Review: The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While reading this review, keep in mind that I wrote it for a Journalism class, so it had to be written and formatted in a certain way.
     When new books comes to the stores many people flock to them, often forgetting about the slightly older books that may be better stories. One of the best of these is The Iron King by Julie Kagawa.
     The story follows a girl named Meghan Chase who, in a desperate attempt to save her younger brother who’d been replaced with a changeling, enters the realm of Faerie (the Nevernever) only to find more than she intended. The poisonous iron fey, bred from the technological imaginations of humans and bent on taking over Faerie.
     With the new take on faeries, Kagawa created a story unlike any other using Shakespeare’s King Oberon and Robin “Puck” Goodfellow as well as newer fey such as the half-faerie Meghan Chase. The often used dry humor and romance broke down the book from being merely a story about a girl trying to rescue her brother against hostile fey into a story with great heart and amazing characters.
     Meghan Chase, the half faerie, half human protagonist is first seen in the story as her father just disappeared into a pond, never to be seen again. That initial set up for the mystery aspect of the story gives background to Meghan and pulls the reader in right away.
     Though Meghan may not have the most depth of any character in the series, having one of the shortest lives to develop, but is still very easy to connect with as she acts with care for those around her.
     Ash, the prince of the Unseelie court, with his dark demeanor and cold attitude is possibly the best character of all of them. His part in the story is crafted in such a manner that, after only a couple of brief encounters with him to start off the book, you fall in love with him just as fast as Meghan.
     No good story can go without comic relief in some form, and the form of this comic relief comes in Puck, the right hand of Oberon and the mischief maker, and Grimalkin, the faerie cat. Puck’s snarky banter between the other characters combined with the obvious care he feels for Meghan, having watched over her most of her life, creates a character made to be remembered.
     All to be said on the matter of Grimalkin is that his dry wit and concern mostly for himself or what he wants as he leads Meghan, Ash, and Puck through the Nevernever set a nice change in pace from the deeper goings on of the others.
     All in all, when combining the original plotline with originality of the beautifully written characters, The Iron King comes out to be a great 4.5 star read worth mentioning to other readers.
     The Iron King was published by Harlequin Teen and totals at 363 pages.


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