The Infernal Devices is a steampunk fantasy, which takes place in London, 1878. The manga stuck true to the original books and even included phrases from them, making it a perfect adaption that follows the series accurately. The funny scenes and lines still cracked me up and I adored seeing how the manga displayed each characters emotion dramatically. I was overjoyed with the illustration in this book and the way my favourite characters were presented. However there was one character that looked out of place unfortunately, Henry. It seems as if his character was drawn for comic relief with his childish face with lack of detail. I honestly don’t know how I feel about the way he was drawn but I can kind of, sort of, understand why his particular character was drawn in such a unique way as throughout the book series, Henry Branwell’s character was underestimated by the Clave and many who did not know him thought of him as a fool when in reality he was a genius at work creating new technology that would change the shadow world forever and help aid the shadowhunter’s in their tracking of demons for generations to come. Henry’s character can come off as a little childlike in the midst of him getting excited about his new ideas for inventions, but how could one not get all giddy at the thought of the possibilities? Especially when his inventions prove to be of value to the Clave.
Overall, Hyekyung captured the characters quite perfectly and they were how I imagined each of the characters to appear which was fantastic to see. Hyekyung did a good job at carefully selecting what scenes needed to be included, as I know that not every scene could have been included in this adaption. This manga is the perfect refresher for The Infernal Devices series if you want a quick recap and read of the series and cannot recommend purchasing a copy enough, for the images are striking to gawk at. However, I do recommend reading Clockwork Angel first by Cassandra Clare as it provides one with a lot more background information that is skipped out on in this manga adaption.
BOOK 1: Clockwork Angel
BOOK 2: Clockwork Prince
BOOK 3: Clockwork Princess