CONTAINS SPOILERS
The Iron King is about a girl named Meghan Chase, who believes she has a normal life but always thought something was off in her life every since her father mysteriously disappeared before her eyes when she was six years old, and she also happens to see strange creatures every now and then from the corner of her eye. This "normal life" begins to fall apart on her sixteen birthday, when she discovers that her brother, Ethan, was replaced by a changeling and taken to Nevernever. With the help from her best friend, Puck, who she finds out to be a powerful summer fey and was sent to Earth by Meghan's true father, Oberon the King of the Summer Fey, to protect her, she dives into the fey world. Meghan finds out that something terrible is happening in the Nevernever, something that no fairy creature dares to face, and if she wants her brother back, she must stop it. Along this journey she finds help from her best friend, Puck, a grey cat named Grimalkin and a Winter Fey prince who also wants to kill her, Ash.
At first I was a bit sceptical of this book because I thought the start of the story was cliche and predictable in the sense that Meghan's brother been kidnapped and how she must go on this journey to save him. However once she enters the Nevernever that opinion faded, as the fey world was a world I've never pictured before and the description of the faeries not having wings was a new experience for me. This story had all the creatures that children grew up with stories told about them or watched in the movie "Labyrinth" with David Bowie and had the stereotypical courts and ruling. However, I enjoyed this aspect because you already had this basic background knowledge on the fairy world, but you also got introduced to some new concepts; like the new species of fey which is slowing rising due to the rise in technology, this new species of fey is called The Iron Fey. I also enjoyed the linking to William Shakespeare's story A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the characters Oberon, Titania and Puck. In middle school I had to study A Midsummer Night's Dream, so I already knew the background story with Puck being a trickster, Titania begin a total bitch and Oberon being very arrogant. I thought this linking was very clever and I definitely didn't expect it!
My favourite part of the book was in chapter seventeen, just after Meghan has a nightmare about Ethan. She wakes up screaming that she must go now and save her brother. Ash comes in and grabs her hand and holds it to his chest and shakes some sense into her by saying that she has no plan, she'll only just kill the four of them plus her brother. However after that moment ends Ash still holds her hand, Meghan tries to pull it back gently, but Ash doesn't let go, so she looks up and finds Ash's face inches from her own. Ash then brushes a tear from Meghan's check. This part is my favourite because it was the first moment where I pictured Meghan and Ash falling in love and developing a relationship and since then I've shipped them together so much, swooning at every cute moment they have throughout The Iron King.
If you like fantasy stories filled with action and romance, then you'll enjoy this book. It is beautiful written and an easy to imagine story. I thoroughly look forward to reading the next books in the series. Overall, I give The Iron King by Julie Kagawa 4 out of 5 stars.
★ ★ ★ ★
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