Scan barcode
spiderdrac's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
leafblade's review against another edition
3.0
This was awful. Slow, boring and completely unnecessary. This could've just been an epilogue for The iron queen, or half as short.
Bringing Ariella back just to murder her again was awful and just a mechanism to brighten up the plot a bit, and I fell for it at first but when we discover what her fate is I got completely mad because it feels like she died for Ash and then resurrected for him just to be killed for his mortality. I hate it.
Oh and Puck is not even as half as gay as I wanted him to be in this book.
Awful.
Bringing Ariella back just to murder her again was awful and just a mechanism to brighten up the plot a bit, and I fell for it at first but when we discover what her fate is I got completely mad because it feels like she died for Ash and then resurrected for him just to be killed for his mortality. I hate it.
Oh and Puck is not even as half as gay as I wanted him to be in this book.
Awful.
andiemags53's review
4.0
Definitely my favorite of the whole series. I love Ash. I love what he is willing to go through to try and be with Meghan again. The pain and torment he suffers, the writer made me feel like I was actually there and experiencing it right along with him. I laughed my butt off, and cried in this book. But with Ash and Puck what do you expect! And come on, how could you not love Grim? I'm really hope Julie Kagawa decides to write a book from Puck's pov. I'd really like to know where he goes and if he ever finds someone.
reesetotle's review
5.0
I loved itttt!! Di ko matanggap na ending na HUHUHUH PUCK DESERVES A STORY OF HIS OWN
magikspells's review against another edition
4.0
Out of all the books in this series, this was my favorite. I loved the change of narrator. Even though I never particularly liked Ash, his pov was much more interesting then I thought it would be. Plus it was nice to see the guy change up his life for the girl instead of the other way around. All in all, I loved it, but I still like Puck best.
pineconebiscuit's review against another edition
5.0
This book was such an awesome adventure! So glad Kagawa decided to write this cause I love Ash and Puck :)
brendalovesbooks's review
4.0
Before I say anything, can I just say how absolutely gorgeous this book is? I mean, on the outside. The cover is beautiful, the pages are all uneven on the side (which just looks cool). I truly love it. And now let's move on to the inside, because we all know you can't judge a book by it's cover (although I do it all the time).
This fourth book in the series was a bit slow to start. Maybe even a lot slow. And remembering that I didn't particularly love The Iron Queen, I have to say I wasn't especially excited to get to The Iron Knight. Especially, and most importantly, because I've never really warmed up to Ash. This book is dedicated to "Team Ash", and I'm most definitely not Team Ash.
Does that mean I hated the book? Not really. Once it picked up, it was quite an adventure. It seems that the characters are hit with one thing after another, which is really not surprising since this is supposed to be a big quest for Ash to gain a soul. And almost all I could think about was Spike going in search of a soul in Buffy. This is not new stuff, for sure.
There were definitely some "huh?" moments throughout the book, but when I try not to think too hard about those, I can enjoy this for the fast-paced (at least the second half) adventure story that it is. And Ash is very much flawed in the story, which is a nice change from the perfect, flawless boys in a lot of YA. I think I even grew to like Ash as a character a little more, even though I still would have preferred Meghan ending up with Puck. Oh well.
If you read and liked the previous three books in this series, it's a pretty sure thing that you'll like this one. This is definitely not the place to start, though, so pick up The Iron King, The Iron Daughter, and The Iron Queen first.
Grade: B-
This fourth book in the series was a bit slow to start. Maybe even a lot slow. And remembering that I didn't particularly love The Iron Queen, I have to say I wasn't especially excited to get to The Iron Knight. Especially, and most importantly, because I've never really warmed up to Ash. This book is dedicated to "Team Ash", and I'm most definitely not Team Ash.
Does that mean I hated the book? Not really. Once it picked up, it was quite an adventure. It seems that the characters are hit with one thing after another, which is really not surprising since this is supposed to be a big quest for Ash to gain a soul. And almost all I could think about was Spike going in search of a soul in Buffy. This is not new stuff, for sure.
There were definitely some "huh?" moments throughout the book, but when I try not to think too hard about those, I can enjoy this for the fast-paced (at least the second half) adventure story that it is. And Ash is very much flawed in the story, which is a nice change from the perfect, flawless boys in a lot of YA. I think I even grew to like Ash as a character a little more, even though I still would have preferred Meghan ending up with Puck. Oh well.
If you read and liked the previous three books in this series, it's a pretty sure thing that you'll like this one. This is definitely not the place to start, though, so pick up The Iron King, The Iron Daughter, and The Iron Queen first.
Grade: B-
freadomlibrary's review against another edition
4.0
Actual rating 4.5 stars
Critically
Plot - 4.5 out of 5 stars
Really enjoyed it. It was exciting, action-packed, mysterious with a great mid-way plot twist and a very sweet and satisfying ending.
Writing Style - 4 out of 5 stars
It's very simple but with very beautiful and detailed descriptions. Every time there is a POV change, there is a slight change to match the voice of the person. Within the story, there's a lot of foreshadowing to later plot points which are a bit easy to catch on to.
Characters - 4 out of 5 stars
We get a new point of view in this book compared to the rest of the books in this series. Ash, one of the male protagonist in this series, takes center stage and becomes the main voice as he takes a journey for love. I liked getting the chance to get to know him better and more in depth in this book. He's strong and brave and determined. But he also shows a lot of vulnerability and openness that we hadn't seen from him before and it was really interesting to see the complexity of his character closer. He's torn about a lot of the possible decisions in his future and it was great to see him be a little on the weaker side throughout this book. We also get some of my lovable Puck, whom I love and who is one of my favorite characters of this series.
Emotionally
The plot was fascinating. The concept was really intriguing concept, the act of a faerie becoming human and what that would take. The journey itself was intense. We saw a lot more of the Nevernever than we have had before in the previous books. Some of them were really cool and interesting, and others were downright frightening and almost made me want to stop reading because I am huge chicken when it comes to scary things. There was an amazing plot twists in this book that blew me away! I had no idea that that was even possible, let alone to see it happen was crazy. It definitely improved the series for me because I was not expecting something like that at all. The group that forms for this book was actually hilariously disconnected. They didn't always get along and weren't necessarily the best of friends but it worked. The dynamics of the team helped Ash in his journey. Which was super intense and amazing by the way. I didn't realize how deep the author was going to get when she built the becoming a human journey, but it was very through and well thought out. There were so many different facets and it was an eye opening experience for me to see human nature from an outside point of view.
Ash as a character was also fascinating. I didn't really connect with him very well in the first few books because of his cold personality and how we didn't really get to see his thought process. But in this book I could see into his head and his feelings and it was so much easier to connect and get to know him and overall feel for him and his predicament. It was so interesting to see his development from how he used to be, who he is at the moment of the journey and who he's trying to become for love. I didn't expect that much development in one book.
Overall, this is a really fun and entertaining series. I'm really glad I read it.
Critically
Plot - 4.5 out of 5 stars
Really enjoyed it. It was exciting, action-packed, mysterious with a great mid-way plot twist and a very sweet and satisfying ending.
Writing Style - 4 out of 5 stars
It's very simple but with very beautiful and detailed descriptions. Every time there is a POV change, there is a slight change to match the voice of the person. Within the story, there's a lot of foreshadowing to later plot points which are a bit easy to catch on to.
Characters - 4 out of 5 stars
We get a new point of view in this book compared to the rest of the books in this series. Ash, one of the male protagonist in this series, takes center stage and becomes the main voice as he takes a journey for love. I liked getting the chance to get to know him better and more in depth in this book. He's strong and brave and determined. But he also shows a lot of vulnerability and openness that we hadn't seen from him before and it was really interesting to see the complexity of his character closer. He's torn about a lot of the possible decisions in his future and it was great to see him be a little on the weaker side throughout this book. We also get some of my lovable Puck, whom I love and who is one of my favorite characters of this series.
Emotionally
Spoiler
I was not expecting to like this book as much as I actually did.The plot was fascinating. The concept was really intriguing concept, the act of a faerie becoming human and what that would take. The journey itself was intense. We saw a lot more of the Nevernever than we have had before in the previous books. Some of them were really cool and interesting, and others were downright frightening and almost made me want to stop reading because I am huge chicken when it comes to scary things. There was an amazing plot twists in this book that blew me away! I had no idea that that was even possible, let alone to see it happen was crazy. It definitely improved the series for me because I was not expecting something like that at all. The group that forms for this book was actually hilariously disconnected. They didn't always get along and weren't necessarily the best of friends but it worked. The dynamics of the team helped Ash in his journey. Which was super intense and amazing by the way. I didn't realize how deep the author was going to get when she built the becoming a human journey, but it was very through and well thought out. There were so many different facets and it was an eye opening experience for me to see human nature from an outside point of view.
Ash as a character was also fascinating. I didn't really connect with him very well in the first few books because of his cold personality and how we didn't really get to see his thought process. But in this book I could see into his head and his feelings and it was so much easier to connect and get to know him and overall feel for him and his predicament. It was so interesting to see his development from how he used to be, who he is at the moment of the journey and who he's trying to become for love. I didn't expect that much development in one book.
Overall, this is a really fun and entertaining series. I'm really glad I read it.
blove0312's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Despite my ranting below that I wrote while reading this book, thinking back on previous ones, this was a good read. I love Puck. And Grimalkin. And the Wolf. And Ash grew on me. This was quite the adventure, and thankfully all without Meghan. I know I’m too hard on a 16 year old girl, and I can see that MANY people love this series, but even though it has moments that seem perfect, I can’t turn a blind eye to rest. This one so far is without a doubt the best. I’m more happy than I should be that Ash finally dropped his stupid oath to kill Puck, which I always thought was completely asinine. Puck may have pushed to go through the wood where Ariella was killed, but in the end they’d all agreed, Ari convincing Ash. And just bc she died Ash swore to kill Puck? Like.. your whole world is dangerous AF. Also Puck could’ve killed him probably more times than Ash could’ve killed Puck. Idk. Just add it to the list of things I think are silly or stupid in this series. And yet I continue lol. I promise I want to like it more than I do, and at times I can, but just overall I find it lacking.
Bending your own rules on time rant:
While showering it struck me. The whole “no time passage” thing doesn’t work. Meghan spent 2-3 weeks in Nevernever and came out and something like 5 months had passed the first time. The second time, or well when she went to say goodbye to her family, idk how long for sure passed in the NN (even 3 months seems a stretch with how quickly all the things transpired) but years had passed in the mortal world bc Ethan was taller and no longer a toddler. (Though as I have no kids and don’t like them maybe only 1-2 could’ve passed?) Also though Luke looked more haggard and had deep lines in his face, I think. In book 3 while traveling in the iron realm looking for the Clockmaker they found the clock tower and Ash wanted to destroy it. The fae said counting the passage of time made them older, affected them, because time isn’t tracked.
HOWEVER if you will remember the scepter exchange… marking the end of summer and beginning of winter (and vise versa). Marking the passage of <b>time.</b> AND in this one towards the beginning Ash says something about “twice a mortal year summer and winter pass the scepter” or something to that effect. But where was all this scepter passing nonsense in the let’s just say 2 years max before Meghan goes to see her family? To further emphasize, in the book (2?) when the scepter is taken by the iron fey everyone explains to Meghan how URGENT it is because if it doesn’t pass when it’s supposed to or stay in the appropriate court during the appropriate time, the mortal world will feel the repercussions; <i>”snow in Louisiana”</i> I believe Grimalkin said.
You can up any rules you want in your own fictional world and stories, but at least adhere to them. 🙄