Valeria Andrea

Spoilers? Maybe.
Well, obviously, as the fair cold hearted lady that I am, last night I threw a fit whenever I finished the book. Not in the bad way, is just... the ends were oh-damn-so-great.
All of them, in SO many ways.
*sigh*
Yep, endS, but hold on right there, I shall go back to the endS of the book later.

I didn't want to start the book.
No joke, I didn't.
But at the same time, I was desperate to go all the way to the end & see what the hell with Mortmain's devilic automatons, Tessa's origin & all the other shit load of theories I had to prove right. The thing is, I just knew at least one little tear this book would squeeze out of my mechanic heart.
I was so sure, as Tessa says,

“You know that feeling,” she said, “when you are reading a book, and you know that it is going to be a tragedy; you can feel the cold and darkness coming, see the net drawing tight around the characters who live and breathe on the pages. But you are tied to the story as if being dragged behind a carriage and you cannot let go or turn the course aside.”

I think Cassandra Clare wrote that line in purpose.
Anyway, differently from the characters in TMI, I came to care for the characters in TID way more than one sane person should.

Starting with Tessa.
The situation of her existence, how she was created (by Mortmain!) & her powers are enough for me to care, if at least in a detective like way. But, then again, I have always liked her.
I liked her at the beginning, I loved her determination when she burned her hand at the end of Clockwork Prince (my favorite scene of all 3 books), I was enduring with her all along this last book.
&, please, is not just about her thorn heart between Will or Jem, or the (apparently but not quite) pointless suffering & drama.
I like her for what she is, regardless her decision & her motives about the boy (boys?) she loved. (Of course I will parrot about it later, okay?)
I like her & care for her.

"Well[...], you can be assured that no one will be coming to rescue you now."
You are to be the ruin of the Nephilim.
"Then I will have to rescue myself."

Ah? Tell me if THAT isn't a strong character!
I will miss Tessa. I'd like to see her in action present-day, though that would also be... heart breaking, you know. Other people I love so much wouldn't be there.

Like Charlotte!
Okay, I like Tessa lots, but as I've said before, Charlotte would be my roll model if I ever grew up. Period.
She alone could lead ALL Shadowhunters!
*Hugs Charlotte one LAST time*
Okay, my eternal admiration for Charlotte brings down my point about how much I cared about the characters in TID.
She is a supportive character, & I was looking forward to see what was going on through her eyes.

The focus on TMI (1-3 at least) are Clary & Jace, so the wide spectrum in TID is great, specially with the likable characters.
I didn't expect to like Gabriel at all!
*gasp*
Anyway.
I had expected Cecily's appearance to be a bit more... plot-worthy. Since she & her parents knew Mortmain, I though that perhaps she would be at the Institute by his hand, even if indirectly. But no.
She was there because of her brother, she wanted to bring him back home, though the shot fired exactly in the opposite direction.
Still, I was looking at her closely, Cecily & Gabriel; Charlotte & Henry; Gideon & Sophie; ... even Bridget!
Damn, she surprised the hell out of me with her fighting skills. & her songs! Ha-ha, I actually liked them. I bet that Bridget eavesdropped on the guys, just to sing the more accurate creepy song.
My favorite was:
"Oh mother, mother, make my bed
Make it soft and narrow
Sweet William died, for love of me,
And I shall of sorrow.

They buried her in the old churchyard
Sweet William's grave was neigh hers
And from his grave grew a red, red rose
From hers a cruel briar.

They grew and grew up the old church spire
Until they could grow no higher
And there they twined, in a true love knot,
The red, red rose and the briar."

Jem & Will...

“You hear that, James Carstairs? We are bound, you and I, over the divide of death, down through whatever generations may come. Forever.”

For a love like Will's & Jem's for each other. *sigh*

Somewhere on the book, Jem says that the oath of the Parabatai is not what gave them the eternal biding of them souls, that it was just something that gave words to this that already existed.
Both boys are more than brothers & blood has nothing to do with it. The love for each other is just one of the many definitions of love you can find, for not even a girl (even if THAT GIRL was Tessa) could cut them apart.
Not even death.
I really loved (2 tears, oh my god, TWO TEARS for the boys!!) Will & Jem.
& I loved the love they have.
For a love like theirs...

Well. Moving on, before I do something stupid (like freak out... or cry); Mortmain is a son of bitches kind of villain. & I am glad to say that, even if I respect him as the bad guy, the very thing he created was what also destroyed him.
*evil laugh here*
Of course, he delivered the speech all villains do, explaining his motives & exposing the childhood trauma that made him the wreck he was. He even explained detailedly how was Tessa created! (Yeeeeeah! One theory right bitch!). He was smart & loved irony but he underestimated Tessa & what he made of her.
She ended up LOVING Shadowhunters, the very thing he hated the most(!)

Now, his Infernal Devices

THE INFERNAL DEVICES ARE WITHOUT PITY.

Hmp, that scares the shit out of me, in the good way.
Mortmain's plain is what mind-blew me. It was very clear, maping carefully all the moves he had done since Clockwork Angel, but still, just as Tessa's conception, there were details that made me wonder & not have quite a clear idea of what he planed.
& this is exactly why I like him as a villain so much.
His planing has unexpected points that gave sense to the whole picture just once he delivered.

THE INFERNAL DEVICES WILL NEVER STOP COMING

Ah, never fear, his automatons army IS scary.
Steampunk-devilishly kind of scary.

I don't usually pick up teams.
I don't like to. Of course, I would root for one or another, but teams? Hell, no. So when I actually put on a shirt for someone it is in situations like this.
*chokes* I AM TEAM WILL OKAY?! *chokes a little more*
I like Jem, a lot, he's a great dude, but well, I just like Will more. In Tessa's case, I totally understand what she means by loving both of them. Actually what Woolsey says to Tessa is pretty much my opinion.

"On can love two, but your heart can be given in romantic love to only a single other. So novels would tell us, though I have no experiences of it myself.
[...] Most people are lucky to have even one great love in their life. You have found two."

Tessa has Will AND Jem, she loves both of them & they love her just as much.
& she could not love one more by loving the other less & vice versa. But Jem was to die... & everyone knew it would happen.
What I liked in their... situation, is that this wouldn't be Tessa's unilateral choice. She is to marry Jem because she loves him (obviously) & even if she would like to be with Will as well, Will chooses to stay apart because he loves Jem too.
It all is very confusing. As a fan, if the end was Will, without any other force intervening & no other making choices, regardless of Jem's dead, I would be happy.
As I come to find now, it never is as easy.

I mean endS because everyone gets an end, but Tessa. She will live eternally so she won't have her end.
There is an end for Will-&-Tessa another for Jem-&-Tessa, but not one named Tessa-Tessa.
The Will-&-Tessa end is one that comes as satisfying but also bittersweet. Because the guy I was putting my money on kind of won but at the end, my money is taken from me.
It is not okay, but I also understand. It got to me, to see Tessa & Will together.
Jem-&-Tessa end, on the other hand... well, I don't feel like winning or losing anything. Of course I love the fact that Tessa is with someone she loves, after all this time of solitude. I don't even think it as something bad since Will would have probably approved & all.
Still, there is something about this at the back of my mind. Is as if the thing hasn't had closure, so I don't know... yet.
It was Okay, but still... not entirely what I would have liked, since he made his own decisions.
Also Jem's cure has a point, I know it. Whatever happens to him in CoHF, that I want to see.
Though even then, I wouldn't know about Jem & Tessa afterwards. There has to be a reason besides having his own shot with Tessa in the future, you know. & he will die, eventually...
Maybe the point of his cure shows itself in that other 2015 series, The Dark Artifacts?
Oh, god.
Tessa & Jem HAVE TO appear in that book! Doing something totally plot-worthy. Since Emma Castairs is Jem's, what, great-great-great niece?
& what if... Ah!
SHUT UP NOW INNER VOICE!!
Ah...
*sigh*,
*sigh*,
*sigh*.
My heart is confused, I tell you.
Though the consequences of those ends give me motives to keep reading City of Heavenly Fire, since City of Lost Souls was so frustrating.
At least I get to see Brother Zachariah, now that I know who he is.

So, whit all this, what else can I say to this books, to the characters that I somehow came to care so much for?
Ave Atque Vale.
Hail & farewell my dears.