Clockwork Angel (novel) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Clockwork Angel is a young adult novel written by Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare is an American author who has written the bestselling young adult saga The Mortal Instruments.- Personal life :Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Tehran. As a child Clare traveled frequently, spending time in Switzerland, England, and France...

. It is written through the perspective of the main character, Tessa Gray, who goes to London to live with her brother. When she gets there she lives with the Dark Sisters for six weeks until Will comes and rescues her.

The book became a Best Seller in the New York Times List, debuting #1 on the children's bestselling list.

Plot

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, April 1878. Shadowhunters William Herondale and James Carstairs find the dead body of fourteen-year-old Emma Bayliss in an alley. They also find a dagger

Dagger

A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...

imprinted with two snakes each biting the other's tail, an ouroboros

Ouroboros

The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. The name originates from within Greek language; οὐρά meaning "tail" and βόρος meaning "eating", thus "he who eats the tail"....

, probably the weapon with which she was murdered.

Southampton, May. Tessa Gray arrives at the Southampton dock aboard the Main, expecting to find her brother Nathaniel waiting for her. Before, Tessa was living in New York with her Aunt Harriet, but her aunt had died recently and her brother asked her to come stay with him in London. At the port, Tessa finds the Dark Sisters, Mrs. Dark and Mrs. Black, instead of her brother, who have a letter from him saying that he could not meet her because of business, but that the sisters will bring her to him. Tessa goes with them.

Six Weeks Later: Tessa has been held prisoner by the Sisters. They have been training her to Change (a process by which she takes on the appearance of someone else, living or dead, by holding something that belongs to them). This time Tessa becomes Emma Bayliss and relives her last few moments alive. The sisters are impressed and tell Tessa that they have been preparing her for an arranged marriage to a mysterious individual known as "the Magister." They expect the marriage to take place that day or the next. The sisters leave and Tessa tries to run away but is caught by the Sister's coachman. Tessa is tied to her bed, but she attempts to escape again by using the Change. Just as she escapes her bindings the door opens - It is William, who followed the trail from Emma's body to an organization called the Pandemonium Club and the Sister's house. Will and his friends proceed to help Tessa escape and when the Dark Sisters catch up a battle begins in which Mrs. Black is killed, and Tessa is knocked unconscious.

Tessa awakens in the London Institute to find herself being examined by Brother Enoch, one of the Silent Brothers, who informs her that she is a shape-changer and a Downworlder. Tessa meets the inhabitants of the Institute. The next morning Jessamine takes Tessa shopping; Charlotte and Henry look for Tessa's brother; and Will and Jem inspect the Sister's house. They find a clockwork automaton wrapped in human flesh. A vampire named de Quincey is identified as the Magister and is said to have Tessa's brother, so Tessa and Will infiltrate one of de Quincey's parties. At his party de Quincey slowly drains a human victim; this is against the Accord, which allows the Shadowhunters to attack. Things go terribly wrong at the party when de Quincey's victim is revealed to be Tessa's brother Nathaniel.

Tessa and the Shadowhunters kill the vampires at the party, save Nate and bring him to the Institute, but de Quincey escapes. Will bites him while fighting, and accidentally swallows some of the vampire blood. He and Tessa share a passionate moment when Will has to drink holy water because of his digesting vampire blood. The next day, Tessa and Jem go for a walk and are attacked by the Magister's clockwork army. They make it to the Institute, where the Shadowhunters are barely able to fight the army off, though Jem gets injured and passes out. While recovering, he admits to being addicted to a demon drug, which slowly drains him of life and weakens him. The following day, most of the Shadowhunters leave to kill de Quincy in his hideaway in Chelsea. Mortmain, the mundane who informed the Shadowhunters of de Quincey, comes back to the Institute to tell Will and Jem about the Dark sister who is trying to help the Magister with his army and her location. They rush off to kill her, leaving Nate, Jessamine and Tessa alone. Mortmain comes back with the clockwork army and reveals himself as the real Magister and Nate reveals himself as Mortmain's accomplice. While Thomas tries to fight the clockwork automatons off, Tessa, Sophie and later Jessamine escape to the Sanctuary, but Mortmain tricks them to open the door. Tessa agrees to marry Mortmain if he will leave everyone alone and not hurt anyone. Once the army has left the room Tessa stabs herself in the heart, leading to Mortmain's departure.

Will rides back once he realizes he and Jem have been tricked, leaving Jem to ride the carriage with only one horse, slowing him down. When Will arrives at the Institute, he's just in time to witness Thomas' death and goes on to look for Tessa and the others. While Jem arrives, he runs straight into Nathaniel and his four clockwork automatons, two of them holding Jessamine and Sophie; one holding the Pyxis, a box that holds demon energies needed to revive the automatons. Nate orders the army to kill him - Jem can fight them off, but Nathaniel and the Pyxis can flee. During that, Will finds Tessa, who is really alive; she Changed quickly just before stabbing herself and the blood was from a gunshot victim she had Changed into before with the Sisters. Charlotte and Henry arrive as well, and ask Tessa to stay at the Institute and she happily accepts. Tessa wants to have a serious relationship with Will, but he suggests a strictly sexual relation and tells Tessa that she cannot have children (she is assumed to be a warlock) so it is impossible. Jem comforts her though she will not tell him exactly what Will did to annoy her. Will seeks Magnus Bane's help, but it is not revealed for what reason.

Major Characters

Theresa "Tessa" Gray
16-year old Tessa crosses the Atlantic ocean to live with her brother Nathaniel in London after their aunt's death, having lived her whole life in New York City. Her parents died in a carriage accident when she was three years old. She is quite tall, has dull brown hair and gray-blue eyes. She loves to read books, escaping to the fictional world. She loves her brother more than anyone else and has always tried to protect his innocence. She is said to be a Downworlder, having the ability to shape-shift.

William "Will" Herondale
William has a fiery character, he's always being sarcastic and seems to find life infinitely amusing and infinitely tragic at the same time. He's described as having the face of a bad angel and blue eyes like the night sky in Hell; he also has dark hair. His mother was a mundane, leading to his father's leaving of the Clave and the Shadow World for his love for her. He was brought up somewhere in Wales, but he left his family and arrived at the London Institute at the age of twelve. He's seventeen years old and seems to have a dark past he's hiding. Will enjoys gambling, drinking and being around women with questionable virtue, as much as he enjoys everything else. James is his parabatai and, so it seems, the only person he seems to care about.

James "Jem" Carstairs
Born and brought up in the Shanghai Insitute, he's half British and half Asian. His parents were killed by a demon called Yanluo when he was eleven. The demon tortured him in front of his parents, feeding him some demon drug to which he became addicted. This drug weakens and drains the life out of him, leading to his physical appearance: frail, slender, silver hair and eyes and very pale skin. He's very intelligent and sensible and seems to be attracted to Tessa. He's seventeen years old and his best friend is Will.

Jessamine "Jessie" Lovelace
Jessamine's parents, like Will's, left the Clave to live a peaceful life, but they died in a fire. She was brought to the London Institute as an orphan then, though she seems to hate everyone living there and generally everyone who's involved in the Shadow World. She wishes to find someone with whose help she can escape the Institute to live a normal mundane life, though she can fight with her razor-sharp parasol Henry invented for her. She's described as being very pretty, having blonde hair and brown eyes; she's seventeen years old.

Charlotte Branwell
Charlotte's parents ran the Institute before her, and after their death, Consul Wayland assigned her to run it at the age of eighteen. She's very small and has dark brown hair and eyes. 23-year old Charlotte tries her best to care for the orphaned under-age Shadowhunters who live under her roof as well as she can, while having to run the Institute without her husband's help. She wants the others to respect her, but the Enclave often disrespect her authority because she's a woman, so she has to try hard to be heard.

Henry Branwell
Henry has ginger hair and has hazel eyes, he's married to Charlotte and the original leader of the Institute. He always lingers in his laboratory in the cellars of the Institute, experimenting and inventing new things which almost always seem to fail. He's the one to examine the clockwork automatons and find de Quincey's signature on them.

Downworlders

Alexei de Quincey

Species: Vampire
Gender: Male

Alexei de Quincey is the head of the London vampire clans. Lady Camille Belcourt reports to the Nephilim that he is killing mortals at his parties, which breaks the Law. In the past, de Quincey had killed one of Camille's lovers because he was a lycanthrope. Alexei has been shown to harbor romantic intentions toward Camille. Magnus also suggests the de Quincey would like to be "more than friends" with him, as well.

Lady Camille Belcourt

Species: Vampire
Gender: Female
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Green

Lady Belcourt is a vampire baronness. In 1878, she is the lover of Magnus Bane. She is also an informant for the London Institute. Because Alexei de Quincey killed her lycanthrope lover, she tells the Nephilim that de Quincey commits murder at his parties. She does this for a chance to watch Tessa shapeshift into her form.

Magnus Bane

Species: Warlock
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Green

Magnus Bane is the lover of vampire Lady Camille Belcourt. Tessa uses her shapeshifting ability to take the form of Camille and attends a party at the home of London head vampire Alexei de Quincey along with Will Herondale, who is pretending to be her human pet. Magnus Bane acts as their guide through the house, helping the Nephilim determine that de Quincey has violated the Law. During this, he admires Will's blue eyes and black hair, calling it his favorite combination. This does, of course, match Alec's appearance over a century later.

Brother Enoch

Species: Nephilim/ Silent Brother
Gender: Male

Brother Enoch is a no faced man who has excellent healing powers. Helps Tessa and her brother Nate.

Mrs.Black

Species: Warlock
Gender: Female

Mrs.Dark;

Species: Eidolon demon
Gender: Female

"The Dark Sisters" is Tessa's name for Mrs. Black and Mrs. Dark, the two sisters who abduct her in order to teach her to Change. They claim to be keeping her brother Nate prisoner as well, using this to motivate Tessa. They plan to sell her into marriage to "the Magister" until the interference of the Shadowhunters. Mrs. Dark went missing, but reappeared later on, revealing that though her sister was a warlock, she is an Eidolon demon, a shapeshifter. Unlike Tessa, however, she can not "become" those whose appearances she takes on. The demon that was Mrs. Dark is attempting to use necromancy to bring her sister back to life.

Humans

Nathaniel 'Nate' Gray

Species: Human
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Blonde
Age: 19

Tessa's charming, roguish, and handsome older brother, whom she has journeyed to London to live with following the death of their Aunt Harriet. She is concerned by his mysterious disappearance, and enlists the aid of the Shadowhunters to help find him. However, the truth behind his disappearance may be more than Tessa can handle. Nate is mundane.

Axel Mortmain

Species: Human
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Gray
Eye Color: Green

Axel Mortmain is the son of Dr. Hollingworth Mortmain, who had established a trading company in China dealing in spices, sugar, silk, tea, and likely opium. Axel moved from Shanghai to London a decade or so after his father's death and his subsequent inheritance of the family fortune. A shrewd businessman, he sold his trading company and purchased a company in London that manufactures mechanical equipment used in clocks. He named the business Mortmain and Company, also called Mortmain's. He is actually the Magister, not de Quincy.

Emma Bayliss

Species: Human
Gender: Female
Hair Color: Brown
Age: 14

Miss Emma Bayliss was a fourteen year old girl that Tessa Changes into while holding her pink hair ribbon. While in the form of Emma, Tessa describes her as being born in Cheapside as one of six children. She earned her keep by sewing at night. One night, when she went outside to sew by the light of the gas lamps, she was murdered. Her body is discovered by Will and Jem. Emma Bayliss was presumably murdered by a member the Pandemonium Club, possibly "The Magister" himself. There is evidence of this because Jem finds a knife with two snakes on it. (A double "Ouroboros").