Whilst I don’t want my blog to fill up with young adult book reviews (doesn’t the blogisphere seem full enough of them already?), I did want to share a few thoughts about The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney.

Karen’s a British author so I was expecting Ironbridge to be the one in Shropshire which was pretty damn important in the history of the industrial age. Yes, it has a bridge made out of iron (the first of its kind) but was also the place where the technique of iron smelting was perfected. This resulted in a much cheaper way to produce iron. Personally, I’d think this would be a great location for a story about Fey, a creature with an aversion to iron. I can just imagine the back-story of how the Fey of Ironbridge were pushed out by the industrial revolution…

But no, the Ironbridge in this book is a generic American city. The author blurb does state that she wants to move to Boston one day so this might explain the desire to write for the American market. I’m sure the majority of younger readers are not going to care about a sleepy village in Shropshire either.

I liked the premise of the book and was glad that the Fey were of the evil variety that I’ve become accustomed to from some of my favourite series. I just didn’t feel it had enough oomph, therefore it gets a slightly weathered three iron stars.