Of Chickens that Lay Golden Eggs

Deconstructing Clockwork Angel

And welcome back to Clockwork Orange Angel and his inevitable salt shaker, we are on to chapter… one? This is not a mistake, those two entries before were an introduction.

Additionally I must apologize for the formatting for Blogger posts but I cannot seem to get it right. If you have any suggestions they are more than welcome.


However now we are to join our young heroine Tessa Gray six weeks post her arrival in the Albion, currently residing under an unspecified address in London which is also known as the house of the Dark Sisters.


But wait! We have a quote from Invictus

- “Beyond this place of wrath and tears

     Looms but the Horror of the shade”

I will go ahead and assume that this was added for those familiar with the movie that goes by the same name and fans of Nelson Mandela. The poem is Victorian alright, but the quote seems to lose any sense as it takes only part of the verse.

-“And yet the menace of the years

     Finds and shall find me unafraid.”

There we go, this would have suited this chapter better, or did the author assume that the readers would be familiar with the remaining verse? Suspense is rising...

As you might have guessed, Tessa did not get to meet her brother either. She is now held a prisoner by the Dark sisters and their maid servant Miranda. The place is all kinds of awful. Miranda manhandles Tessa, the Dark sisters torture her and have taken a liking to hold their meetings with her in the same hot smelly room despite them owning a house that is large enough to get lost in. They force Tessa to abide by a stringent, rutinary life, confine her to a little room with only books to keep her company. Well, at least that last bit should not upset Tessa, she had willingly done so herself on the ship, minus the books. Now she feels really alone, she misses her brother and this brings me to a point - did she not have anyone else? No friends - well, ok, she seems the hermit type, so, no other relatives, curious neighbors, pets?


And then we get this

- if no one in the entire world cared for you, did you really exist at all?-

Those are not the thoughts I`d expect from our Tessa Grey. Our Tessa would keep on admiring her Clockwork Angel. “What - 6 weeks passed and it still ticks - oh man, this is awesome!” The end.


But no, Miranda demands that Tessa follows her to meet the Dark sisters in a cellar as it was usual at that hour. They walk through what seems to be an enormous labyrinth of a house. Are they co-renters at Queen`s palace? I understand that they use magic and what not, but how does one fit such a big building in London without rousing suspicion? Does the house have several levels underground? Does it use facades of several homes to make it look more normal?


We get our second glance at the Dark sisters in their office - still dressed like pimps. We find out that they prefer working in tropical, humid and mouldy atmosphere and like spending their time in a room that smells like garbage.

-It smelled strange as well, like Hudson on a hot day-water and garbage and silt -

Why? For ladies who like such luxury - silk gowns in exotic colors - it seems a bit off to spend their time in a room like this, but this is not important because they are awful. No, seriously, it seems they were brought into this story for awfulness point boost.


You may be wondering why anyone would keep a girl with no connections in captivity for 6 weeks, whilst not taking any payment and providing her with books, food and shelter? You see, Tessa possesses a power of turning into a person whose belongings she is holding and experience the memories and knowledge of the said person, dead or alive. Which brings me to a question - whose memories and appearance she would take on if the item had been handed down from generation to generation or stayed in possession of several persons for a considerable amount of time? Apparently all the items she gets have not changed owners or not that we know of it.


Tessa did not know about her ability, but apparently the Dark sisters did - gladly this kind of gets explained in the book. So they were giving her stuff of dead people for the laughs, sometimes splattered with blood too, because they are awful and teaching people new concepts is another thing they can be awful at.

- They had shouted at her to Change, had slapped her and shaken her as she’d told them over and over again with rising hysteria that she had no idea what they were talking about, no idea what they were asking her to do. -

I don`t even at this moment. I have so many questions. This is not how you teach a person, it does not encourage comprehension. Moreover it undermines the relationship between the apprentice and the teacher, I see a lost chance here.


Tessa does not just hit the road because her brother is being held hostage by them and they`d kill him if she refuses to cooperate.You do not know this yet, but I am going to fast forward this to put the situation in perspective. They had been hired by the Moriarty of the underworld to train Tessa. This guy is very dangerous and he wants to eventually marry and have babies with her. Creepy, huh? The point is, you do not antagonize the prospective wife of your employer if you can help it. Threatening relatives is generally frowned upon when you are dealing with someone who in future has potential of decimating you and the Dark Sisters know this, they are working purposefully towards it. Just what kind of suicidal women are they?


Secondly, making them nice and likeable would have worked so much better in creating tension and deceiving the reader. Them educating her in a polite and caring manner, telling her that she was very talented, that she could do “Good” things with her power - generally people are motivated by the good things they could do. You know - positive encouragement and then we would have found out that in fact they were planning to sell her off to Mr. Satan.


But now we shall return to the mould-infested basement. Tessa is given a hair ribbon which used to belong to Anna Bayliss, the girl Jem somebody murdered a month ago and is asked to change into her. We still do not get why exactly she had been asked to turn into this particular girl and neither do we find out why she died, but ok, that ties her being killed to the Dark sisters somehow unless they are prone to rummaging through tangible evidence folders at their local police station.
Anyway, the Dark sisters are super happy about Tessas` abilities developing and mention that the mysterious figure of the underworld who goes by the name Magister will be pleased with everything they had done to Tessa. Welp, yeah until he gets to know that his lovely wife to be was tortured and abused by these two women. Or at least I hope that is what his reaction would have been.

And so ends this chapter on chaotic evil and golden geese. I hope you had fun