A book that will keep you sitting on the edge of your seat, and keep you guessing about the characters, the Infernal Devices is an awesome book series. If you are ever looking for a good book series, then the Infernal Devices may be a good book series to put in the running.Written by the New York Times Bestselling Author, Cassandra Clare, this book series is a prequel to the popular Mortal Instrument series.

With the characters that some people have come to love still decades away from being born, this series focuses on their ancestors who lived in late nineteenth century England. The main character, Tessa Gray, comes to England to live with her brother, who, unbeknownst to her, has been kidnapped. Tessa is eventually whisked into a world hidden within our own and finds out the truth about what she can really do and who she is.

Clare takes a different approach to the portrayal of the Shadow World in this series. Though both of the main characters are ignorant to the world they should have been born into, the people they encounter throughout their journeys are vastly different. In the Mortal Instruments, the people who the main character meets are dedicated to fighting and killing demons. Refreshingly, some of the people Tessa encounters feel that they should have been dealt a different card in life.

Though most of the characters come from the same families, they all have a unique set of personalities. At the beginning of the series, Tessa finds out that the power she holds can do a lot of harm to the world if used in the wrong way. The Shadowhunters that she teams up with to put a stop to the rising mayhem are Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs. Both of these boys have very different stories: one is from a family who quit hunting demons and who pushes everyone away to try to protect them, while the other is a caring person whose family has been killed and who is slowly dying from a demon disease. They are both very different from their descendants who are the most confident and most successful Shadowhunter’s from their generation. It is very interesting to see how Clare portrayed the different family members and how she allowed their experiences to really shape their lives.

The Infernal Devices is a prequel series to the Mortal Instruments, but neither series spoils one another. Clare wrote the series in a way so that the books are composed of little easter eggs. Some of the devices invented during one series make cameos in the other. Also, Tessa’s prize possession, an angel necklace, is mentioned in the Mortal Instruments. Even characters that are immortal, like Magnus Bane and Camille Belcourt, make appearances in both series, but they do not spoil the plot. They may help move the plot along or give a character some sort of closure.

There are so many things to these books that make it a great series. There is betrayal, love, sacrifice, and mystery all composed into three excellent books.  With not only great plot lines, the series is also written beautifully by Clare. It is a series that you do not want to miss.