Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Image from Barnes & Noble

Clare, Cassandra. Clockwork Angel. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2010. Print. ISBN-13: 9781416975861. Hardcover. Cost: $19.99.

Awards:

- Winner of the 2011 YALSA Teens Top Ten Award

- Winner of the 2011 Silver Inky Award

Annotation:
Tessa Gray only traveled to Victorian London to find her brother. Instead she finds a whole new world of trouble.

Mini-Review:
Orphaned 16-year-old New Yorker Tessa Gray embarks on a journey to find her brother Nate in Victorian London. Instead she finds herself captured and thrust into a chaotic underground world of supernatural creatures and an ancient fight for humanity’s freedom. Rescued by two young demon-slayers, Tessa must discover her place within this unfamiliar world of Victorian customs and intrigue. After displaying a mysterious power soon after her arrival, it is clear she is involved in all of this somehow. Amidst learning more about her lost family and her own strength, Tessa also gets a crash course in how to be a proper young lady in London. If she happens to fall in love with one of her two rescuers along the way, then they will have to deal with that after the fighting is over.

Clockwork Angel is provides a thrilling insight into a young woman’s experience in Victorian London, while also introducing the supernatural Downworld of the Shadowhunter universe. Serving as the first book in the prequel series to Clare’s modern day Mortal Instruments series, the story of Tessa Gray quickly changes from a mundane rendezvous with her brother into a sinister and world-changing kidnapping. I would recommend this book for teens as a fun example of learning about history, in this case Victorian society, while enjoying a fantasy that is at once familiar as well as extraordinary. Tessa’s moral and personal questions are also instructive. She discovers things she never knew about herself, while struggling to trust Will, Jem, her brother Nate, and the feelings she is having about all of them.

Teen Quote:
Becky M, age 14: "I like romances, mysteries, some fantasy stuff. I only read it if I like the relationships, if no one is falling in love, then I’ll read something else."