The Infernal Devices By Cassandra Clare

The Infernal Devices trilogy is a series of books that I've been wanting to reread for a while because I wanted to see if they were as good as I thought, much like The Mortal Instruments (click the link if you missed the first book review on this blog and are interested in reading what I had to say about that series). If I were to keep things really short I would just say that they held up and be done with it, but I have some theories about why some teen books are still good as an adult and others aren't.

But before I get too far into my theories, let me tell you about the books. The Infernal Devices trilogy exists in the same universe as The Mortal Instruments series, with Shadowhunters, the angelic race of humans tasked with protecting regular humanity, aka mundanes, from Downworlders (werewolves, vampires, faeries, warlocks, etc.). It just takes place a couple hundred years before and in London. In the books we follow Tessa as she discovers who she is and what her powers are as she figures out how she feels for her two attractive potential love interests. Much like Cassandra Clare's other books, I think it could benefit from less of an emphasis on a love triangle that excuses some abusive tendencies, but maybe that's just me and I accept the fact that that maybe isn't the most popular opinion.

Overall, the books held up. I read all three over the course of two days (no, I didn't do anything else for those two days) and I really enjoyed them. I stand by my high school opinion that I like this trilogy better than The Mortal Instruments series, but I also acknowledge that I am biased in favor of anything associated with London so take that as you will.

One last thing before we get to my theories, I am blown away by the amount of thought that goes into the continuity of this universe that Cassandra Clare has created. Many of the characters of this series are the however-many-great-grandparents of the characters in The Mortal Instruments and there is consistency in appearance, familial expectations, and heirlooms, which is so cool. Also here is where I will express my desire to fight my high school self. High school me was a dummy that thought that continuing to write in the same universe made Cassandra Clare lazy, when in reality she put so much work into the lore and history and everything and she should keep writing about it for as long as she wants because she put the work in. Not that she needs permission from me, I just wanted to drag past me for being dumb.

And now, what you've all been waiting for, my theories! I've been thinking about why some teen books are still good when you're an adult and why some aren't. From thinking about it and talking to several people about it, I have realized that there are several categories of teen books. The first distinction is books where the protagonist just happens to be a teenager and books that are written very specifically for teenagers. In my experience, books where the protagonist just happens to be a teenager can be good no matter what age you are when you first read them. But, also in my experience, it's harder to enjoy a book as an adult if the author is clearly trying to appeal to teenagers and fills the story with stereotypes instead of fully-formed characters.

This is not a distinction that mattered to me when I was a teenager. I loved most stories indiscriminately. But now I struggle to get through books where the characters feel more like bad caricatures than human beings. That being said, there is an override for my general inability to read overly stereotyped characters and that's if I read and loved the book in high school, I'll probably read and enjoy it now (The Infernal Devices is a really good example of this). I don't think it is because any of the teen books I loved in high school are better than the books coming out now. I think it's because there is a sense of nostalgia connected to books I have already loved that allows me to continue to love them even as I judge the weird character arcs and unnecessary struggles with love.

I could truly go on about teen books for several hours so I'm going to cut myself off here. Thanks for continuing to read this crazy blog of mine and don't forget to the look for next weeks update if you want to hear about the Obama Biden Mystery "Hope Never Dies" By Andrew Shaffer.

XO, Ellen

P.S. This is probably my longest book review thus far. But maybe that's a good thing? Let me know what you think in the comments! :)