Scan barcode
A review by yulie
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
1.0
Gosh, this book had so much promise. I admit, I've never read a book dealing with faeries before and so I was quite enamored... at first, anyway. The deal with the faeries and everything quickly became repetitive and predictable. We get it! Don't make deals or give your name or thank faeries if you don't want to be in a world of trouble! What does the protagonist do? Well.
Don't get me wrong, I completely appreciate that faeries and creatures of the like are tricky and mischievous, and quite enjoy that element. What I didn't enjoy was the female protagonist, Meghan, being completely hopeless and idiotic about her situation, running off all willy nilly and going against every piece of advice given to her. It was really infuriating.
It was also a complete mystery to me why she fell in love with Ash out of the blue and barely cared for Puck, who clearly gave her more attention, had her best interests at heart and was described as quite charming and handsome anyway. Her attraction to Ash was just so... arbitrary.
Meghan Chase is essentially a useless 'damsel in distress' main character, and none of the relationships or characters in this book are really fleshed out. Meghan wants to save Ethan? Sure, that's great, but we don't actually get any good glimpses of WHY Meghan really cares about Ethan. They could've done a lot of building here, I thought, but it was just "I have to save my brother," coming out as a plot device every now and then, and during other scenes she didn't even think about her brother and spent her time being completely attracted to Ash for no. good. reason. I get that he's hot, but he tried to kill you and continues to threaten to kill you, and you suddenly ignore all that and the advice of your best friend and just fall in love with him anyway even though he has shown you no redeeming qualities except for his handsome appearance? Genius. Her sullen rebellion towards Oberon was really annoying to read, too. There's a line between being stubborn for the right reasons and just being moronically rebellious just so the lead character is 'tough' and 'brave.' Additionally, it's a complete mystery to me why anyone would listen to Meghan's plans when better alternatives are offered at every turn. She is a selfish lead who facades under this 'I'm so good, I'm just trying to save my brother!' plot point, and it is completely infuriating when she uses this and endangers not only her friends and 'love interest', but also THE ENTIRE FAERIE COURTS. Seriously. Someone should tell Oberon about the Iron Fey, right? Nope.
A lot of scenes included are also a little useless or just caused the book to drag out unnecessarily. I get that Meghan is in a world of danger here, but it got to a point where I was skimming the pages to skip what should be exciting scenes of action, danger and tension... only to turn the page and be confused because suddenly the last scene was resolved and the characters were simply thrown into another troubling situation without much consequence or thought to the first. A lot of the scenes in the book don't matter. For example, Meghan working in the kitchens for a few days doesn't matter at all, and added nothing to the plot except a boring read and Meghan earning 'grudging respect' from a supposedly tough task-giver, which is truly a tried cliche.
I really wish this book didn't fall flat, because I thought it had a lot of promise. The story ended up being flat and the premise slightly ridiculous towards the end. Humans don't imagine anymore and that is why Nevernever is fading lately? Really? Humans *aren't imagining anymore?* Okay. And how long has iron been in existence?
I'll cut it short here, because I could go on about inconsistencies in the book, useless plot points and the shallowness of the characters for quite a while. Definitely wouldn't recommend this book.
Don't get me wrong, I completely appreciate that faeries and creatures of the like are tricky and mischievous, and quite enjoy that element. What I didn't enjoy was the female protagonist, Meghan, being completely hopeless and idiotic about her situation, running off all willy nilly and going against every piece of advice given to her. It was really infuriating.
It was also a complete mystery to me why she fell in love with Ash out of the blue and barely cared for Puck, who clearly gave her more attention, had her best interests at heart and was described as quite charming and handsome anyway. Her attraction to Ash was just so... arbitrary.
Meghan Chase is essentially a useless 'damsel in distress' main character, and none of the relationships or characters in this book are really fleshed out. Meghan wants to save Ethan? Sure, that's great, but we don't actually get any good glimpses of WHY Meghan really cares about Ethan. They could've done a lot of building here, I thought, but it was just "I have to save my brother," coming out as a plot device every now and then, and during other scenes she didn't even think about her brother and spent her time being completely attracted to Ash for no. good. reason. I get that he's hot, but he tried to kill you and continues to threaten to kill you, and you suddenly ignore all that and the advice of your best friend and just fall in love with him anyway even though he has shown you no redeeming qualities except for his handsome appearance? Genius. Her sullen rebellion towards Oberon was really annoying to read, too. There's a line between being stubborn for the right reasons and just being moronically rebellious just so the lead character is 'tough' and 'brave.' Additionally, it's a complete mystery to me why anyone would listen to Meghan's plans when better alternatives are offered at every turn. She is a selfish lead who facades under this 'I'm so good, I'm just trying to save my brother!' plot point, and it is completely infuriating when she uses this and endangers not only her friends and 'love interest', but also THE ENTIRE FAERIE COURTS. Seriously. Someone should tell Oberon about the Iron Fey, right? Nope.
A lot of scenes included are also a little useless or just caused the book to drag out unnecessarily. I get that Meghan is in a world of danger here, but it got to a point where I was skimming the pages to skip what should be exciting scenes of action, danger and tension... only to turn the page and be confused because suddenly the last scene was resolved and the characters were simply thrown into another troubling situation without much consequence or thought to the first. A lot of the scenes in the book don't matter. For example, Meghan working in the kitchens for a few days doesn't matter at all, and added nothing to the plot except a boring read and Meghan earning 'grudging respect' from a supposedly tough task-giver, which is truly a tried cliche.
I really wish this book didn't fall flat, because I thought it had a lot of promise. The story ended up being flat and the premise slightly ridiculous towards the end. Humans don't imagine anymore and that is why Nevernever is fading lately? Really? Humans *aren't imagining anymore?* Okay. And how long has iron been in existence?
I'll cut it short here, because I could go on about inconsistencies in the book, useless plot points and the shallowness of the characters for quite a while. Definitely wouldn't recommend this book.