Julie Kagawa’s The Iron King is the first book in the Iron Fey series. In the Iron Fey series, the world of the fey, known as Faeryland, lies separate from, yet connected to the human realm. Like most faerie stories, the fey are divided into the Seelie and Unseelie courts. In Faeryland, most of the fey are ruled Queen Mab of the Unseelie and Winter Court or King Oberon of the Seelie and Summer Court. While there are many types of faeries, most can use a form of magic that is fueled by emotions and carry their infamous trait of being tricksters and deceivers without lying. These fey exist because of the imagination of humans. Seemingly ordinary Meghan is pulled from her mundane human life, into to the world of the fey, when a mystical creature kidnaps her brother. On her journey through Faeryland, she learns about her mythical heritage and about the world hidden from her sight.
Meghan Chase is our main protagonist in this novel. She lives with her mother, brother and step-father in a small home. In school, she was always bullied which caused her to carry a feeling of worthlessness throughout the book. By the end of the story, Meghan gains some confidence in herself. Meghan also proves to be fiercely loyal and compassionate. She comes into Faeryland with no knowledge of the way the world works. She quickly learns how to act in this world full of faery tricksters, but much of her human compassion surprises the fey and sometimes gets her into trouble.
The Iron King was an enjoyable story. The book had a rocky start and struggled with pacing. The story would alternate between being too fast and being too slow until the majority of the book’s exposition is finished. Thankfully the book settles on a good pace for the rest of the story and provides an enjoyable read. The book is full of action and plot twists. Fey creatures are known feo their deception and half-truths. Because of this, it is suspenseful to watch as Meghan must figure out who to trust and leaves us wondering how her actions will affect the story in the long run. This fey world share many characters and parallels with Shakespeare’s A Midsummmer Night’s Dream. This story was likely based off A Midsummer Night’s Dream and it shares few connections with Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thrones and Roses. Julie Kagawa also does an amazing job with world building. She creates a vivid and interesting world with deep explanations about each character’s appearance. I give this 363 page book 4 stars.
The Iron Fey
Like most faeries, these faeries are known for the half-truths and deceptions. Their lands are divided into the Seelie and Unseelie courts and then further divided by individual rulers. What marks these fey as different is that their powers are fueled by emotions and life. The faeries were brought into existence thanks to human imagination and humanities recent neglect of faeries is affected their world.