Kat Kennedy's Reviews > Clockwork Angel
Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1)
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![3270188](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p2/3270188.jpg)
Kat Kennedy's review
bookshelves: kat-s-book-reviews, just-plain-bad, books-that-deserve-painful-death, kat-s-rants, ya-pnr-maddness
Sep 06, 2010
bookshelves: kat-s-book-reviews, just-plain-bad, books-that-deserve-painful-death, kat-s-rants, ya-pnr-maddness
** spoiler alert **
A lot of Goodreads friends that I have, people I deeply respect and whose opinions I actually hold in great value gave this book lots of stars and glowing reviews. Friends of mine, you know I adore you, so please don't take offense at this review. If you enjoyed this book then I’m really glad you did. It makes me happy when people enjoy literature. So you probably shouldn't read this review if you love this book.
It's nice to know that even though Cassandra Clare's Draco Trilogy ended years ago, I can pick up ANY SINGLE ONE of her books that she has published and see not only Draco’s character, but all my old friends from the Harry Potter Fanon Universe with different names and physical descriptions but otherwise pretty much intact. Because seven really long books just wasn’t enough for them apparently.
It's nice to know that the snappy little one-liners and cheap hijinks are being recycled because they worked so well the first AND second time she used them.
I don't think I've made it any great secret that I despise the writings of Cassandra Clare - so let me get the, few, good points out of the way so I can go back to imagining a world where authors like this are forcibly chained to their desks and made to read their own stories over and over again until they’re sorry.
-She stopped using so many damn similes. I no longer feel like gouging out my own eyes every single time she tries to describe something.
-There is no creepy incest in this book so my husband was spared walking in on me trying to choke the life out of a paperback novel.
And… that about it. I mean, let’s face it, if the only good things I can say about this book are that she’s made slight improvements so that I no longer feel the urge to commit seppuku by diving head first into a meat grinder, then it’s not high praise.
So what was wrong with this novel? Well, other than the fact that the characters were almost CARBON COPIES of ones that I’d read in City of Bones, Draco Dormiens, Draco Sinister and Draco Veritas, there was just so much to hate. The character building that they actually DO have only exists because she did the work years ago (on top of another author's pre-existing characters) – otherwise they’d be little more animated than the clockwork automatons that appear in this story.
Don’t get me started on how she wiki’d “Victorian Society”, copy and pasted the information into word and then randomly injected it into the story via the characters parroting the cans and can’ts of the time period. Not even going there. It’ll take too long to complain about that.
How about her inability to write a storyline that is in anyway surprising? Reading one of her novels is like watching a dumbed down version of Scooby Doo. I actually liked Scooby Doo (before Scrappy-Doo came along. Whoever made that character needed to be shot, hung, kheelhauled and quartered – the whole works) but you know how they’d go somewhere and they’d be like, “Hey guys, I think something’s going to happen! Hey, look gang, a perfectly inconspicuous diving mask… I WONDER IF THIS COULD BE A CLUE *WINK**WINK**NUDGE**NUDGE* FOR ALL THE FIVE YEAR OLD KIDS PLAYING AT HOME!”
In Clockwork Angel, Clare practically flags you down, makes you come look VERY hard at her clue that is painted bright, bright red and poorly hidden behind her back while she insists that it’s not actually there and giggles every time she tries to make you not look at her ENORMOUS FLIPPIN' CLUE. She insists on this behaviour until finally you pat her on the head, tell her that she ALMOST managed to colour inside all the lines.
The whole concept of this book wasn’t original! It was her looking at the Internet culture going, “Huh… so people are really getting into steampunk, eh? Hmmmm… how can I cash in on this with as little effort on my behalf as possible?”
She is recycling characters that she built on from the Harry Potter universe years ago. She's recycling storylines, conversations, personalities, plot-points, ideas and concepts from all around her and she recycles her own stuff (what little there is of it) just as frequently.
When she was accused of plagiarism for lifting entire paragraphs of text from other authors without referencing it, she made a comment that it didn't really matter because - hey, isn't fanfiction just pastiche anyway?
Well, fine. It was just fanfiction, who really cares? But I'd think after all these years she would have moved on past her pastiche style of writing to something that she could actually claim as her own.
But you know what? She can't. I feel no guilt in saying that she doesn’t deserve to be published or to be earning the money that she is. I will proudly complain about her books until she actually starts to care about the fudge that she’s packing.
It's nice to know that even though Cassandra Clare's Draco Trilogy ended years ago, I can pick up ANY SINGLE ONE of her books that she has published and see not only Draco’s character, but all my old friends from the Harry Potter Fanon Universe with different names and physical descriptions but otherwise pretty much intact. Because seven really long books just wasn’t enough for them apparently.
It's nice to know that the snappy little one-liners and cheap hijinks are being recycled because they worked so well the first AND second time she used them.
I don't think I've made it any great secret that I despise the writings of Cassandra Clare - so let me get the, few, good points out of the way so I can go back to imagining a world where authors like this are forcibly chained to their desks and made to read their own stories over and over again until they’re sorry.
-She stopped using so many damn similes. I no longer feel like gouging out my own eyes every single time she tries to describe something.
-There is no creepy incest in this book so my husband was spared walking in on me trying to choke the life out of a paperback novel.
And… that about it. I mean, let’s face it, if the only good things I can say about this book are that she’s made slight improvements so that I no longer feel the urge to commit seppuku by diving head first into a meat grinder, then it’s not high praise.
So what was wrong with this novel? Well, other than the fact that the characters were almost CARBON COPIES of ones that I’d read in City of Bones, Draco Dormiens, Draco Sinister and Draco Veritas, there was just so much to hate. The character building that they actually DO have only exists because she did the work years ago (on top of another author's pre-existing characters) – otherwise they’d be little more animated than the clockwork automatons that appear in this story.
Don’t get me started on how she wiki’d “Victorian Society”, copy and pasted the information into word and then randomly injected it into the story via the characters parroting the cans and can’ts of the time period. Not even going there. It’ll take too long to complain about that.
How about her inability to write a storyline that is in anyway surprising? Reading one of her novels is like watching a dumbed down version of Scooby Doo. I actually liked Scooby Doo (before Scrappy-Doo came along. Whoever made that character needed to be shot, hung, kheelhauled and quartered – the whole works) but you know how they’d go somewhere and they’d be like, “Hey guys, I think something’s going to happen! Hey, look gang, a perfectly inconspicuous diving mask… I WONDER IF THIS COULD BE A CLUE *WINK**WINK**NUDGE**NUDGE* FOR ALL THE FIVE YEAR OLD KIDS PLAYING AT HOME!”
In Clockwork Angel, Clare practically flags you down, makes you come look VERY hard at her clue that is painted bright, bright red and poorly hidden behind her back while she insists that it’s not actually there and giggles every time she tries to make you not look at her ENORMOUS FLIPPIN' CLUE. She insists on this behaviour until finally you pat her on the head, tell her that she ALMOST managed to colour inside all the lines.
The whole concept of this book wasn’t original! It was her looking at the Internet culture going, “Huh… so people are really getting into steampunk, eh? Hmmmm… how can I cash in on this with as little effort on my behalf as possible?”
She is recycling characters that she built on from the Harry Potter universe years ago. She's recycling storylines, conversations, personalities, plot-points, ideas and concepts from all around her and she recycles her own stuff (what little there is of it) just as frequently.
When she was accused of plagiarism for lifting entire paragraphs of text from other authors without referencing it, she made a comment that it didn't really matter because - hey, isn't fanfiction just pastiche anyway?
Well, fine. It was just fanfiction, who really cares? But I'd think after all these years she would have moved on past her pastiche style of writing to something that she could actually claim as her own.
But you know what? She can't. I feel no guilt in saying that she doesn’t deserve to be published or to be earning the money that she is. I will proudly complain about her books until she actually starts to care about the fudge that she’s packing.
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Reading Progress
September 6, 2010
–
Started Reading
September 6, 2010
– Shelved
October 7, 2010
– Shelved as:
kat-s-book-reviews
October 7, 2010
– Shelved as:
just-plain-bad
October 7, 2010
– Shelved as:
books-that-deserve-painful-death
October 12, 2010
– Shelved as:
kat-s-rants
November 9, 2010
–
Finished Reading
December 28, 2011
– Shelved as:
ya-pnr-maddness
Comments Showing 1-50 of 610 (610 new)
message 1:
by
[deleted user]
(new)
Sep 06, 2010 06:56PM
haha. dare i ask what you thought of her first series?
reply
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![Kat Kennedy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p1/3270188.jpg)
I'm kind like that!
![Desperado](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1487999118p1/3422821.jpg)
Kat, you know I luv you, right? Please don't take this the wrong way but....well. Your review is chock-full of expletives...& this is a YA novel. Little kiddies & tweeny boppers are gonna read this. I don't care at all but I'm very afraid your review is gonna get flagged & then I would cry. Just saying. Do your thing.
![Kat Kennedy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p1/3270188.jpg)
![AH](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1275413869p1/3255548.jpg)
Maybe you can put a disclaimer on your review - for 18 yr old and up?
![Tatiana](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1249783659p1/2250020.jpg)
I've seen much raunchier reviews on GR, so I don't think it will be deleted or whatever.
And thank you for this review. I never knew the author back in the day, but reading COB got the same reaction out of me as this book - out of you. It is truly sad that many people find these books original when each and every idea in them is stolen from other works and accompanied by bad writing and bad characters. I will never understand the popularity of this particular author.
![Kat Kennedy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p1/3270188.jpg)
Damn Tatiana, you comment on just turned up now for me AFTER I edited it! Grr!
![Spider the Doof Warrior](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1378350294p1/2348494.jpg)
Those first books I read by her frustrated me.
Also I hate the Clave. They are jerks. Nephilim suck.
YAY! SPELLCHECK!
![Desperado](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1487999118p1/3422821.jpg)
I've seen much raunchier reviews on GR, so I don't think it will be deleted or whatever.
And thank you for this review. I never knew the author ba..."
I'm not saying there aren't raunchier (is that a word?) reviews on GR. Hell, I've written a few of them. I have a mouth like a sailor & it shows in my reviews. I'm just worried because this book is aimed towards the younger crowd, is all. What if some tweenage fan-girl who LOVES this novel gets all her friends together to flag this review & gets it deleted because Kat hated CA? I'm just trying to look out for my fwends.
Either way, I support you Kat, expletives or no expletives. Fuck those fan-girls!
![Mariel](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1451321467p1/647547.jpg)
![Kaia](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1379779096p1/2736575.jpg)
![Amanda](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1406039597p1/3909948.jpg)
![Spider the Doof Warrior](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1378350294p1/2348494.jpg)
![Kat Kennedy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p1/3270188.jpg)
Oh LL! You knows I loves you!
@penny - you crack me up with a single sentence. Most people would be politically correct and just say that I'm a passionate person. Fuck no! I just REALLY hate this book! ;p
Thanks Beth!
@Amanda - I know, it makes me grind my teeth! Then I try to remember that I'm glad people find thongs they enjoy and are reading blah blah blah.
![Vi Vi](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1302714242p1/2876847.jpg)
![Meredith Holley](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1624243565p1/1302775.jpg)
Meredith wrote: "Okay, do we need to have an intervention about the fact that you continue to subject yourself to her books? Guarantied to make your eyeballs (and ass) ache for, like, three days. Maybe four. Gla..."
Right? Although fun to read. [edit: the review, I mean, not the book, which I have no intention of reading.]
Goodreads generally does not remove a review for language alone, regardless of what the book is, or the audience of the book.
The options for flagging are - and you can go see them if you hit the flag button anywhere - don't worry, it doesn't automatically flag.
Slanderous
It contains a slanderous remark about another member.
Spoiler Alert
It contains a spoiler.
Inappropriate
It contains inappropriate content: spam, porn, pro-nazi, etc. Please don't flag items for having foul language, as Goodreads does not believe in censoring content and will not delete anything for foul language alone. Negative book reviews do not count as inappropriate. [emphasis mine]
Off Topic
It is off-topic or irrelevant.
Really, the one I don't understand is the off-topic one.
Right? Although fun to read. [edit: the review, I mean, not the book, which I have no intention of reading.]
Goodreads generally does not remove a review for language alone, regardless of what the book is, or the audience of the book.
The options for flagging are - and you can go see them if you hit the flag button anywhere - don't worry, it doesn't automatically flag.
Slanderous
It contains a slanderous remark about another member.
Spoiler Alert
It contains a spoiler.
Inappropriate
It contains inappropriate content: spam, porn, pro-nazi, etc. Please don't flag items for having foul language, as Goodreads does not believe in censoring content and will not delete anything for foul language alone. Negative book reviews do not count as inappropriate. [emphasis mine]
Off Topic
It is off-topic or irrelevant.
Really, the one I don't understand is the off-topic one.
![Meredith Holley](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1624243565p1/1302775.jpg)
Greg's lost a couple, mostly of books he never read, usually from his kooky kristians shelf. I wonder if that idiot on your Soulless review flagged it? You *were* on-topic; he just missed the point or something.
![Meredith Holley](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1624243565p1/1302775.jpg)
Hmmm. Let me see if I can find the thread where he talks about it. Hold on.
Aha:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I guess he thinks he lost a couple, but can't remember, so doesn't care, really. The thread's mostly about how bad amazon is about deleting negative reviews at the behest of authors.
Aha:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I guess he thinks he lost a couple, but can't remember, so doesn't care, really. The thread's mostly about how bad amazon is about deleting negative reviews at the behest of authors.
![Meredith Holley](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1624243565p1/1302775.jpg)
Greg should totally re-write that one and say he got 20 pages in. Crap, I should have written that on the other thread. Gah. Too late, I have to go to my doughnut-in-a-suit law challenge now.
![Misty](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1539720622p1/1124284.jpg)
![Samantha Souza](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![Kat Kennedy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p1/3270188.jpg)
![Echo](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1191618892p1/437515.jpg)
But your review amuses me greatly. It also makes me wonder what I will think of Clare after I read more of her work.
![Lucy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1307662921p1/3813315.jpg)
I'm still horrified this chick has a career after the plagiarism fanfiction. I read the Mortal Instruments on the recommendation of a friend and was confused how it ever got published, it was that bad. So I goggled a little and found the fanfiction debacle. I think you might find this link wonderfully funny:
http://www.journalfen.net/community/b...
![Kat Kennedy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p1/3270188.jpg)
![Tatiana](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1249783659p1/2250020.jpg)
![AH](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1275413869p1/3255548.jpg)
![Leandra](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_25x33-d79c46f9428d2aea1444d67c091766a6.png)
![I am Bastet](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1329146800p1/1303975.jpg)
![Kat Kennedy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p1/3270188.jpg)
Tatiana - I think it was the paragraphs of copied text from two out-of-print books that really annoyed me. I didn't care too much about the quoting except it would have been nice for her to source the quotes. When I first started reading her, before I'd watched Buffy, Red Dwarf or Black Adder I thought she was SOOOOOOO funny. But when I reread her FF years later I realized pretty much everything about it that I'd found funny had been almost directly copied from somewhere else.
Isis - Jabberwocky is kind of addictive to chat to, I know!
![Megan](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1277234908p1/3749971.jpg)
![Wicked Incognito Now](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1337228064p1/541201.jpg)
![Laurie (barksbooks)](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1668701831p1/2905339.jpg)
My advice: don't let it."
Classic!
![Kat Kennedy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p1/3270188.jpg)
I'm glad you enjoyed it - even if it was a little over enthusiastic!
Thanks BarkLessWagMore!
Megan - I don't think age has so much to do with being critical in reading a book. I'd already begun forming my opinion that Cassandra Clare was not a good writer when I was 14 years old. I just think people like what they like - no matter their age, and I just personally don't like this.
![Wicked Incognito Now](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1337228064p1/541201.jpg)
What do you write BTW?
![Kat Kennedy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p1/3270188.jpg)
After all, did I not EXPLICITLY state that my review was not meant for fans of the book and did I not give a warning to stop reading lest you be offended? Did I not state clearly that there are GR friends I have "whose opinions I respect and hold in high regard" who enjoyed this book?
So your clarification that you are not a teenager or a romance novel reader (I think Zosia, one of the more intelligent people I know AND a romance reader may take exception to this, Heather) seems to more represent YOUR views and assumptions than they do mine.
You don't care about her "scandal". So you would give a passing grade to a school student who copied entire paragraphs from other authors and passed it off as their own work?
I'm sorry but as an editor and a writer, I find this behaviour completely unacceptable. Even in the Fanfiction world where lines may be faint but outright copying of people's words without any referencing is unacceptable.
I never claimed that some other authors or corporations DIDN'T recycle formulas but in my opinion it's incredibly lazy and offensive. After all, if someone sold you a car, stole it and then tried to sell it back to you - you'd have a right to be angry. The fact that she is a lazy author recycling characters and ideas - most of them were not even hers to begin with - gives me a right to complain about it.
And lastly, where do you people come from? Honestly, I don't troll 5 star reviews and complain that they've gotten it all wrong. What the hell are you doing here if you love her and her work so much? Go find some 5 star reviews so that you can continue to validate your uninformed opinion because clearly you did not come here seeking facts, information or a broadening of your perspective.
![Ceilidh](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1422140120p1/3229028.jpg)
![Cathy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1391558556p1/1526945.jpg)
![Kat Kennedy](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1537750381p1/3270188.jpg)
I expect it from the insipid fangirls and I expect it from the trolls - but from the GoodReads Librarians too? There’s another illusion shattered.
![Angela](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/users/1553356774p1/3184230.jpg)
![Mishez](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_25x33-ccd24e68f4773d33a41ce08c3a34892e.png)
Apart from that i quite liked it, i've never read a CC b4.