Recently, I reviewed Cassandra Clare’s newest novel Clockwork Prince. (Read that review here). But as I mentioned in the review, I didn’t want to go into too much detail on certain aspects of the story because spoilers. I wrote another post that I linked to on a different page, and now I’ve decided to post it here. Hopefully it will instigate some form of discussion. I just love discussions. So here we go.
And remember, this post is FULL OF SPOILERS. So if you haven’t read the book and want to. STOP READING NOW!
The Jem and Will Problem
Clockwork Prince ends with Tessa and Jem engaged to be married. This was an interesting twist on the love triangle that Cassandra Clare presented her readers with, because it is not Clare’s traditional couple to get together. In her Mortal Instruments Series her main character Clary falls in love with the bad boy Jace. Clary has to choose between this wild crazy passionate boy and Simon, her mundane bestie who during the beginning of the series has nothing interesting to offer (well… he’s in a band…. does that count).
It is clear from the moment that Clary meets Jace that the two of them are going to end up together, no matter what Cassandra Clare throws in the way of their relationship (and she even throws in incest… I’m serious! This woman is brutal). And as all of us expected the original trilogy ends with Clary and Jace ready to gallivant off into their new perfect future together. Great right? Well I guess so. It was a good ending.
Jace 2.0 and The Curse of Feelings
So here we are in Victorian London, looking at a very familiar situation. Here we have Will, who myself and my friends like to fondly refer to as Jace 2.0. He’s handsome, he likes to read books, he’s neat and tidy, he’s a good fighter, he only wants a sexual relationship with Tessa.
Wait, hold up.WHAT? This is where Will differs from Jace. Where Jace has been taught by his father that love destroys, Will has to deal with something worse. Anyone who loves him will die because of a curse put on him by a demon when he was a little kid. Because of this Will takes it upon himself to protect everyone around him and tries to make everyone believe that he does not possess one decent quality. So he’s rude, he pretends to be a drug addict etc. etc. BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
In Clockwork Prince it is revealed that Will’s curse is a lie and he spent his whole life keeping people away pointlessly. Now Will realizes he must seize the day and go and tell his true feelings to Tessa. But low and behold, while Will was off being angsty, Jem swept in and fell in love with Tessa and now we have our engagement situation.
So What? Who Cares?
My problem with this whole thing, is that I feel this is going to be another Jace/Clary/Simon incident. When Tessa describes her feelings towards Jem it doesn’t feel like her heart is in the marriage. It is clear that somehow in the next book the engagement is going to be called off. My prediction is that Jem is going to realize that Tessa is really in love with Will and will end up sacrificing himself to save their happiness. The new young couple will mourn the loss of their tragic best friend, but move on to be happy together. Or at least that is what the most predictable outcome is. I’m conflicted.
I do have a lot of faith in Cassandra Clare. She’s pretty talented for setting up random (but completely believable) twists. The Infernal Devices did start out with a very similar pattern as The Mortal Instruments, but in Clockwork Prince, it did move away from it slightly. I’m just a little bit concerned about the way this storyline is going to play out.
The problem is, I love Jem. To me he is the more interesting character and I think he and Tessa would work well together as a couple. But most importantly, no one would see their relationship coming. All I really can do is theorize and wait and hope for the best.
What are your thoughts?
