Am I the only one who loved The Clockwork Princess Epilogue?

Yes, I loved the epilogue. LOVED IT! I wrote my thoughts on my GoodReads review a week ago (or so…NaNo, you know?) and THEN read others’ reviews. No one I ran across shared my view. My feelings—yes, this epilogue left me with the feels in a strong way—were not there to be shared and I had to wonder why.

Caveats here: I have only read the trilogy once. I read it spread out, because I have other IRL things going on (including writing a super—hopefully—Victorian-set trilogy of my own). And, perhaps the most applicable, I am old(er) than the average teen Infernal Devices fan. Yep, adults reading YA fantasy. I fit that description.

And maybe that’s why I liked the epilogue. I’m married. I have kids. No grandkids, but I’m old enough that losing someone special, as Tessa lost Will, has happened to my peers.

From the start of The Infernal Devices series, we learned Tessa is immortal. The Shadowhunters are not. Tessa loved both Will and Jem. She intended to…this is full of SPOILERS, if you haven’t figured that out yet!—marry Jem, but he died. Or so they thought. Any-who, Jem went somewhere else, became someone else. Not available. Tessa and Will acted on their love for each other, and they got together…got married…loved each other…had kids…loved each other…had adventures…had grandkids…loved each other…grew old together—

WAIT!

Back up. Only Will grew old. Tessa is immortal. And what does that mean? (I get this. If you are young(er) do you get this?) She is going to miss him when he dies. This is what Tessa takes on when she allows herself to fall in love.

Cassandra Clare got this. She portrayed it beautifully, IMHO.

Tessa cries her heart out—as did many readers, me included—when Will dies. She leaves her home and family so she doesn’t have to watch her children and grandchildren grow old and die. I get this in a huge way. This would be horrible. Stand by, Tess, there is nothing you can do to help those you love… Er, no, Tessa was smart. She sought out her other immortal friend, and Magnus tells her: “The first one is always the hardest.”

Tessa lived. She traveled. She experienced. She grew.

Then, when Jem appears on Blackfriars Bridge as JEM—out of the blue returned to the boy she loved, not the emotionless being he had to become to go on—Tessa realizes she is now ready to love again.

THAT is what is so SPECIAL about this epilogue! (I’m crying all over again reading and writing this.)

Jem has not been out in the world, sequestered as he was in the Silent Brother life. He has been suspended, in effect. And Tessa is still Tessa. Immortal.

But she has grown. She can go after what she wants—Jem—when Jem is uncertain where to go, still playing by the 1800s rules, and also having witnessed the great love Will and Tessa shared. Tessa still loves Jem.

“Come with me,” she said. “Stay with me. Be with me.”

That Tessa gets another chance to love, and that it is Jem, who has loved her as she loved him, is so incredibly special. I love seeing my favorite people (characters) love and be loved. For me, this was a delicately done and perfectly sensible next step in Tessa’s story. For me, it’s as if her life is beginning anew.

Stars to you, Cassandra Clare, romance writer extraordinaire!

And please, if you have a similar feels you shared in a review, or even a different review, of The Clockwork Princess, please share! Ping me on my GR page so I can read it!