The Iron Witch -- Karen Mahoney

Donna Underwood always wears gloves in public.

When asked, she'll explain that she's hiding the scarring from multiple skin grafts due to a childhood accident.

But that isn't the truth.

The truth is that when she was seven years old, she horribly injured in an attack by faeries. Her father was killed, her mother was left catatonic, and Donna was left virtually parentless. She had to endure operation after operation to heal her physical wounds.

Ten years later, her hands are healed—they actually make her stronger than anyone would expect an average person, regardless of age or gender, to be—but she always keeps them covered, as the magical iron and silver tattoos would draw attention and invite comment.

Even her best friend doesn't know the truth of what's underneath Donna's gloves.

But then she meets a guy. A guy with luminous green eyes. A guy who is faster than he should be, stronger than he should be, and who seems to be as drawn to her as she is to him.

And then her best friend is kidnapped.

By elves.

For the fans who are worried about the cliffhanger: You'll be happy to hear that there's a sequel due out in February.

For those who haven't read it: It's a cool premise. And I especially appreciated the Author's Note at the end that explained the tradition behind the story.

But the writing itself was shaky. The dialogue is often awkward and unbelievable, there are quite a lot of infodumps, and a lot of telling rather than showing. Example #1, with telling and infodumping:

Sure, the Order's secretary was unpleasant at the best of times, but even for him that was pretty bizarre. He wasn't just angry; he seemed . . . scared. This crazy defensive attitude about something as innocent as a stupid clock got her thoughts humming. What was Simon trying to hide?

And Example #2, with telling and hard-to-believe dialogue:

"Maybe. And ever since we opened that door into the otherworld I've been feeling different, somehow. As though something is awakening inside me."

But it should definitely be mentioned that some of this might be purely personal: Alexander Grayson, with his luminous green eyes and his too-long-bangs and his wisdom beyond his years and his tendency to say things like "I'm getting an appalling crick in my neck" rubbed me the wrong way from minute one. I never believed in him, because he read like an author's creation, and not like a real person. He seemed like a composite of every Hot Tragic Hero that I've read about in the last few years.

As for Donna... well, as she's constantly judging other people for being too 'emo', she just came off as being a big, mopey, unlikable hypocrite.

So... yeah. As I've just come to the realization that I intensely disliked both main characters, you might want to take this whole review with a grain of salt.

I'd seen quite a bit of positive chatter around the blogosphere about The Iron Witch, so, yes: I was disappointed. I think it'll go over best with those who unabashedly love Twilight.

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Booklist: Alchemy.

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Book source: ILLed through my library.

Comments

[Jackie Parker]

Buzz is becoming much less reliable, isn't it?

[Chrissy]

Dammit. This sounded promising until you got to the guy with the green eyes.

[Leila]

@Jackie: It's AMAZINGLY unreliable. And yet sometimes so convincing.

@Chrissy: I know you, and I guarantee that you, personally, would want to punch him.

[tanita]

Oof.
That last sentence: damned with faintest praise.

I thought I'd read something by this author before, and was horrified - and looked up Karen HEALEY, not Mahoney, and was vastly relieved.

Phew.

Kick me if I ever write someone whose eyes are both luminous and green. I mean, when I see those, I usually expect to hit brakes or else make roadkill...

[Leila]

@T: I made the same mistake! I kept thinking, "How could this be by the same person??" and then having to remind myself that it WASN'T. Weird, that: Not even the same initials or the same number of syllables, and we still had the same thought.