http://www.cassandraclare.com/cms/faqs#Tessa

17 b) I have heard Tessa appears in City of Glass. Where is the scene where I can find her?

She is in the epilogue of City of Glass. “‘Magnus stood in the shadow of a tree, talking to a girl in a white dress with a cloud of pale brown hair. She turned as Magnus looked toward them, and Clary locked eyes with her for a moment across the distance that separated them. There was something familar about her, though Clary couldn’t have said it what it was.’”

If you have the hardback version of the book it is on page 525. 

I was searching for her name so I was glad Clare put this on her site explaining where she was.  I wonder what she was talking about when she says Clary found something familar about Tessa. Guess we will have to wait and see.

*********Warning, contains major spoiler from City of Glass*****************

Where should I start with this?  As you can tell from other stuff I have posted, I was extremely excited for this novel.  Honestly, it lived up to my expectations.

I guess I’ll start with the characters.  When the novel first started I was worried that Tessa, Jem, and Will would turn into a love triangle similar to Clary, Simon, and Jace.  Although the triangle part started to emerge, there was a whole different dynamic to it.  Both boys start to have crushes on Tessa but there is no rivalry between them.  Right now they are so close as best friends that they are honestly like brothers.  It almost felt like they both love the other so much that they would be willing to give up the girl to the other.  Does that make sense?  I could honestly see Will telling Tessa to be with Jem because in Will’s mind, he is the better man and I could also see Jem having exactly the same thought process towards Will. Their brotherhood definitely comes first.

Speaking of Tessa and Clary, they are definately two different characters.  I loved that Tessa thought very much like I would think a girl in 1878 would.  She was careful to be proper and believed that women had a certain role. In was interesting to see her in contrast with Charlotte.  By the way, when they make this movie, can I please be Charlotte?  I love her!  Her character had so much depth and interesting things going on.  She was forced to be the head of the household because Henry was off with his machines yet that role seems to be what she truly loves and is meant for.  She is a very strong character that has to deal with people looking down on her decisions. 

As for the boys, how can anyone not find Jem mysterious? He is such a nice, sweet guy as well. Then of course we have Will.  Will did remind me a lot of Jace but that actually made perfect sense.  If you have read City of Glass, you know that Jace’s real father is actually Stephen Herondale.  In otherwords, Jace is a distance realitive of Will’s.  Guess the attitude runs in the family.  There is also a lot of mystery around Will. What is he off doing when he wonders the city? What is the story with his family?  And the very end of the book?

It was also fun to see Magnes Bane of course.  Personally, I was excited to see Church show up.  Clare wrote on her twitter that it is in fact the same Church from The Mortal Instuments. Also on her twitter, she explained further, “The amount of questions I am getting regarding Church astounds me. (SPOIILERY) Church is an immortal, magical cat. Being used in a necromantic ritual made him immortal. He is also smarter than the average cat. He is however still a cat.& he is the same cat in TMI.”  Hmm, I can’t wait to get the entire story.  I also really want to go back and figure out where we see Tessa in City of Glass.

The style this novel was written in was very interesting.  Clare’s website states that she tried to incorporate elements of steampunk.   She gives us a story set in a historical setting yet pulls in modern ideas like robots.  Usually I find fiction set in the past hard to read but Clockwork Angel made it feel a lot more like a modern story that just happen to involve high society, fancy dresses, and horse drawn carriages.  I’ve been reading a lot of urban fantasy lately so this was similar but added in a completely new setting.

On a personal side note, I just started writing a book in the style of urban fiction.  It is very interesting and challenging to bend the world to include elements that you are creating. I’m having lots of fun with it so far.  So much respect goes out to authors like Clare that have not only done it but done it so well that the world comes to life in such an amazing way.

Everything about this book made me want to not put it down but on the other hand savor the entire thing. Sad I have to wait so long for the next installments.  In case I haven’t said it enough, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book.  Keep up the great work Cassandra!

www.commonsensemedia.org

          Sex, violence, kissing, gay relationships, angels, soda drinks…are things things that parents need to be aware that their kids are reading about?  Well according to Barnes and Noble, they seem to be.  Recently B&N online joined forces with Common Sense Media to provided ratings and information on books for children and young adults.

          My first reaction when reading about this company and their idea is that it made sense.   They are trying to provide parents with a way to know what is inside the books their children are reading.  I liked that the company mentioned that it is not aiming to censor but to inform.   In theory this is a good idea.

          However, when I started to actually read some of the reviews, I wasn’t completely sold on the description being a good idea.  They point out every single little thing that is in the book from what I can tell.  In many cases, these are completely out of context.   In the reviews I read, it seemed like the person writing the review was putting their own opinions in.  I feel like the reviews should be non objective.  For example, for the book LA Candy by Lauren Conrad, they are pointing out a character having one night stands and tell the parents to discuss with their kids what the real life consquences of this would be.  Couldn’t you just leave it that one character has sex with multiple partners in the book?

          Another thing that bothered me a lot was reading the review for City of Glass by Cassandra Clare.  They point out more than once that a character is gay.  First off, I think when reviewing a book it would be more appropriate to say something like same sex relationship.  Secondly, why on earth is this even something to point out?  I guess you could defend it being full disclosure on the book but still, that seems like pointing out non important things to me.   If you do put that in there, why are you not pointing out a well that there is a girl kissing a boy?  Same difference right?

          What got considered red flag material verses yellow also did not make a lot of sense to me.  Using the same two books as examples, LA Candy is given a red for having lots of references to consumer products like phones and food yet City of Glass gets a yellow for attempted rape, inscest, and tortured angels committing suicide.  Do those ratings seem off to anyone else?  I also thought it was weird how they censor some cuss words in the review but not others and even at times just call them four letter words. 

          Since the ratings were confusing me, I decided to look more at Common Sense Media’s website to figure out who exact was coming up with these.  It didn’t really give an answer.  It gave a long list of people and what their position was but didn’t tell anything about them.  Are they parents?  Are they teachers?  Are they a religious group?  I feel like more information should be provided about this group.

           Not being a parent, I guess I can’t entirely relate but I feel like if a parent is going to be so strict that they will not let their kid read something that this scale says is a red light or for a certain age, maybe they should consider reading the book.  It is possible to truly gage a book based on a bias review from a somewhat unknown source. 

          I think this is a step in the right direction when it comes to finding ways to deal with censorism.  It is a good alternative that if executed better, could work to help parents know what their children are reading.