Rereading this 12 years later is wild. It’s weird how Tessa, Jem and Will are only 16/17 in these books . I associate them with being much older because of the other series. The writing and the characters are just as wonderful as I remember them. I miss the way fantasy books were written during the 2010s. Now everything is surrounded by tropes and you don’t really get any surprises in terms of characters and relationships. No surprise my love for Will Herondale was reignited. He was a good remix on the “traumatic bad boy”  cliche. Usually these characters use their trauma as a sad excuse for their shitty behavior.

For Will he thought that the only way to protect the ones he loved was to actively push them away from him. For else they would have a horrible death like his sister.

he broke my heart so much in this book. He loved so deeply. The overall mystery surrounding the clockwork mechanism and the Magister was so well done. Jem Carstairs broke my heart several times in this book. Watching him grow bolder in life but also watching him get physical weaker brought me to tears.

I want to protect this young jem so much from everyone who might hate him for proposing to Tessa. He just fell in love with a girl and wanted to think of himself for a change. He wanted to be loved in a way he thought he could never be before