The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

I read a lot of Young Adult fantasy novels back in the day. I stopped because I thought I had become too mature and didn’t want to read some teenager whine about how awful her life had become just because she had stepped into this awesome-hot world.

As it turns out I hadn’t become too mature and I was craving a good Young Adult novel like a drug. As usual for recommendations, I logged into goodreads and spent a fair bit of time until a book caught my eye:The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. It is the first book in the Iron Fey Series.

I won’t go into the summary of the book because guess what? You can get that on amazon. What I really want to talk about is how amazingly well the world was made. The characters were OK. The protagonist wasn’t anything special, just like other teenage protagonists-whiny. As usual the protagonist is fearless and would give up anything and everything which includes her life to save her loved one and somehow she always happens to be the special one who can defeat the villain. Yeah, that part is old and there is no originality in the book in that sector. The male leads were alright. I’m just really tired of reading how hot they are, you know. I mean I bought that when I first read Twilight and how Bella drools all over Edward. But does it have to repeat itself in every novel? Can’t they describe what a good guy he is? It’s all about the looks these days, I tell you.

What really enticed me and compelled me to complete the novel was the world she created. It was called Nevernever and all the fey (Single: faery, Plural: fey, Pronounced as “fairy”) lived in it. Fey ere nothing but creatures born out of human dreams and myths. So basically, everything that we believed it not to be true actually exists in Nevernever. And then there are kings and queens and royal politics. The plot is good. Not great. Not Harry Potter great but good enough. It won’t make you scoff in annoyance at every twist and turn and trust me there are plenty of those. It keeps you entertained.

I would give it a 3.5 out of 5.