Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices: Manga, Volume 2) by Cassandra Clare and Hyekyung Baek

Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices: Manga, Volume 2) by Cassandra Clare and Hyekyung Baek

Goodreads Synopsis
A prequel to Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, The Infernal Devices is the story of Tessa Gray, a sixteen-year-old American girl traveling alone to Victorian London who runs afoul of the city’s sordid supernatural underworld. Rescued by the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, Tessa quickly finds herself caught up in an intrigue that may very well destroy her new friends – including the two enigmatic young men, Jem and Will, who have taken her under their wing…

Much like the first installment of this manga series, Clockwork Prince follows the novel fairly well with only missing minor details...ish.

I do believe that in order to fully comprehend this story, you do need to have read the novel before or else you feel as though you are missing something. Or maybe that is just me because I have read the story and have the full description.

I think that what was missing was world building in this adaption. Especially since world building was so big in The Mortal Instruments series as well as in the novel of this. There was also considerably less plot in this one and a lot more info-dumping since it seemed to be cramped in to try and make it "condensed." I didn't like that.

For how much I liked the art last time, I felt it wasn't as good this time. I did like that Henry got a real face ... for a single pane, but he had so many serious moments this time and it felt ridiculous to have him to not have a real face during them except for literally one pane. It made that moment the only serious one of that entire conversation! That conversation between Charlotte and Henry is so important though and it felt rushed over and silly because of Henry's face and I just couldn't handle it.

Josiah Wayland, the Consul, and Aloysius Starkweather looked almost exactly the same. I could barely tell the difference between them. I doubt that they look so similar that you can't tell the difference between them except for the outfit they wear. Speaking of, Aloysius' outfit was ... ridiculous. And that was disappointing. I liked the clave meetings and such in the novel but they felt rushed and as if they were bridges between plot points in this rather than the important meetings they were in the novel.

I don't even want to talk about the mechanical robot at the end because I had to stop to laugh at that one.

Jem, Tessa, Will, and Magnus were still beautiful, but again Sophie's scar should have been so much more. This is far from perfect, but it is still good enough for me. Probably because I am obsessed with James Carstairs.

Overall: 4/5 stars because Jem.