Colour me surprised, I liked Clockwork Angel more than I thought I would. My previous experience with Cassie Clare wasn't great so my expectations were pretty low, but I had a pretty good time.

Clockwork Angel is a historical paranormal fantasy. We follow Tessa Gray a young woman travelling to London after the death of her aunt. Immediately after her arrival, she finds herself embroiled in the world of warlocks, vampires and Shadowhunters, half-angel warriors tasked with keeping the mundane world safe from Downworlders. She soon discovers she has shapeshifting abilities and works with a team of Shadowhunters to save her brother Nate who has been kidnapped by a mysterious man named the Magister.

The most compelling aspect of Clockwork Angel is definitely its characters and romance. This book sees the beginnings of a love triangle between Tessa and two Shadowhunter best friends Will and Jem. I thought I would find this familiar YA trope tedious, but it was honestly very entertaining. Will and Jem were well-realized characters which made it easy to be swept away by the romantic moments between them and Tess. There was a heaping helping of angst and longing and the melodrama of it all was well rendered by Clare. Tess as a protagonist wasn't the most interesting I've ever encountered, but her pathos especially in growing into her powers and her relationship with her brother was solid. Clare's strength is character. It was very easy to get wrapped up in the emotions of any given moment.

The side characters in this book were also pretty fun. My favourite was probably the vampire, Clarrise. Her backstory was particularly devastating and her lust for vengeance against an old friend turned enemy made for one of the best set pieces in the whole book. Other minor characters like Charlott and Henry Branwell, Sophie, and Thomas also added a nice colour to the novel. The only character who particularly annoyed me was Jessamine, a Shadowhunter forced into the life and particularly resentful of that position. While I sympathized with her situation she was particularly catty and whiny in a way that got to be insufferable.

Unfortunately, the plot of Clockwork Angel wasn't quite as engaging as its characters. The hunt for the Magister was pretty bare-bones and Tess as a protagonist was definitely pulled along by the narrative rather than being an active agent in it. Clare definitely invested more time and energy into character moments rather than a layered complex plot. However, this didn't bother me all that much because enjoyed the character moments enough to see past that. This was helped by the fact that the story never felt overly long and never quite fell into the "sitting-in-rooms" syndrome that a lot of plot bereft books find themselves in.

Clare's worldbuilding wasn't exactly to my taste either. What I love about historical fantasy is being engrossed in the historical period and Clare took a few too many liberties in regards to how people of the time would act that took me out of the setting. The Shadowhunter world itself had some interesting elements, but because paranormal isn't really my genre I wasn't that invested. It didn't help that Tess as an outsider pov had such a limited scope that the audience never got the opportunity to deeply experience the fantastical elements of the world.

I also didn't like how vague and underexplored Tessa's powers were throughout the story. I walked away from this book without a solid understanding of how her powers worked at all. Her powers seemed to become whatever any particular scene needed them to be with little to no explanation of how they worked. While magic doesn't require hard rules to be well written an internal logic and consistency are necessary and Tessa's powers definitely lacked that.

Clockwork Angel is a book I probably would have adored in middle school and that I still managed to enjoy for what it was now. I can see myself continuing on with the series, but it probably won't be a priority any time soon.