The Iron King (The Iron Fey #1)

You know those books that should be terrible? The ones where just the concept is so ridiculous and awful that there’s really no way they should be able to redeem themselves. Except they DO work, for whatever reason, and in spite of yourself, you can’t help liking that book.

The Iron King is very much that sort of book. Outwardly, it has everything going against it. Teen girl finds out she’s a fairy (*gasp*) and her dad is the fairy king (*bigger gasp*) and she is actually the most special of all special fairies, and has the power to save all of fairyland (*biggest gasp*). Throw in a a bucketful of very obvious allusions to Ella Enchanted, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, The Hobbit, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Labyrinth, and The Goonies, and we have a recipe for a certified failbook.

Basically, I do not like the premise for this story, which I knew before I opened the front cover. I picked this up because I was impressed with The Immortal Rules by Kagawa, and figured I should check out her more popular set of books. So, I wasn’t very surprised when The Iron King began methodically ticking off boxes in the Paranormal Cliché Checklist; I expected it.

Also, characters: not the best. Meghan needs to be rescued a lot. She also thinks she’s awesome because she’s poor and not “shallow” like rich girls who wear makeup. Because, obviously, wearing makeup means you’re an awful person. Duh. Yeah, it’s real great that she’s attempting to rescue her brother from the fey who kidnapped him, but I kind of feel like David Bowie already did that…pretty sure he did.

And nothing you can say will convince me that Grimalkin is in any way superior to Hoggle and the Bog of Eternal Stench. Nothing.

All this to say, even though this book is a complete rip-off of all sorts of other (very awesome) books and films, and even though Meghan is not a very inspiring protagonist, I still liked this book. In spots, I liked it a lot.

Julie Kagawa’s storytelling has some sort of indefinable quality to it that sort of rises above the cheesy, been-there-done-that-ness of her content. Something like mindless entertainment, with a little bit of guilty pleasure attached. But very enjoyable nontheless.

And, all things considered, we must remember that this is a YA paranormal debut. Personally, I cannot think of a good YA paranormal debut off the top of my head. So, the fact that this is basically a book version of The Labyrinth, minus David Bowie and plus corny Shakespeare references, is only to be expected. Altogether, there are much, much worse books out there.

The Iron Fey is one of the YA Fantasy series that I intentionally did not read. There is a lot of noise/praise about them but I was always dreading to start, because I did not like Twilight and I feared that the same thing would happen with these books.
But then I accidentally stumbled upon this book for free on official website and most people in IMM comments on my blog voted that I should give it a try. Well I listened to you, my fellow book-lovers. :)

Julie Kagawa's style of writing is very easy to read. It's light, and breezy with right amount of descriptions, inner monologue, dialog and action to make it just right. It's surprisingly good for a first novel.

The world of Fey Julie Kagawa created, takes ideas from several different books and sources. They enter at the beginning through the closet (Narnia), one of the characters is sarcastic mysterious disappearing talking cat (Alice in Wonderland) and there is whole cast of characters from Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream': Oberon, Titania, Puck, etc. But, Julie Kagawa managed to add her touch to these characters, transfer them to urban setting and make them unique and original.
Also, there are so many types of different types of creatures we will encounter here that it's a real treat for lovers of mythological and paranormal. Be warned, Julie Kagawa has a little bit of teeth-fetish.

So why the low rating? Because 'The Iron King' represent all of the most popular (and most used) tropes in YA books.
Story is told from first person point of view by Megan Chase. Her father is missing since she was a kid and she is neglected by her mother and stepfather. But then she discovers magical world and creatures living in our world that other humans can't see. I will not list any more cliches she represents because they would be spoilers, but there are many many more.
As for romance - of course it has to be a triangle! One is quirky best friend (who she never saw in that light although he is in love with her forever) and the other is handsome bad boy & tortured hero (who of course has a soft side that is revealed just for her).

I am a little torn with this one. On the one hand, I really enjoyed The Iron King. It was a fun, fast read, touching on lots of things that I love - faery lore, magic, mystical realms and otherworldliness and some romance. But at the same time, I was periodically putting the book down with a frown on my face, as something nagged at the back of my mind.

I absolutely loved all the allusions to other works - Shakespeare, Alice in Wonderland, The Labryinth, Peter Pan (to name a few!) - but because of these references, I was faced with a weird sense of deja vu which permeated the entire story. It left me with an overall feeling of predictability, and thus, the lasting impression is one of unoriginality. I was really hoping Kagawa would blow me away with her ingenuity, and I was quite upset with how little of faery history she manipulated into something of her own devising. That being said, I did love the inclusion of the Iron Fae, and the explanation for their existence.

Meghan was a good protagonist, and charmingly reminded me a little of Bella with her clumsiness. There were definitely a couple of damsel-in-distress moments where I wanted to reach through the pages and grab her by the shoulders for a good shake, but she mostly redeemed herself in the end with her courage and bravery. I found her routine of embarking on a journey, stumbling into a dangerous situation, and being saved by one of her two faery escorts slightly irritating, but that was part of the predictability I mentioned earlier. I do wish that we had seen more of this "hidden" power that Meghan apparently has, as it is mentioned by several different characters throughout the book. We get to catch a glimpse at the end, but we're mostly just teased with morsels.

The one thing I really disliked about Meghan was her willingness to enter into a contract/deal with every creature from Faeryland that she encountered. Anyone who has any experience with Fey are aware of some cardinal things - no names, no dancing, no eating/drinking of their food and no deal making! Even after being warned of the dangers of entering into a rushed deal with a faery, Meghan is offering to "do anything" every time she runs into a problem. I wish she would have taken time to think things through before rushing headfirst into something she will be eternally bound to.

Being a sucker for forbidden love, I was intrigued by the flame blossoming between Meghan and Ash. Unfortunately my intrigue was undeserved, as their relationship bordered on love-at-first-sight. Other then the fact that he lost someone close to him and that he is a Prince of the Winter Court, I know nothing about Ash. I don't know his reasons for being attracted to Meghan, or her reasons for finding him so alluring - besides the shallow outer reasons of tall, dark and handsome (which she takes notice of repeatedly). There also seemed to be flickers of interest from Puck, which I hope were just my imagination - the last thing YA needs is another love-triangle. Not to mention the fact that Puck is centuries old and should be beyond feelings of fleeting interest for an awkward teenage mortal.

I did enjoy the world-building, and found that Kagawa was able to create such vivid imagery that I could very clearly picture the scenes in my head. I enjoyed all of the characters - even the seemingly menial characters were full of personality and came alive across the pages - but who hasn't read a faery story about a child being replaced with a changeling, and the resulting quest of a newly discovered half-faery/half-mortal royal to get him back? So while enjoyable, I found The Iron King underwhelmingly unimaginative.