The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

“I guess the sacrifice of my dignity is the only thing that will save us now. The things I endure for love. The Fates laugh at my torment.”

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.

Personal Thoughts:

I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about this book since its released but the faery storyline doesn’t really excite me to pick it up until recently that I receive a copy from Nikki. With all the hype around it I can’t help but expect good things from this book but after finishing I just wasn’t sure what I felt.

The writing is good, it’s accessible and straight to the point which makes this book an easy read for me. Kagawa’s descriptions of the Faeryland/nevernever flows vividly as well as the characters descriptions.

I haven’t read Shakespear’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream so when Julie Kagawa takes some characters from that book and transform them into her own I wish I have read A Midsummer Night’s Dream first before this book. I think it would be lovely to encounter them in the old tale first before the twist that Kagawa made. And in all honesty, I was even more intrigued by the lore behind the story than the actual storyline. I would love to explore more the original tale of the Seelie and Unseelie courts, King Oberon, Queen Mab, Queen Titania and the infamous Robin Goodfellow aka Puck.

Though I’m not at all familiar with all those characters and I haven’t read much faery stories I still find this book overly familiar. There were parts of the story that  reminds me of other books. The closet where Puck and Meghan used to enter the Nevernever land and the winter court reminds me of The Chronicles of Narnia. Grimaklin the Cait Sithe looks like Cheshire cat of Alice in Wonderland. There were also some references to falling down the rabbit hole. The idea of faeries survive on the dreams and beliefs of mortal world reminds me of The Never Ending Story. And the overly used Romeo and Juliet storyline between Ash and Meghan.

The characters doesn’t impress me but I have to give credit to Puck and Grimalkin. These two pre-existing characters that Kagawa used adds fun to the story. I enjoy Grimalkin the talking and sneaky cat and his fantastic one liner. Puck is adorable with his tricks and snarky comments. Compare to Ash he is much more solid character and I was sad to see him leave the plot. I understand that it was needed to make Ash and Meghan spend time together in order to get along and develop feelings for one another, but it seemed like such an easy way to get Puck out of the picture. After finishing this book I jump ahead with the Winter’s Passage novella hoping that Puck character will be back but again I hope too much.

Overall, The Iron King is a nice twist of faery world. Inspite of all the familiarity the author did a good job crafting her own plot. The idea of creating an Iron faeries is something new especially the reason on how and why they exist. I still plan to read the next book The Iron Daugther to see more of Puck and Grimalkin.