Magic is dangerous--but love is more dangerous still. When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets.

Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos. Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by--and torn between--two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length...everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world...and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all. <-- Taken from Goodreads.

Basically, The Infernal Devices, as I'm sure you guessed by know, is sort of a prequel to The Mortal Instruments. Sort of because while it's about Shadowhunters and the world Cassandra Clare created in her first trilogy, it doesn't really have much to do with TMI, save for familiar last names (Herondale, Lightwood, etc). I finished reading this book a few weeks ago, and admittedly, did not think much of it. However, I decided to re-read it a few days ago and liked it a LOT more the second time around--perhaps even more so than City of Bones and City of Glass.

I don't really want to spoil the plot for anyone, so I'm just going to ask this (for now); does anyone think that Will/Tessa is like Jace/Clary v.2? =/ I enjoy love triangles as long as they are developed and written well, but this love triangle? It has potential, and so far, I'm disappointed with how Cassandra has handled it. There are two more books, though, so I'm excited!

Yeah I read the Infernal Devices when I first got to England, and I have to say that I feel like she is just recycling Clary/Jace into Will and Tessa. I mean they are the same people just different time and place. I was sort of disappointed in that aspect. I feel like I really want a stronger central female character from her. And another "love" triangle. Its like...really? I mean its a nicely written book but I really want her to go with some different characters.

Though I loved Magnus in this book..he is turning out to be my favorite from this series

Yeah, I appreciate the fact that the love triangle will be (or at least, it should be) a tricky one given Tessa's nature and Jem's disease, but other than that? It was exactly the same. :| Will is like Jace v.2, and while Jem is not at all like Simon, and I didn't find Tessa to be too much like Clary, it's shaped to be the same way it was for the Mortal Instruments. =/ I hope Cassandra Clare surprises me by handling it differently in the two following books, but I won't get my hopes up.

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Magnus. LOL! He's so fabulous. After Alec and Simon, he's my favourite character. =D

The similarities that I find to Tessa and Clary is that they are weak female characters. They don't think they are worthy of the male attention that Will/Jace give them, well when they feel like it. They don't tap into that "Girl power" thing that makes a woman want to fly across the Atlantic on her own...I dunno if you understand what I mean. But for me they are the same as Bella Swan, just not as annoying.

They are the "damsels in distress," when they are fully capable of being their own heroes.

Yeah I love Alec too but Magnus has and will always be my favorite charrie!!

Got it sitting on my bookshelf right now! I have waaaaay to many books to finish reading. Anyway, I started reading it, didn't catch me on so far as much as it did with Mortal Instruments. But I guess I have to get into it more. Will have to read it!

I've finished this book yesterday and seriously I preferred it over The Mortal Instruments, probably because I'm in love with that century

As for the love triangle in there... umm I have to say that it wasn't as exciting as the other love affairs in Mortal Instruments. BUT I loved Tessa whole lot more than Clary, which was annoying most of the time for me, so I say that the story's really good and the surroundings were my favorite but if I have to vote for relationships plot the other series definitely wins.

And I can't wait for the next book to be out

I don't know if I prefer this over the Mortal Instruments but I love the almost steampunk/gaslight feel, that I guess comes with the territory of a Victorian England kind of setting.

I'm not ... excited about the love elements, it is for me as it always is with Cassandra Clare stories, the little details that I love. Dialogue for one. That said, I am still eager to see how it all pans out.

I think the difference with this one, because of the time period, it is more acceptable that Tessa isn't as 'strong'.

And Magnus is my favourite TOO. (Can we have a series about him? Maybe I'll like him less if he becomes the main dude. His mystery is part of his appeal)

----

After reading the fourth Mortal Instruments book its well worth going back and reading this one for those that haven't, it feels like CC is actively trying to pull them all together.

I quite agree. I do like the feel of this book. The setting adds a lot to it. Granted there are a lot of similarities, but the dialogue is better. And personally I do enjoy seeing the London Institute and from the looks of things we will get to see how the Mortal Instruments are procured and THAT in and of itself is interesting to me.

I am a sucker for love stories, it's my weakness, so I am very interested to see how the love triangle comes together/falls apart. I WANT MORE.

Yeah I know what you mean. I've studied the male-female dynamic in the Victorian period and I know how she is supposed to act. But still...I guess I've grown up around strong woman and I just hate to see weakness in woman. And I don't mean physical weakness. I mean just a weak woman. Not being able to stand up on her own without a support cast. Not knowing what she is worth till a man smiles at her. Regardless of the caliber of the man. Not knowing what she is capable of doing with her own hands. I hate female characters like that.

And the relationship angle...oh my god!!!! Are you serious? Is there anything else to write about for young teens and adults? We got it in the first three books and for her to bring in the EXCATE some angle again in the next set of books just let me know that she is a one trick pony. This is maybe a bigger offense than Twilight....

I would love to read a series about Magnus he's into everything so it would be a great book.

I've heard of the book but i didnt think it lookedall that interesting tbh. :|

This is a great book series. I think Cassie Claire is an amazing author. She has a very well put together plot, story line, characters...everything is great. I love how it ties into Mortal Instruments.

I have to say that I feel the love triangle is completely different. Seeing how Clary and Jace are practically soul mates and have been since book one...and Simon never stood a chance. Plus now with Simon being a vampire it wouuld never work.
Now with the Tessa/Will/Jem triangle, it's completely different! Both Will and Jem have an equal chance with tessa! Wills character is like Jaces because THEY'RE RELATED. So or corse Cassie is going to make their actions seem alike. Will made the quick moves on Tessa, where as Jem is taking it slow. They both have an equal chance with Tessa. She's very fond of both of them in the same way. Clary was only fond of Jace like that, not Simon. She might of liked being around Simon and kissing him, but she was completey in love with Jace from day one. Here Tessa has feelings for both, but isn't in love with either at the moment and hasn't really connected with either.
I love this series. I'm already rereading it to prep for the Clockwork Prince.
I think Cassie is so creative for having this story take place in that time place and in london. So even though the characters and plot relate to the Mortal Instruments, they're still completely different and amazing.

I am super stoked since Amazon sent me an email saying that Clockwork Prince is available for pre order!

Oh, wow. I’d completely forgotten I started this thread, so here is my really, really late reply that will probably be read by no one but here it is, all the same.

I don’t think I feel particularly comfortable with the term ‘Strong Female Character’ on its own – as in, without even including Tessa – because it just punctuates this really pervasive belief we hold as a culture that in order to be “strong” a character needs to either be a physical warrior or an emotionless all-powerful ruler type –both of which are masculine spaces for a character to inhabit, and I mean, let’s face it—in real life very few people are actually that. I don’t want to call it a misogynistic belief because many people aren’t even aware they’re doing it, but it totally is a misogynistic belief; just because a woman (fictional or not) has emotions and lacks physical strength does not mean she’s weak. Women should not have to put aside their feminine traits to hit things at random, yell at everyone and possess a limited array of emotions in order to be considered strong by our society.

Besides, and let’s be real here—are “Strong Male Character” and “Weak Male Characters” actually terms utilized in the same way “Strong Female Character” and “Weak Female Characters” are? Because I really don’t recall anyone ever referring to a fictional man as such. And the explanation for this is pretty simple: it’s an inherent believe that we hold as society that men=strong, women=weak. Thus the only way for a woman to prove herself as strong is if she acts like a man one way or another.

I don’t know, but if that’s not a deeply problematic belief, then I am not sure what is.

As for Tessa, uhm—I DON’T kid myself into thinking that Cassandra Clare is a genius when it comes to writing. I mean she’s a pretty talented story teller and her plots are usually solid; her problem lies on creating compelling characters, something I struggled with when I read the Mortal Instruments (I honestly only care about three characters there, woops). However, I do feel that she really overcame that on The Infernal Devices. Yes, Will is basically the brunette, midly refined version of Jace Wayland/Morgenstern/Lightwood/Whatever because Cassandra Clare loves that type of character—but I am not reading for Will (or even Jem, whom I actually adore). I am reading for Tessa. No, Tessa is not physically strong, nor does she possess the snark Will and Jace do, or quite literally kicks butt in the same way Isabelle does.

I am reading because Tessa exemplifies strength in traditionally feminine characters. She is girly, and at the beginning she was very, very sheltered; all she aspired for was to read a ton of books, marry and have children of her own and none of that is wrong to want. Physical prowess is not how Tessa works because if in Clockwork Angel she’d tried to strike her captors she’d have been even more physically abused that she’d been, already—and Tessa was very much aware of this. She just relied on her mind because that is really the only tool she knew how to use—and there is nothing wrong with this, either. And even after she learns how to more or less control her abilities, Tessa is still very much in a position of powerlessness because she’s surrounded by people who claim to be her saviors but she can’t bring herself to trust them easily simply because she doesn’t know them—and she’s already been betrayed once (by The Black Sisters) and now she knows better.

Some may argue that after Clockwork Angel, when Tessa is willingly staying at the Institute, that she’s basically free to do what she wants. But this is not true and Tessa is aware of this, too—she is still in a position in which she finds herself relying in others, yes, but that’s not the point of her entire story arc. The point of her entire story arc is not only to the typical growing up stuff YA so often includes and so rarely gets right; Tessa’s entire narrative is about freedom—freedom that she constantly finds in her thoughts and choices and actions. Her story is to live freely in a world where every other person wants to either deny her freedom or use her to their advantage in one way or another. But she’s not letting them. She’s using her wits and the skills she’s been given as her ONLY defense to keep herself alive and sane and certainly she has help from the shadowhunters but Tessa has done most things on her own, she's decided and will continue to decide things on her own, without asking for anyone's permission. And she’s allowing herself to think badly of people that seek to harm her, which, in my opinion is kind of a big step for her as a character and I don’t think people mention this enough? And I don’t know, guys, but the fact that she’s yet to succumb to the humongous pressure and responsibility resting on her shoulders is kind of a pretty big deal, as far as I’m concerned.

Tessa is very much a lady of her time; she’s feminine and delicate and would get her butt kicked in a fight (even if in CP she’s learning to fight, bless her heart) but rather than letting it define her she is using that role to empower herself. The more people underestimate her the more she has to gain, eventually, and let me tell you something: Tessa knows this.

Tl;dr: Tessa is FREE in her actions and mind, and just because she has the same emotions every other sixteen year old girl has (and some more, understandably so) does not make her weak because mental strength, and strength of character? MUCH MORE IMPORTANT, YOU GUYS.

And, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t really care about Tessa if she suddenly started to hit things at random. Let’s leave that to Isabelle Lightwood, because Theresa Gray actually has things to think about.

lol preach. I mean don't get me wrong I rather enjoy the love triangle and at first I was sooo in love with the second book because of the sheer shipping fest it was but then I ended up feeling disappointed because it was just that? A sheer shipping fest with the actual plot sometimes happening in the background.

I don't think this is valid explanation? Like... Isabelle and Jace are siblings and they're actually not really alike? Same with me, actually? I have a brother and we're not really anything alike. This is just Cassandra Clare showing exactly what kind of love interest she likes for her main characters, which ugh, yawn.

And here's the thing. What is it, exactly, that you say makes Tessa "weak" in the first place - if we're to continue using this ridiculous title? At what point in time is Tessa not standing up for herself? Because, honestly, when I read: "I mean just a weak woman. Not being able to stand up on her own without a support cast. Not knowing what she is worth till a man smiles at her." I admit it - I got angry. No, I was furious.

Because you need to take in account a few things before you go around and call Tessa a weak female.

• This is the Victorian era. An era where women essentially have no rights, but are in charge of controlling a man's hormones because, unlike she, he has no control of himself.
• An era in which a lady is raised to be a lady with no opinions, no aspirations but marriage and childbirth, no rights. Women are to be pure and demure and idealistic and anything else is just not acceptable.
• But MORE than that - Tessa is TERRIBLY SHELTERED. The only people she has ever really known are her now-deceased aunt and her traitorous-brother. The way the text reveals it, it can safely be assumed Tessa lived in her tiny apartment with them and didn't get out much. The only adventures she ever had were done in books. I don't think she knew people OUTSIDE the world. And given the way she's so sheltered and naive, it's safe to assume her aunt did NOTHING to prepare poor Tessa for the world out there.
• So that means, she KNOWS NO BETTER. You cannot fault her for that. She DOES believe her worth is in the way a man sees her because what else does she know? You cannot FAULT a character for having NO WAY TO KNOW ANYTHING.

So here we have this young, naive, terribly sheltered lady of her time. She is prim and proper and properly astonished at everything scandalous. (Here's to you, Will Herondale.) Her aunt has just died and she's on her way to England to meet with her brother - and then she's kidnapped. She is KIDNAPPED. And in this kidnapping, she finds out she is a shapeshifter. She can CHANGE her form - into other people! And considering Tessa was likely raised religious, this is TERRIFYING. This is DEMONIC. She has come to learn SHE IS NOT HUMAN.

And I think most people, most LADIES, would completely lose it. But not Tessa. She holds on so she can find her brother because he's in some kind of danger. SHE THINKS HERSELF A MONSTER but she's holding on FOR HER BROTHER WHOM SHE LOVES.

Is this weak?

When she's taken by the Institute, she initially doesn't even want to stay! She doesn't WANT someone to take care of her - even though she has nowhere else to go and would be thrown out on the streets. Again, I ask you, is this weak or dependent? She only stays because they will help her find her brother. Nothing about this is charitable; they have made a deal she is comfortable with and she does not feel she is mooching off people.

But still, we think Tessa is weak and does not stand up for herself.

Will is a caustic snark who likes to keep people at arm's length, and Tessa doesn't back down from him. She throws her wit at him in the face - a verbal slap, if you ask me. And she is awfully proud in her own ways. In the end of CA, when Will all but propositions Tessa and tells her she's barren and good for nothing but pleasure, she could easily have taken his words - if she were such a weak, spineless girl. She might even have BELIEVED him.

But Tessa instead gets angry.

She spends the next two weeks angry at Will and every time she even looks at him, she remembers his very cruel words and for that reason, she spends a fortnight not talking to him, and keeping company with Jem, instead.

She has DIGNITY.

She has an ounce of PRIDE.

She is INTELLIGENT.

She begins to learn to FIGHT which is unheard of for a lady of her time. Even FEMALE SHADOWHUNTERS aren't required to fight!

In the face of her own danger, Tessa doesn't just run into a corner. Do you recall when she "stabbed" herself to thwart Mortmain? Again, she is not RELYING on others - she is STANDING on her own WITHOUT a support cast.

When she overhears Will talking horridly of her and her brother, she LEAVES the Institute. With nowhere else to go, she barges out, because she doesn't want to be where she feels herself a burden and it is only because of Jem that she is able to be rational in her wounded ego.

Honestly, I fail to see what is so weak about her. We call Hermione Granger strong, but her emotions get the better of her far more than Tessa's ever do. And Hermione, too, faced measuring herself amongst her perception. (She had her teeth shrunk to a normal size, because she didn't like the abnormality of them, after all!)

Tessa is VERY mentally and emotionally strong. She could just as easily have left behind this Shadowhunter world. She could turn her back, run away, and pretend she never learned anything of it, but instead, Tessa remains and tries to acclimate to this world - of demons and vampires and fairies and warlocks and everything she has likely been taught is EVIL and WRONG. In no way is Tessa obligated to assist the Shadowhunters, but she DOES - not because they house and feed her, but because she CHOOSES to do so.

SHE makes her own freedom, SHE makes her own decisions, and SHE stands up for herself. She does not ever sit around and take crap from people, nor does she expect people to save her at all times.

So........ do we really think she's a weak character? Because honestly, I think she's far stronger than Isabelle Lightwood in character, if you ask me. And not because of some "masculine" idea of what strength is, but for what makes her who she is, for all that she is comprised of.

Hmmm well first let me clarify what I mean when I say she is a weak character. I am not simply saying that she doesn't have physical strength or the smarts to get the job done. I never called her stupid. I called her weak.

When I say she is a weak female character I mean that she doesn't understand her worth or her powers till a man or another character co-signs on it.

Its the thought process that woman can't be strong in and of themselves without someone or some man telling them so.

Tessa had the powers to overcome her captors anytime she got good and ready, but she quivered in a corner and took the abuse. She hangs on waiting for her brother to rescue her. Not to be her own rescuer. Her protection hinged on her brother. Now she was moving to London to be with him because their aunt died, not for the fact that she wanted to be close to her only living family, but she wanted to be under his protection. There was never a thought in her mind that I can be alone and be ok. It was always I;ve got to get to my brother because I can't be alone. Reiterating the fact that women can't be alone. We can't handle our own protection and we can't just simply be happy being alone. She never fortified herself to face the world alone. It was never an exercise is being ok to be alone. Anyone who can't just simply be happy and be alone is weak in my book. The same as Bella Swan.

And oh my gosh Will smiles at her and offers her a few tips and suddenly she is taking on powerful men and the like. She holds all the power in her hands, but its not until she gets the green light from someone else before she starts to even peel back the layer to became half of the girl she should be.

That's what I mean when I call her weak.

Case in point look at Sookie Stackhouse. Now here is a proper Southern lady, with old traditional and Victorians ideas of womanhood and virtues. Southern values is just a modern version of the Victorian era value system.

But the first time she sees a vampire in trouble she jumps into the fray to save him. A human girl rushing to the aid of a vampire. Did she think she could beat up the Rats, no, but was she going to try? You bet your bottom dollar. Sookie started off being the sort of woman that thought "if I don't do it who will?" And I just feel like Tessa is the sort of girl that thinks, "I can't do it so someone else will do it for me."

I am a woman I understand that sometimes our strength can not be physical. We weren't built that way. But my strength comes from my self worth. I know I can do things because I can. Not because my father told me it was ok for girls to be extremely smart.

And speaking about the Victorian era of things and how women acted and behaved is a very ethno-centric view on the world.

And granted I am African American and I look at things differently but every single one of you said the very same thing about how Victorian women did things, and you were talking about white women.

Well I hate to tell you this but women of other colors were not acting nor being treated the same way. Maybe take that into account before you start thinking of the world as just simply white and that's how everything was done and or conducted. Now granted Clare is white and her characters are white, but as a black person that's how I see the world. I mean in the same time frame of Tessa being a demure little wall flower Harriet Tubman was leading slaves to freedom on a perilous journey from the South.

So its not just the surface things that I looked at and thought about when I made that comment.

I think Tessa is a poorly developed and written female character. The love triangle in this book is trite and like I said Clare is a once trick pony. She is taking the same story and regurgitating it. Yeah, there might be some new bits in it but its still the same story as the Mortal Instruments.

And frankly I don't like Hermione Granger nor Isabella Lightwood. I think Hermione is an overused fantasy trope of the all knowing and all doing omnipresent being placed into the body of a little girl. And Isabella Lightwood is just the eye candy in a tight bodice with butt kicking powers to mash together the idea of the sexy Amazon.

I mean forgive me if I think I am entitled to think and feel how I want to about a character in a book that I have read. I even bought the book.

I LOVE this series, much more then the MI series, which I find kind of funny. The ending to Clockwork Prince broke my heart into pieces though. Can't wait to read the 3rd book!