2.5 starsPhilip Reeve’s Hungry City Chronicles is one of the more original and imaginative young adult series out there. Infernal Devices is the third book in the series and it is set 18 years after Predator’s Gold.Tom and Hester are all grown up with a teenage daughter. Tom is a loving husband and a doting father to Wren. Hester – I’ll get to her later. They live in the static city of Anchorage and their lives are dull and uneventful in contrast to the adventures of the previous book. It is Wren’s yearning for adventure and excitement that gets her into trouble. In one of those teenage TSTL moments, Wren makes a decision that changes her world. She is kidnapped and taken away from her family and ends up on the floating resort city of Brighton. Tom and Hester leave their comfortable home to search for Wren.I love Philip Reeve’s quirky writing style. I’m always entertained by his imaginative world, creative gadgets, fantastic names, and the huge cast of characters. However, this book seemed to be the weakest book in the series so far. I think that rapidly aging two loved characters was the issue for me. Gone was the brave and dashing Tom. He was replaced by a middle aged character with chest pains.Hester, who I loved in the first two books, was absolutely vile in this book She was ruthless, selfish, and jealous of her daughter. Hester doubts that her husband loves her; she feels that he loves his daughter more. She tells her daughter that she hates her and she is actually happy when her daughter was kidnapped.There is one more book left in the series A Darkling Plain. I’m looking forward to reading it soon.
