimer: Before I start my review I should warn you that: 1) my review might contain SPOILERS and some curse words and 2) There will be a few GIFs because words fail me at the moment and I need them to accurately convey what I'm feeling right now.
So...Umm...I finished reading this book on Sunday and I'm still a bit confused about what I'm actually feeling about this book. I loved the first part of it. Adored it, actually. Then the second half of the book happened and I kept wondering "What am I reading? What did I miss?". I'm getting ahead of myself though.
So the first half of the book was great. A girl was murdered and no one knows why, there's another girl kidnapped and a race of warriors feared by all dark creatures that will do anything to protect the humans, also known as "mundanes". Everything sounds fine until now right? Right. Our heroine is a book lover as well and that was so great, because I love book nerds as heroes/heroines.
I have to admit to one thing first: I decided to read these books after I saw the movie. I saw the movie and I liked it (I know, I know, those who read the books were disappointed) and I thought I need to see if the books are just as awesome. The idea of a strong warrior race fighting demons, vampires, warlocks and other dark creatures has always appealed to me and it's still not getting old. I love that theme and so here I am. Granted, The Infernal Devices takes place before the events in the movie, but I always hated reading series/sagas out of order.
I was thrown off by Tessa's naive nature, but then again she was a young girl in a new country, new continent, hoping to meet her brother whom she has not seen for a while. Plus, she's been God knows how many weeks on a ship and that would make anyone longing for some human interaction. Granted, there were people on that boat but maybe she was just shy *shrugs*. I did like the idea of her being kidnapped right as she arrived at her destination though. It made the villain be very scary, the fact that he acted right away, with no warning whatsoever. We are introduced to our hero (or so I thought), Will. Will is a smart-ass and I like that in a guy. Sarcastic and completely unashamed of his shortcomings. Sometimes he's a bit rude, but he secretly loves books and again my judgement was clouded by emotions. Then I got to know him a little bit and by the end I wanted to punch him in the nuts, just for shits and giggles, but that's another story. There's another guy in the picture, Jem, but I kinda didn't like him all that much. I mean, I didn't dislike him, but he was a little...he's a character I can miss, someone that I don't necessarily notice all that much.
Anyway, the first part of the book had a great deal of suspense, some mildly irritating moments involving a female Shadowhunter (of which I will refrain from talking about because then this review will turn into a rant about characters I'd like to bitch-slap into the next century), and some action-filled scenes, during which I was keeping my fingers crossed for the good guys.
Then... the rest happened. Here's the thing. I'm usually a forgiving reader. I understand that my expectations are somewhat weird in terms of how a book should end and that if I guess correctly what's going to happen sometimes that makes me roll my eyes, other times it makes me want to pat myself on the back for being a smart cookie. HOWEVER. Something happened here that didn't quite sit well with me.
First, how is it that the Shadowhunters, a great race of warriors, feared by all supernatural creatures, didn't know that one of their "trusted friends" was actually working against them? You'd think they would have the means necessary to control everyone 'cause, you know, they sounded like the freakin' police of the supernatural world. Amirite?
Second, why is it that it took the good guys so much time to even consider that the one guy feeding them information might be lying? Granted, the possibility didn't even register in my mind at the time, but why would they, the smartest, strongest, most fierce of all, took so long? And then, when time came for them to figure it out, Will said it like he said something ordinary, like...oh, I don't know, "The sun is hot". If it was THAT easy, why did it take so freaking long in the first place???
Then there's something...technical, if you'd like, that bothered me. It seemed that in the last...100-150 pages or so, there were too many important moments that could've been the ending of the book. Now, you might frown and look all confused, but usually big moments in a book signal the end of that book, right? Huge, bombastic moments happen once or twice, but this book seemed to have more. I probably wouldn't have noticed this, had the book been split in two parts. Then it wouldn't have been an issue. Since that was not the case, I kept scratching my head, wondering what could possibility happen next, because it seemed that all that had happened was all that seemed possible at the time.
I'm not saying in any way, shape or form, that the book was bad. It wasn't, but the ending...Yeah, that was bad. The only way for me to express my feelings about the ending compared to how the book started, is by using this gif:
It was exactly like that. I'm now confused, because I don't know if I am ready to read further or not. I do want to read City Of Bones, but I just don't know... It's sad, because I see so many bloggers that I follow and that I trust that gave glowing reviews to this book and I'm sitting here all confused and pouting, wondering if I read a different book.
This cover reminds me so much of those old photos I see from the 20's and I love it for that. I adore the fact that the background is sort of foggy and you can't really see that bridge. I wonder why. You know me, I'm all about figuring out if the cover fits the book. The model fits the title, if you ask me. Not only is her makeup really beautiful, her clothes remind me of the clothes of a china doll. So I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with that.
I think you guys know by now how obsessed I am with cartoonish covers, creepy covers and beautiful dresses. So if a cover has all those three elements together, you get awesomeness and an excited puppy called Ruby *points at self* Let's start with the dress, shall we? Her corset is made of leaves. I love that! And the gold and green colors blend together so well and it makes her stand out against the dark, creepy background. Why creepy? Well, you have the full moon (love!) and the tons of beads that hang from the tree and they remind me of Mardi Gras (would love to see it one day) and of spider webs. Not to mention those black thingies below her elbow which look like bats to me, but I may be wrong. And the entire city is dark violet. And her eyes are scary, because I barely see her pupils. Okay, I'll shut up now.
This cover is very, very different from the other two. First, it reminds me of a Rorschach test. And after reading the blurb, I applaud the cover artist for making it like this, because it fits perfectly with the idea of this book. It isn't a happy cover, it kinda hints to a very serious, sad, incredibly heartbreaking story, yet it still gives me hope that there's going to be a happy ending in there somewhere.
