Book Blog #67: Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Title: Iron King
Author: Julie Kagawa
# of Pages: 363 (paperback)
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Synopsis: Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Review: Very, very disappointing. I was incredibly frustrated with just about everything throughout the whole book.

There was some really bad character development in the beginning.

"My name is Meghan Chase" (Kagawa 10).

This quote made a really bad first impression on me. I absolutely despise it when characters introduce themselves because, as far as I'm concerned, the characters don't know the readers there, even if the book is in first person.

To top it off, she tries to play the "poor person" card.

"'What should I wear?' my drawers basically hold three things: clothes from Goodwill, hand-me-downs, and overalls. I wish we weren't so poor. I know pig farming isn't the most glamorous of jobs, but you'd think Mom could afford to buy me at least one pair of nice jeans" (11).

That little witch. Meg has NO RIGHT to complain about little things like that. Maybe instead of using money to buy an iPod, she could buy a nice pair of jeans HERSELF. Her mom is trying the best she can, and that's how she acts? She has no respect! And then she complains about the clothes that she already has. Sure, they might not be the best quality fabric that her peers have, but let me tell you; Goodwill has some pretty awesome looking clothes. I have a friend that gets a lot of her clothes from Goodwill, and she's rocking it everyday. Meg just needs to be a little more creative.

Now, besides Meghan, the whole plot is full of clichés, and I saw a lot of similarities to other stories ranging from Alice in Wonderland to the children's book My Lucky Day. I can kind of understand if the close similarities to another story happen once; it's almost impossible to come up with a completely original idea anymore. But I kept having this moments where I think that I've read a certain part of the book before, and these moments got really annoying.

My recommendation? If you have nothing to read, give it a try. For some reason, I liked the ending, which is why I didn't give Iron King one star. Hopefully there will be improvements in the second book.