Full of nostalgia - lacking in originality...
I always have and always will love The Iron Fey books. And I love Julie Kagawa for making this amazing universe filled with such great characters. And I definitely want her to keep writing books in this series as long as she has stories to tell. But that's the issue for me. This didn't feel like Kagawa had a story to tell. It didn't feel new or fresh to me. Finally we get Puck's story, but it just didn't do him the justice he deserves. It was definitely not a bad book, don't get me wrong. It's just that I know that Kagawa is capable of so much more!
"[...] my best laid plans always seem to backfire on me,
so better not to have any to begin with." - Puck
👍 What I Liked 👍
Puck: I will always love Puck! He is so full of mischief and fun, it's hard not to like him. Sometimes he walks the line between what's acceptable and what's not, but that's part of his charm. There were some aspects, however, of Puck's character that I did not enjoy in this book (see below) but I am still so happy that he finally gets a story of his own, because he definitely deserves that!
Nostalgia: The nostalgia was definitely strong with this one. I was 19 or 20 when I read the original trilogy and I fell instantly in love. The characters, the universe, the magic - it ticks all my boxes. And I always enjoy a dose of nostalgia, which this book certainly delivered. We get back to the Nevernever and get to meet Grimalkin, Meghan, Kierran and Ash again. I think that was the highlight of this book for me.
👎 What I Disliked 👎
Repetition: This word covers a lot of aspects of this book. First - Puck exhibits a lot of repetitive thought patterns that got quite old as the story went on. Second - the themes of this book seemed very repetitive of the themes in earlier books. I wanted this story to stretch and take me somewhere new. Sadly, that didn't happen.
Not far enough: The whole book is such a tease. It built up to something that never happened. (view spoiler) So the entire buildup just fizzled into nothing, making a large part of this book feel unnecessary.
