Review: The Iron Witch

by Karen Mahoney
publisher: Flux
date published: February 8, 2011
format: paperback
pages: 290
source: purchased
Amazon / Goodreads / B&N
challenges: Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge; 2011 YA Reading Challenge

From Goodreads:

"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."

What I Thought

I had such high hopes for this book. The synopsis left me excited to sit down for a nice, long reading session. The Iron Witch is the shortest book I've read this week at 290 pages, but it took me the longest to finish. I just could not get very invested in this story line, nor could I get into the characters. I didn't find Donna to be an appealing character and Xan couldn't catch my interest, either. I thought Donna was just a bit too insecure and her constant questioning of whether her friend Navin still wanted to be her friend was pretty wearing. As for Xan, he had the potential to be a very interesting character. For some reason I just can't put my finger on, he fell flat. I wish I knew why.

After every fifty pages I kept hoping that something would happen to suck me into the story, but that something never came. There were a few interesting points in the novel, such as Donna and Xan's mission to the mansion and their first trip into faerie. Other than that, though, things were very low-key. Even the final conflict was lackluster and left me thinking, "That's it?" The sudden ending was the final straw. I was left without the want to read the second book, which is a shame, as I have the feeling that this series definitely has potential. It wasn't horrible, but it just lacked that certain spark that would have sucked me in. For that reason, I rate The Iron Witch at 2 hoots.