SuitabookClockwork Prince
Cassandra Clare
- Reading
- If any listed content could be difficult, check in before and after the relevant chapters, especially around the opium den, romantic encounters and battle. Discuss whether consequences are shown clearly without revealing the ending.
- Themes
- Loyalty and selflessness: Will, Tessa and Jem are described as willing to do anything for one another and their families, including when acting rightly is difficult. Loyalty and selflessness are presented as admirable strengths, alongside the challenge of making difficult choices.
- Female independence: The book is described as featuring strong female characters and encouraging women to find their own voice and stand on their own feet. Female strength and independence are clearly valued, though the broader range of women’s experiences is not established.
- Substance dependence: Jem must take yin fen to survive despite its painful effects; another character uses it in an opium den, which is described negatively rather than glamorously. Drug use is associated with dependence, suffering and negative consequences rather than presented as harmless pleasure.
- Worth knowing
- Before reading, consider how comfortable the reader is with passionate kissing and caressing, clothing removal, references to prostitution and sexually transmitted disease, drug dependence, an opium-den scene, battle injuries, death and the words “bastard” and “whore”.