Release Day: February 22nd, 2011
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Publisher: Delacorte Books
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Pages: 512pgs
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The Story
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In the city of Lovecraft, the Proctors rules and a great Engine turns below the streets, grinding any resistance to their order to dust. The necrovirus is blamed for Lovecraft's epidemic of madness, for the strange and eldritch creatures that roam the streets after dark, and for everything that the city's leaders deem Heretical - born of the belief in magic and witchcraft. And for Aoife Grayson, her time is growing shorter by the day.
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Aoife Grayson's family is unique, in the worst way - every one of them, including her mother and her elder brother Conrad, has gone mad on their 16th birthday. And now, a ward of the state, and one of the only female students at the School of Engines, she is trying to pretend that her fate can be different.
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The Review
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First of all, let me just say that I absolutely j'adore this book cover - it's dark, eerie, and really sets the mood of the story. As for THE IRON THORN book itself, I love anything that is steampunk and I especially loved the world of Lovecraft - an alternate 1950's Massachusetts, all made of iron and machines! I could literally feel the cold, hard metal every time I turned a page...it kept me there til the very end. Before this book, I've always been a hardcore fan of Caitlin Kittredge's previous novels and since this is her very first young adult novel, I say she is pretty much, well, a genius!
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The main heroine, Aoife Grayson (a beautiful name by the way), is far from the proper standards of a 1950's lady. Her behaviour was like a boy's and her strong-sometimes-stubborn attitude made her stand out from a lot of heroines that I've read in the past, in a great way of course. But the thing that I really came to admire about Aoife's character, was that she doesn't fade out a single inch away from this book, at least not when her two boys keep her company - her best friend, Cal, whom got on my nerves at times but I still loved him, and the new love interest and one of the guides of Lovecraft, Dean, whom I adored completely! What really stood out to me in THE IRON THORN novel, was the magic weaved through the madness of the world...it was beautifully written and executed with such grace in words!
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The best part of the story was Aoife's suppose 'madness', when she will turn sixteen. Her mother was mad, her brother was a mad runaway, and her father...well, he too was believed to be mad. But when she decides to leave Lovecraft, after receiving a cryptic note from her brother, Conrad, she then teams up with Cal and Dean, to find out the real truths of her family...and by that, I mean, she really does make some interesting discoveries about her magical heritage, about the madness that courses through her, and most importantly, about the outlawed witchcraft. Without revealing too much, I will say...oh Dean! He was probably the best part of the book! Cal...well he annoyed me a lot, but by the time I reached a few ending chapters, I came to love him a bit more!
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Overall, THE IRON THORN is creepy, dark, and filled with many things that go bump in the night and to be honest, I didn't want it any other way...cause it was a very cool adventure to read about! With an ending so intense and many secrets revealed, I'll definitely be picking up the next sequel of this series! So please, whatever you do, pick up yourself a copy of this book...you won't regret it!
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The Rating
5/5 stars
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