Review: Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare is the first book in the Infernal Devices series and a prequel the the Mortal Instruments series. The review might contain small setting spoiler, but I will not give anything away about the plot.

The book cover. Source: google

I do not often read Young Adult, but wanted something 'easy' to read during the exams and decided to start to read this book. It's the first book I've read by Clare and certainly not the last.

"When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray arrives in England during the reign of Queen Victoria, something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Friendless and hunted, Tessa seeks refuge with the Shadowhunters, a band of warriors dedicated of ridding the world of demons. Drawn even deeper into their world, she finds herself fascinated by - and torn between- two best friends and quickly realizes that love may be the most dangerous magic of them all."

Summary on the back of the book.

In the beginning of the book I wasn't sure what to think of it. Half the prologue shouldn't be a prologue but just a part of the first chapter. Also the feeling of the main protagonist disturbed me. She enters a whole new world and learns something shocking about herself, but she almost immediately seems to be fine with this. Later in the book she has some more emotions about it, but nothing major. If the author had spent some more attention to this, the book would have been better. What is really good about the book is that it manages to spread the action very well. There are enough slower scenes in the book but when I got the feeling it was starting to go too slow, an action scene appeared. Clare's writing style is, as is appropriate for a YA novel, simple without being childlike. She describes only what is necessary to set a scene or create a certain feeling so the story isn't slowed down by this. Two of the characters play around with poems and more then once fictional characters from well known books were mentioned. As a literature fan and student, I really enjoyed this. It might be a bit annoying if you have no clue what they are talking about but luckily those references never last longer then a couple of sentences.
The plot could use a bit more polishing and character development as well. I really enjoyed this book and was quite annoyed when the epilogue ended with a cliffhanger since I shouldn't be spending money on books right now though I'm dying to know what would happen next. Due to the Clare's writing style and the constant wonder of were the story would be going, I finished this book rather fast even though I did not have a lot of time to read it. I will recommend this book to people who like the supernatural, aren't annoyed that most of the characters are young (under 25, though they all are rather mature)  and don't get upset by the lack of character development. While the back of the book seems to emphasis love it is, at least in the first part of the series, a minor part of the plot.

If I had the rate this book, I'll give it a 3/5.