"Clockwork Prince"

I am reading a fantastic, wonderful book.

"Clockwork Prince," by Cassandra Clare.

I loved her Mortal Instruments {MI} trilogy, and when she stared the Infernal Devices {ID} trilogy, I was ecstatic. "Clockwork Angel," the first ID book, came out in summer 2010, I read it and loved it with every ounce of my literary heart. I loved it more than my five-star-favorite MI books.

A few weeks ago, the second ID book, "Clockwork Prince" came out. I had to wait until I finished a college application to get at it, which I just did last week. Now I am reading "Prince."

Oh my.

*takes a moment to collect her thoughts*

Reading "Prince" isn't like being obsessed, when suddenly you're a lunatic and feel jittery and want to tell everything in sight about the story. It's much more beautiful than that.

Reading "Prince" is like slipping into a cool pool of water in a hushed, glowing wood and finding a treasure chest among the reeds. It's a hard-to-describe mix of smooth elegance and tightly-packed excitement.

Reading "Prince" makes the whole world look different. I see everyone as a character and want to conduct myself as a heroine. The house seems more beautiful and promising and food is a barely remembered necessity. My thoughts form themselves more neatly.

"Prince" is the kind of book you gracefully cannot put down. It's the kind of book you taste and smell and feel. It's the kind of book you wish would never end, because you don't want to live life without those characters in it.

While reading, I've gasped and squeaked and widened my eyes and bitten my lip and covered my mouth and laughed more times than I can count. Cassandra Clare is an artist, weaving characters and scenes so blindingly beautiful that I have to read some pages twice.

I love the characters, much more than usual, even for me. I love both the boys equally, differently, and painfully so. I feel for Tessa, who's completely, exactly like me. If I mutter something under my breath, she says it in the next sentence. If I think of a plan, Tessa has the same one. If I think I'd be afraid of something, Tessa confesses she is as well. If I realize something, Tessa realizes it on the next page too. If something never occurred to me and I suddenly feel like an idiot, the same thing shortly happens to Tessa.

Being so EXACTLY the same as the heroine of the story makes this trilogy, in some ways, more exciting than anything I've ever read. It's just as if I were in the story. I never feel frustrated at Tessa, as I usually do with book girls, because I understand and agree with everything she says or does. It's like being in the story; it's like seeing and feeling and choosing for myself. It's wonderful.

But it's not just Tessa that I love. I feel for all the characters; I don't have author-contempt for a single one. Clare hasn't tossed out any two-dimensional doozies the whole story and every person has a distinct voice. You don't hear Cassandra Clare in the book; you hear Will and Jem and Tessa and Magnus.

I know this has turned into a rant, and this isn't even a review since I'm not finished with the book. I was just taking a break from reading to grab a shower, but I had to get out my feelings. They were rushing and rolling and feeling so tangible that I had to do something with them.

I may come back later and read this and groan, closing my eyes and shaking my head at myself. I might think I was being stupid and dramatic and feel embarrassed for having published this post. But right now I just want to share with you how amazing I feel reading this story, and hope that you might read the books some day too.

~Stephanie