[Infernal Readalong] Clockwork Angel Week 2: Chapter 6 - Chapter 8

Week 2: Chapter 6 - Chapter 8

Hey quirks! As you may remember from this post, I'm participating in a readalong of Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices! We are continuing to read Clockwork Angel through October. It's still not too late to join us, whether you've never read the series or are a TID old hat! Check out our reading schedule here. [Also, sorry I'm a bit late with this. Had a big book trip and company last week and got behind on the blogging. ^_^]

In my recap posts there is a high chance of  SPOILERS. If you do not want to be spoiled on anything, I suggest reading the listed chapters before reading this post or avoiding these posts if you haven't read the book.

Chapter 6
This chapter starts off with Will and Jem returning to the Dark House. We see more of their relationship through their conversation, and we get our first mention of "demon pox." They find one of the automatons and plan to take it back to the Institute. I want to add here that any time Jem is in a scene, it only makes me love him more.

Next we go back to Tessa and Jessamine on their shopping outing. They have decided to visit a park, and Jessamine has a proposition for Tessa - that they get their own place together and live like happy, normal girls of the time. We get to see here that Jessamine has the typical views of women for the time period, which is off-putting for me as a feminist but still somewhat understandable. But before Tessa can answer Jessamine's proposition, they come across a creature, who turns out to be a goblin. Because they've wandered off the path, the goblin doesn't care about any Accords and attacks them. Jessamine springs into action, using her parasol which is actually part weapon because it was made by Henry. When the goblin begs for mercy, Jessamine has a sort of fit and keeps beating it until it is dead. Tessa finally stops her, and Jessamine realizes what she has done and is horrified. When they return to the Institute, Jessamine shows Tessa her dollhouse, which is a replica of her actual house before her parents died. Jessamine is steadfast in that she does not want the life of a Shadowhunter, that she would rather die. I found it really interesting to see that Jessamine's usual demeanor is mostly a front because being with the Shadowhunters completely disgusts and terrifies her.

Then we return to Charlotte and Henry in Mr. Mortmain's office. Mr. Mortmain knows all about Nephilim, and he admits to selling some of his cogs and things to the leader of the Pandemonium Club, who turns out to be the head of the local vampires, de Quincey. Mr. Mortmain also tells them that Nate, Tessa's brother, left Mortmain's to work for de Quincey and also that Tessa's father had once been shortly involved with the Pandemonium Club, though he never formally joined it.

Chapter 7
Tessa is summoned to Henry's workshop where he has been inspecting the automaton, which turns out to be Miranda. Henry and Charlotte tell Tessa what they found out about Nate, and then show her some markings on the inner workings of Miranda, a small d inside a larger Q, which is de Quincey's mark.

Next they go to dinner, where Will is bothering everyone, and Henry is distracted, and Jem is nice, Jessamine is annoyed, and Charlotte is resigned. I'm gathering that this is the usual way of things when the whole group is together. They talk about different things, de Quincey, Nate, Will trying to figure out why Jessamine has blood on her sleeve. Then a guest arrives that Charlotte invited so she gets up to leave. Henry asks Tessa if he can take her clockwork angel pendant to his workshop to inspect it, and she reluctantly agrees. Then she goes with Charlotte to meet Lady Belcourt, the vampire informant that the Shadowhunters work with on occasion.

Chapter 8
Of course, Will and Jem catch up to Tessa and Charlotte. Lady Belcourt is a baroness and it turns out she has met Will at a Downworlder gambling den. Will says some of his witty things, which I quite enjoy, and Jem adds his in, which I also adore. Then Lady Belcourt, or Camille, shares the information she has. She has met Nate, and sees the family resemblance between him and Tessa. She talks about de Quincey and how despite being thought an ally of the Nephilim, he actually hates them, and how he as parties during which he kills humans for sport, which is against the Law. However, the Nephilim cannot go after de Quincey unless a Shadowhunter witnesses his breaking the law, so the group comes up with a plan. Tessa will pretend to be Lady Belcourt and Will will act as her vampire subjugate.

The plan: Tessa will use her power to pretend to be Lady Belcourt, and Will, because he is known to some of the Pandemonium Club as a human who dabbles with Downworlders, will act has Lady Belcourt's human subjugate. They will attend the next party, witness the law-breaking, and call in the troops. Because the pair will not know the layout of the house or the people, Camille says she will provide her lover, Magnus Bane (squee!), to meet them at the party. Ready to go, Camille leaves, escorted out by Will and Jem. They ask her why she is helping them take down de Quincey when he is essentially her vampire leader, and she reluctantly admits it is because she was in love with a werewolf and de Quincey murdered him with the help of the other vampires, so she wants the Shadowhunters to kill them all. I really, really like Camille.

Next, we are back with Tessa in her room, and Charlotte has knocked on her door and is called in. She hands Tessa her clockwork angel back, telling her that Henry cleaned out the rust from the mechanism but didn't really learn anything. Then Charlotte reveals to Tessa the truth about her father's involvement with the Pandemonium Club, and they spend a little time discussing what it could mean since Nate apparently knew about the Shadow World before he arrived in London. Then Charlotte explains what happened to Sophie, and they diverge into a bit of a philosophical talk, with Tessa realizing that she can never go back to the life she had before or ever be free of the Shadow World.

My verdict so far:
I'm glad that one of the main plot lines - who is creating the automatons and why - is being pieced together rather quickly and that we won't have to wait the entire book to find out most of what is going on with that. I'm still enjoying the character development, or really, character revelations, but I still can't get enough of Jem. I'd also like to mention how easy of a read this is. If I weren't trying to keep to the reading schedule of certain chapters each week, I would have finished this book pretty quickly.

Check back tomorrow for recaps of Chapters 9 and 10!