April 28, 2011

The Iron King

The Iron King - Julie Kagawa

My name is Meghan Chase. In less than twenty-four hours I'll be sixteen. Countless stories, songs and poems have been written about this wonderful age, when a girl finds true love and the stars shine for her and the handsome prince carries her off into the sunset. I don't think it will be that way for me. 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 fairy 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.

 This book took me a while to get into, but once I was into it I loved it. I couldn't stop reading this book and would totally recommend it to others. I thought the characters were ok, but I think the thing that had me hooked was the Fey world, NeverNever. The mythology of the world and setting had me hooked I wanted to find out as much as I could and felt that this book let me explore a different Fairy story to which I am more familiar with.


The story focuses on Meghan who is half fey, her father being the Summer King. She does not know this at the beginig of the book, but when her brother goes missing, she sets out on a quest to find him and bring him back home. Her best and at times I felt her only friend Robbie helps her get to NeverNever, through a waredore (Narina?), she learns that Shakesphere's A Midsomers Nightdream was wrote about the fairy world and because of that Robbie (Puck) will not dissapeare altogether. The fairy world is based upon dreams and beliefs from humans that there is more out there, the world NeverNever reminded me alot of Neverland from Peter Pan. 

Although the story is unique I can't help but notice little details from other stories and I think that in a way it is made obivious what stories these are and it takes a little of the magic away from the book. Alog their travels Meghan meets Grims, a talking cat, this was my character of the book! I loved the way he spoke to them, how he knew more tha Ash and Puck at times and how he always looked out for himself no matter what! Yes, actually that moveds me onto another point, in the fairy world if a fairy helps you, they can ask for anything in return. Meghan knows this when she asks Ash to help her, yet when she thinks she knows him better she questions and gets upset that he will still get his end of the bargain. This annoyed me so much, as she knew this would happen, she was warned by Puck not to accept but she did anyway and then she does not expect Ash to take what he wants? Meghan was so naive at times it did make me want to throw the book across the room.


The book is really good, and I would totally recommend it. The first 70 or so pages are slow but after Ethan (Meghan's brother) is taken the pace intensifys and the book, story and characters come into there own. I loved the part where it explained why Puck and Ash could not get on. There is a lot f history between the characters and I think that in the future books, it will only be improved upon.
 

1 comment:

  1. Great and thorough review! I liked 'Iron King' and really enjoyed the world Julie invented, but I felt it was all very typical to the fantasy genre, with the same set ups and characters. But still it was a great book!

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