Review: Iron Crowned

Iron Crowned by Richelle Mead
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So when I picked this up I had no idea it was the third in a series - nothing on the book makes that clear! - and even thought the author makes a pretty good job of catching you up to speed in the first few chapters, it's not a good book to jump right into.

Mostly because the main character comes off as SUCH A DOUCHE. She's like "mg poor me I'm queen of the fairyland but I don't have to do any boring ruling stuff and it's SOOO hard to have to wear pretty dresses and be adored and shit". And like "Oh here's my minion, he's a creature of the underworld that I've enslaved" and "here's my younger sister, I've locked her up in a dungeon with magical handcuffs on because she's really dangerous". Maybe the sister is really dangerous, I don't know, but when I'm introduced to a character who complains about being a queen and has enslaved creatures and a sister who is inprisoned??? YEah, I'll have a hard time liking her.

And apart from the original quest, all her latter problems have like ... really easy solutions?? That anyone could figure out, but it's still treated as this big surprised. Especially her last problem, at the end of the book, I honestly don't see a good reason why she shouldn't take the easy way out there, I just don't. But maybe my political views on the matter just differs from her.

Also, UUGGGHHH, so much rape??? Not in this book, but apparently in the earlier once and no, thanks. Especially when her boyfriend in this book is so "controlling" and basically tells her that if she resses a certain way, well, what does she expect him to do and she should be thankful he didn't take her right in front of his court. WHO SAYS THAT TO A RAPE SURVIVOR!? I mean come the fuck on.

And I'm not a fan of heroines that HAS to have a boyfriend all the time. Okay, so one guy dumped you? It's not actually necessary for you to get back with your ex immediately afterwards. Yu can just chill and be single for a while: it's allowed.

It sounds like I hated it, but I didn't. I liked the world. I love magical portals taking people back and forth between the real world and fairyland. I like seeing people work with banishing supernatural creatures in our world. I will probably pick up the earlier books in the series, but that won't keep me from finding lots of flaws in this one. Sure, some might have made more sense had I read the other books, but some will not.

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