I don't even know where to begin explaining my feelings about Clock Work prince. If I was just rating my feeling on the first 19 ( of 21) chapters It would be a mostly negative 2 starsThe vast majority of this book, if my being honest was quite boring. And yet I left the last pages of this book with tears drying on my face. It's honestly a mind fuck.

The book follows directly after its predecessor Clockwork Agel. In the fallout of [] Mortimain or the Magistar's attempts at taking over the Shadowhunter Insituteitute Charlotte Branwell is put to task. She's been given two weeks to find the location of the Magister or be removed from her position. 

And I will say the plot is the beginning of the problems I had with this series. Not much surely happens. While ostensibly this book is about finding mortmain. The true tension and urgency of his book have nothing to do with his plot. 

the lack of urgency on this front is further linked to my biggest issue with Clockwork Prince's protagonist, Tessa grey. If you noticed in my plot summary I didn't even mention the protagonist at all. that's because she's not given much to do in his series at all. She's a passive agent in the story as she's taken but circumstance rather than personal drive from set piece to set piece. Sure she goes with the Shadowhunters To help uncover mortmain's schemes and does ant to insure Charlotte says as head of the issue but there's nothing that Tessa has to do in this story. 

this isn't helped by Tessa's lack of true motivation or internal drive thTessaut. Tessa doesn't have many goals or concerns in this novel. she rarely thinks of what her future will be or attempts with any sincerity to uncover her past. she often feels like a blank slate because she doesn't have many goals, and does so muf her own agency she is a rather dull character to follow. and to be clear I'm not saying a character with no agency in an inherently bad story. I've read books I enjoy where the protagonists spend the entire book in prison and have been engaged but Tessa isn't given enough layers or dimensions to be engaging. she rarely even reflects on her situation or wonders about her future. 

tessa's uninteresting internal life is made even more infuriating when you compare it to the intrigue of the other characters in this series. from minor to major everyone around Tessa has muso much more going on in the book and thankfully so because those layered and interesting characters are what saved the story and turned what could have been a 2-star into an emotionally riveting 4-star book

so let's talk about the real main characters in this story Will and Jem, Tessa's love interests. Throughout this book, we follow these two and especially will's angst and turmoil. early in the novel, it is revealed to us that will was cursed and anyone who ever loved him will die. this curse has been an albatross on his neck for half a decade and will has done everything in his power to discourage any affection with the people in his life. we learn that his connection with Tessa has finally moved him to find a cure for this curse and his main plot throughout is finding the demon that cursed him

we also see the continuation of Jem's arc. As we learned in book one he was tortured by demons as a child leaving him with an addition to a delayed drug that will eventually kill him. But despite that morose prospect Jem is a shining light kind to all around him. In this novel we see Jem falling for Tessa with more and more intensely

The most emotionally impactful moments in the book mined the deep angst of these two as characters. I, despite my distaste for brooding bad boys with unpleasant experiments, began to genuinely care for and sympathize with Will. Clare evoked a genuine emotionally resonant note with all of his character moments. The tragedy of his futile attempts at pushing people away, the pain of remembering his family, the love that it must take to remove yourself from your family the torture of being cruel to people you love as an act of love. it's all there and all so brilliantly written. and culminates in the true climax of the story where he reveals his feeling to Tessa only to discover the relationship between her and his best fired ( the only person he's allowed to see him)

Clare plays it so beautifully and so tragically that it tugged on my heartstrings even now weeks after having read the scene play out

this scene worked so well because of how well Clare wrote Jem and will's friendship preceding chapter 20 the most emotionally impactful moments were the ones playing on their relationship. 

So in a way Clockwork Prince is an amazing book, while also being kind of bad. Cassandra Clare's empty writing of Tessa's underbaked word building and droning plotting is equally matched if not superseded by her absolutely stunning writing of one of the most brilliantly angsty love triangles I've ever read. Her romance is the central piece of this story and is so well done I deeply wished she'd exclusively focused on it.

I don't know how to feel about this book. I'm glad I read it and I understand why people adore it so so much.