Clockwork Angel (review)

April Spisak

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Volume 64, Number 2, October
2010, p. 67 (Review)

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/bcc.2010.0137

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/396561

Access provided at 9 Jan 2020 09:19 GMT from University of Nebraska - Lincoln
 October 2010 • 67

Cave, Patrick The Selected. Atheneum, 2010 407p

ISBN 978-1-4169-1573-7 $17.99   R Gr. 9-12
In this novel that is both prequel and sequel to Sharp North (BCCB 6/06), the fate
of the world rests in surprisingly few hands, and teens are struggling for agency
in defining their roles. The story ably alternates between Dominic and Adeline,
who, though decades apart, are both seeking answers in baffling worlds. Dominic
seeks survival in a cold, brutal milieu ravaged by environmental recklessness, and
he’s shocked to learn that he’s part of an early cloning experiment; he must also
live with the fact that he, unlike his first love, has chosen survival over dying for a
cause. Adeline also explores the meaning of survival, whether life is marked by the
continuing beat of her slowly failing heart (a flaw in her line of clones), or whether
it means actively using each second that remains. This is a novel intended for read-
ers already familiar with Cave’s earlier book—the backgrounds of the characters,
changed landscape, and motivations are all implied rather than specifically reasserted,
and it is absolutely necessary to know what happens between these two moments
in time to understand why each is so pivotal. Those with this information will find
it a gripping read, and fans of the recent explosion of end-of-the-world scenarios
will appreciate this nuanced, character-driven look at the way two individuals, each
haunted by insecurity and enticed by a sense of their own possibility, handle their
own versions of a world irreversibly changed. AS

Clare, Cassandra Clockwork Angel. McElderry, 2010 [496p] (The Infernal

Devices)
ISBN 978-1-4169-7586-1 $19.99
Reviewed from galleys   R Gr. 9-12
In this first volume in a series that’s a prequel (set in the Victorian era) to the Mortal
Instruments trilogy (City of Bones, BCCB 6/07), Tessa, sixteen and long protected
by her recently deceased aunt, suddenly becomes a key tool sought after by most
of London’s Downworld, including, most ominously, the Dark Sisters and the
elusive Magister. The sisters force her into discovering her latent talent of becom-
ing any person whose belonging she holds, and the Shadowhunters (the complex
but comparatively good guys in this magic-oriented world) could certainly use her
skills as much as the far crueler demons, vampires, and mundanes who dabble in
magic and whom the Shadowhunters are most often fighting. Tessa, burdened with
a flighty and ultimately betraying brother, a nebulous genetic history (it is likely she
has some demon blood), a crush on a brooding boy, and an absurdly magnificent
and terrible newly developed skill, is doing all she can to adapt, but she may not
survive long enough to adjust. Clare’s ability to weave absolutely gripping settings
and smoldering attractions (though most often tortured, unrequited ones) between
her characters easily compensates for the occasional overuse of Tessa’s naïveté and
inexperience to allow for other characters to provide exposition in the form of
educating Tessa. Although fans of the earlier trilogy will certainly recognize fam-
ily names, the Shadowhunters themselves (and carefully placed clues about their
evolving perspective on other magical beings), and the general location, it is not
necessary to have read the Mortal Instruments series; the plot here easily works as
an independent novel. Readers will eagerly anticipate the next volumes as much for
the resolution to the almost cruelly tantalizing cliffhanger ending as for the richly
developed characters, intriguing steampunk elements, and lightning pace. AS