Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by soulfulsin
The Iron-Jawed Boy by Nikolas Lee
4.0
Although I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for a review, I wound up purchasing it beforehand from Amazon because I was that interested in reading it.
The Iron-Jawed Boy is a mix of Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson. It takes place in the future, in a world where gods and magical creatures have overtaken humans and humans fight desperately to reclaim the world that they destroyed through various vices. Our intrepid hero, Ion, harbors a grudge against the gods and their subjects for ripping apart his family. Much to his dismay, he discovers that he possesses powers designed to protect the gods and that he must learn how to control these powers so that he can serve his enemies.
Along the way, he fights against his loyalties and ends up committing a tremendous injustice based on fear and a longing for normalcy.
Ion is not a particularly strong character in terms of morality. Yes, he has great powers, but his ability to stand up for himself and to make decisions is impaired. This makes him more likable, however, because he is not the stereotypical hero. It also serves to remind the reader how young he is. A twelve year old that has suffered six months of slavery, lost his parents, and discovers that his sister is also a Guardian that serves his enemies might be conflicted at best. Ion wants to belong, wants to feel like he has a home, when war has stolen this from him.
Oceanus, his sister, suffers from an obvious name trait. We were prepared to believe she had water powers because of her name. She resembles Hermione, particularly in her "know it all" response to things and her bookworm tendencies. However, her blind obedience and unlikelihood of questioning authority separate her from Hermione. Possibly the reason Oceanus feels so strongly about the gods and accepts them so handily is because, like Ion, she needs to feel like she belongs.
Ion and Oceanus are well developed characters, for such a short book, although other characters seem rough around the edges. From the beginning, I believed that Oceanus and Spike were friends, although this proved to be wrong later. Solara was established to be an antagonist early on, yet she also seemed to be younger than Ion previously believed. One wonders what particularly draws Spike and Solara to champion their mother's cause so strongly--is it merely family loyalty?
Family loyalty could be a strong connection, nonetheless. When we learn that Ion's mother is Vinya, we can understand why she protected him so fiercely and even let him hug her. (As a hopeful teacher, I'm not allowed to hug my students, so one would deduce this was a special case). However, the reader also has to wonder how the heck Vinya knew what Ion had done and when to come to his rescue. This was the only moment in the book that felt like a deus ex machina scenario.
It raises further questions, too. The Hand of Fear states that he used Ion's mother's ghost to manipulate him into releasing him by pulling through her memories. She declares Vinya to be a deadbeat that stayed on the couch for a year. Is this really what she thinks? Or is it what the Hand of Fear wants Ion to think of her? Was this part of the manipulation? If it was what she thought...then how is Ion her son?
Conjecturing aside, this book had a relatively fast pace. I didn't notice any particularly draggy moments and I had to force myself to finish, because I didn't want the book to end. One thing I will comment on, however, is the author's tendency to skip time. The way he wrote it reminded me in particular of Harry Potter. Rowling as well as Lee gloss over periods in time rather than embellishing on them and I think, had he done this, it would have been a longer, possibly meatier book.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Harry Potter and/or Percy Jackson. Overall, I was rather impressed by it.
The Iron-Jawed Boy is a mix of Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson. It takes place in the future, in a world where gods and magical creatures have overtaken humans and humans fight desperately to reclaim the world that they destroyed through various vices. Our intrepid hero, Ion, harbors a grudge against the gods and their subjects for ripping apart his family. Much to his dismay, he discovers that he possesses powers designed to protect the gods and that he must learn how to control these powers so that he can serve his enemies.
Along the way, he fights against his loyalties and ends up committing a tremendous injustice based on fear and a longing for normalcy.
Ion is not a particularly strong character in terms of morality. Yes, he has great powers, but his ability to stand up for himself and to make decisions is impaired. This makes him more likable, however, because he is not the stereotypical hero. It also serves to remind the reader how young he is. A twelve year old that has suffered six months of slavery, lost his parents, and discovers that his sister is also a Guardian that serves his enemies might be conflicted at best. Ion wants to belong, wants to feel like he has a home, when war has stolen this from him.
Oceanus, his sister, suffers from an obvious name trait. We were prepared to believe she had water powers because of her name. She resembles Hermione, particularly in her "know it all" response to things and her bookworm tendencies. However, her blind obedience and unlikelihood of questioning authority separate her from Hermione. Possibly the reason Oceanus feels so strongly about the gods and accepts them so handily is because, like Ion, she needs to feel like she belongs.
Ion and Oceanus are well developed characters, for such a short book, although other characters seem rough around the edges. From the beginning, I believed that Oceanus and Spike were friends, although this proved to be wrong later. Solara was established to be an antagonist early on, yet she also seemed to be younger than Ion previously believed. One wonders what particularly draws Spike and Solara to champion their mother's cause so strongly--is it merely family loyalty?
Family loyalty could be a strong connection, nonetheless. When we learn that Ion's mother is Vinya, we can understand why she protected him so fiercely and even let him hug her. (As a hopeful teacher, I'm not allowed to hug my students, so one would deduce this was a special case). However, the reader also has to wonder how the heck Vinya knew what Ion had done and when to come to his rescue. This was the only moment in the book that felt like a deus ex machina scenario.
It raises further questions, too. The Hand of Fear states that he used Ion's mother's ghost to manipulate him into releasing him by pulling through her memories. She declares Vinya to be a deadbeat that stayed on the couch for a year. Is this really what she thinks? Or is it what the Hand of Fear wants Ion to think of her? Was this part of the manipulation? If it was what she thought...then how is Ion her son?
Conjecturing aside, this book had a relatively fast pace. I didn't notice any particularly draggy moments and I had to force myself to finish, because I didn't want the book to end. One thing I will comment on, however, is the author's tendency to skip time. The way he wrote it reminded me in particular of Harry Potter. Rowling as well as Lee gloss over periods in time rather than embellishing on them and I think, had he done this, it would have been a longer, possibly meatier book.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Harry Potter and/or Percy Jackson. Overall, I was rather impressed by it.