Sunday, August 26, 2012

The Iron Witch - Karen Mahoney

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Pages: 299
Published: February 8th 2011 by Flux
Genre: Y.A/ Paranormal Fiction
Format:Paperback
Acquired: Own Shelf
Date Finished: 15th August 2012

Synopsis: 

Freak. That's what her classmates call seventeen-year-old Donna Underwood. When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed her father and drove her mother mad. Donna's own nearly fatal injuries from the assault were fixed by magic—the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. The child of alchemists, Donna feels cursed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. The only thing that keeps her sane and grounded is her relationship with her best friend, Navin Sharma.
When the darkest outcasts of Faerie—the vicious wood elves—abduct Navin, Donna finally has to accept her role in the centuries old war between the humans and the fey. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous half-fey dropout with secrets of his own, Donna races to save her friend—even if it means betraying everything her parents and the alchemist community fought to the death to protect.


Thoughts/ Review:

When I first picked up this book back in, well hell I can’t remember when [sometime this year] I was a little put off by the sheer amount of people who were disappointed with it. Still as stubborn as I am when it comes to reading, I managed to shrug it off and was determined to get into this book. I mean I paid 3.50 for it and God damn it I was going to get my money’s worth and that I did. It took me such a long time to get through this book and at so many times I wanted to get it out of my house. The pacing is slow and draining, the perspective is different and it jolted me out of my comfort zone and the characters left me bored shitless for the majority of the book.

Hit around the 170 page mark when I picked it up again this month and it wasn’t too bad. The plot thickened, the characters [especially Donna and Xan] grew a little closer together and their back-story was fleshed out till one point it actually made me cry and the premise of the book started to make a little more sense. Now I am not a fan of fey books, I will try some and for me they are not my favorite creatures but I did enjoy the different take on fey and wood elves as it was fascinating to learn about them, but when the main characters and the wood folk come together it didn’t really hit me like I expected it to and I was a bit annoyed considering I was finally enjoying the book.

However that enjoyment was often crushed when I felt the story was getting overly cliché and at times the story sounded like many I had read before. I rolled my eyes and persevered because there were small moments in the book that I actually cared for these characters, especially Navin, but my main let down was that it did not capture my attention enough for me want to devour it and Donna the main character was an inconsistent frustration. I also felt there was a little instant attraction going on there and it annoyed me when Donna remarked that after three days of knowing Xan that they had to be so much more than friends. [Oh Please-sighs]

What did make this book a 3 star for me was the mixture of interesting elements; the lore, the back-story of how she came to be the way she was. The concept of Alchemy that I am not too familiar with and the darkness that crept through ever so slightly pushing the story forward when it felt to me like enough was enough. I also enjoyed the little snippets of Donna’s journal entries as they were welcome break between passages of boredom. I think this novel could have the propensity for real promise had the author spent a little bit more time building the characters and setting the tone of the book. With better pacing I would have enjoyed it a lot more, but I won’t be recommending this book to anyone anytime soon. Will I read the second book – sure as I have it on my shelf and I want to know what happens, but probably not in the near future.

I am giving this book a generous
★★★
Droplets of Elixer

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