Book Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

 

Goodreads Summary: MEGHAN CHASE HAS A SECRET DESTINY�ONE SHE COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED…

Something had 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.

Meghan is the daughter of a mythical faery king…and a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Goodreads rating: 3.89 stars with over 204,000 ratings

Genre listing: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Paranormal, Fae, Faeries, Magic

Goodreads Challenge: 15/30 (only 3 books behind now!)

2021 Reading Challenge: #19 Read a book with a form of royalty in the title (see the entire challenge here)

Book Review:

This book was kind of a blast from the past. Once upon a time, I used to go to the half-priced book fair in Indiana and load up on tons and tons of books. Afterward, I'd do a book haul for the books and talk about whether or not I'd want to read it. I bought this on kindle, and I kept thinking this seemed familiar. I'd usually do this with my friend Leslie and her family. Sometimes she'd give me books to clean up her own bookshelf. This was one of them, and it was featured on a book haul all the way back in 2015 when the blog was only a year old. If you're curious, you can find the haul post here. It's interesting (and a bit cringy) to see how much my writing has changed over the years. I never got around to reading it because, at some point, we moved, and I sold the majority of my physical books to make moving easier. 

I was really excited for this book in the haul post because of the cover, though I did think it was probably going to be a cheesy YA Romance that was going to be a guilty pleasure for me. Past me called it. I should probably just go ahead and stop saying that I hate romance books because I end up reading a lot of them and liking them. With The Iron King, I was instantly drawn into the world and the details. I think a lot of it was kind of cheesy and cliche, but it was still a fun read that I enjoyed quite a bit.

The things I found cliche were that Meghan was such a loner and outcast in her own world, with only Robbie as her friend. Then once she gets to Faeryland, she finds herself in the middle of a love triangle. It can't be a YA fantasy without the heroine having two boys fight over her while the world needs saving. WHO WILL TAKE ME TO PROM AFTER THE FOUL BEAST IS SLAIN? At the sound of the bell, the teenage suitors will fight. Keep it clean, gents, and no facial wounds. I don't want the pictures to be ruined.

Okay, sorry. I'm done making fun of YA heroines now. Back to why I liked the book because the above statement is what I didn't like. Meghan was bullied quite a bit, which made me feel sorry for her. Even though there was a love triangle, I liked that the book's whole premise was that she had to go on a quest to save her little brother. This is a little bit of a spoiler, but I feel that it's essential. I really appreciated that she was the one to beat the bad guy, if you will. Meghan kind of came across as whiny, but she also seemed really resourceful and determined to do things on her own. Because of this, she ended up growing on me quite a bit. 

I really liked the fairy lore that was included in this story. There's a lot of references to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. I realized while reading it that I've never read that particular play. I tried to after finishing The Iron King, but my brain blatantly refused. I don't do well with classics. As intelligent as I am, just old styles of English make my brain cry. I can get through some Shakespeare plays, but it's rough. Anyway... What little knowledge I had of fairy myths made the world Julie Kagawa created fascinating. It also dawned on me that the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina  Robin was a nod to the same character that Robbie was supposed to be. 

I didn't feel overly connected to the characters. For me, the enjoying part of this story was the quest itself and the details of Faeryland. The dialogue had a healthy dose of Sarcasm from most of the characters, however. I immensely enjoyed that. I thought Grim might have been a nod to the Chesire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, which was also mentioned in the book a few times. As I said before, I'm not super versed in fairy lore or A Midsummer Night's Dream, so if the original Chesire Cat was a nod to those, I'd have no idea. Grim was probably my favorite character. Sassy Cat, that's helpful because it's amusing to him? Yes, please. 

Overall, I really enjoyed The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. I added the other books to my Amazon wishlist. I could have easily bought the next book in the series, but I'm trying really hard to be good and not go into a series binge. I feel like I've already done that a ton this year. If you are a fan of YA Fantasy/Romance, I recommend this. It's not like some excellent work of literature, but it's short and entertaining with an exciting world.