The Iron King

Title: The Iron King

Publisher: Harper Voyager
Author: Julie Kagawa
Year: 2010

Pages: 363
ISBN: 9780778304340
Series: The Iron Fey #1
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Reading Time: 3-8 Jan
Binding: Library Paperback
Goodreads

Stars:
★★★★★

Blurb: 

 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 fitted in at school...or at home.

 When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar and her little brother is taken, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

 She could never have guessed the truth. Meghan is the daughter of a faery king and a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will have to choose between a normal life and her magical destiny - and between her best friend and a darkly dangerous prince.

 It's time for Meghan to enter the faery world...

Review:

 This is real raw YA writing for me after reading slightly more adult fantasy for a little while but I know that if I'd read this as a younger teen I would have LOVED this book. It gets five stars as a result, I'm trying to ensure I give it the rating it would have got if I read it at the intended age. I see a lot of people comparing this to The Cruel Prince by Holly Black and saying this is just a more juvenile version. I can completely agree but I already thought The Cruel Prince was on the young side, I don't quite know why so many adults love it. If you enjoyed The Cruel Prince you're likely to enjoy this.
 The writing flags itself as more juvenile, generally in how Meg goes about actions and generally thinks of the world around her. She's a pretty simple teen, obsessed by boys and inexperienced in the subject so any scene where you get this content just reads really young. Other than that it's all fine, nothing I find much more 'juvenile' than the hordes of other YA fantasy coming out at this time.

 The world building is fairly typical of any faery series, the faery world is hidden alongside the humans and spattered within the human world as well, hidden to those without the eyes for it. Something I don't think I've experienced before is the whole element that imagination is what keeps the faery side of the world alive. The ideas and stories in history, taking inspiration from Shakespeare to create characters, was all a really nice idea. It's also a great way to bring alive the whole Iron Fey concept, I was impressed!

 Meg is a fairly normal character, I haven't really thought about whether I like her or not because that's not something I typically think about with a main character who we have no choice but to follow in the series. Any character that's oblivious to their own world is a little irritating but it can usually be forgiven in the first book. Puck is a great best friend, fantastic history and humour and I hope he sticks around for the long run. Ash, our dark romantic interest. Never too young for that kind of character! The kings and queens of faery I'm sure I will see much more manipulation from as we got a small example of in this book...

 As I understand this is quite a long series, I've got my Fairyloot set on the way later this year but there are some other side books that I'm going to have to dig out by themselves. Totally in for it!