The Iron King | Book Review

Title: The Iron King (The Iron Fey #1)

Author: Julie Kagawa

Published: February 1st 2010 by Harlequin Teen

Goodreads summary: Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

REVIEW

I would have loved this book if I had read it in 2010, when it was first published. Alas, I read it in 2015, when I have a YA master degree (or so). Still, I enjoyed this book, like every other book Julie Kagawa has written, and I'm looking forward to catch up on this series, since The Iron Warrior is coming out very soon.

In the beginning, this book was slow, I have a feeling it took forever to learn about faeries, especially when Meghan was feeling something was off since the first pages. Nevertheless, these faeries creeped me out, because a hat was there when it wasn't Meghan's family, and so on. I'm glad I was a little frightened, because it hasn't happened in a long time, it reminded me of the pixies in Need by Carrie Jones, whose had the same effect on me.

I really liked that the faerie world was inspired from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and how it was explain because this way, it made sense. Those faeries were everything I expected from them: in an eerie world, made bargain after bargain, had magic and pointed ears. Apparently, there is also a very diverse cast of faeries, I'm eager to know more about them.

The fact that the villain was distinct from the faerie world while being in it was really interesting, because he was deadly to other faeries, because iron (it's no spoiler because it is in the title!). Moreover, we learn at the end that there might be 'regular' faeries involved, which means... The characters need to find the great evil. 

I have mixed feelings about the characters, for now. I don't like Meghan, because she was so clueless about everything and made stupid choices, I just wanted to strangle her. I'm not really surprised she's this way, because it was often the way YA authors were writing their main character in 2010. Still, I don't like it. I think I like Ash, but I'm not really sure yet, because we don't really know him, even if we know a little about his past. Puck is a total cliché, the funny character in love with a clueless heroine, but I loved him anyway, he was well portrayed and reminded me of Peter Pan. Grimalkin was the best, in my opinion, he was just the Cheshire cat incarnate. He's a peculiar character that resolves anything by saying it's 'because he's a cat'.

I'm rooting for the romance, but I think it was a little too fast and should have happen later on in the story (insta-love). However, there might be a love triangle, and I totally don't want that, because I'm pretty sure I know how it would end.

The ending wrapped the book up nicely, we know where we're going. As a debut, it was highly enjoyable, I'm looking forward to see where it goes.

Have you read this series? Do you know other great books with faeries in it?