The Iron Raven by Julie Kagawa

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The Iron Raven by Julie Kagawa
The Iron Fey: Evenfall #1, The Iron Fey #8
Published by Inkyard Press on February 9, 2021
Age Group & Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Publisher

Wicked faeries and fantastic danger... Welcome to book one of the new trilogy in New York Times bestselling author Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey fantasy series, as infamous prankster Puck finally has a chance to tell his story and stand with allies new and old to save Faery and the world.

You may have heard of me...

Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Prankster, joker, raven, fool… King Oberon’s right-hand jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The legends are many, but the truth will now be known as never before, as Puck finally tells his own story and faces a threat to the lands of Faery and the human world unlike any before.

With the Iron Queen Meghan Chase and her prince consort, Puck’s longtime rival Ash, and allies old and new by his side, Puck begins a fantastical and dangerous adventure not to be missed or forgotten.

A copy of the book was provided for review purposes - thank you! Receiving a copy does not guarantee a positive review and therefore does not affect the opinion or content of the review.

Trigger & Content Warnings: on page suicide, fantasy battle

Julie Kagawa is truly feeding us Iron Fey fans with The Iron Raven because this just gives me an excuse to go back to the first YA series that got me into YA books and reread them all. And also continue my “Read Julie Kagawa’s books” agenda. I’m looking at you, Haley and a few others. This is the first in a new series (Evenfall) set in the same world as The Iron Fey and The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten and the best part is one of my favorite characters, Robin Goodfellow, is the main character. Cue internal screaming.

I highly, highly recommend reading the previous Iron Fey series before diving into The Iron Raven.

Honestly? You don’t have to. Kagawa does an excellent job summarizing what happened (which is also in part that Puck makes appearances in those too), so new readers to The Iron Fey world won’t be lost.

But as someone who has read both series, I definitely recommend reading those first to get a much better background of not just what happened, but also the characters and the world. I personally think it’ll be a better (and more enjoyable, if you want my opinion) experience since The Iron Raven alludes to quite a few events that are kind of sort of connected (hard to tell currently, though, with just one book) and continues to build on the world.

In addition, the story is also set not too long after The Iron Warrior, so without the background knowledge, it might feel a little disjointing since this novel doesn’t go too much with Puck’s companions that accompany him.

The Iron Raven is definitely feeding to the nostalgia.

The basic storyline is relatively the same and parallels the first in a few ways: familiar faces and characters will make a major appearance, there’s a journey across the NeverNever and there’s a prophecy involved. Depending on personal preferences, some people might feel this is repetitive, which I completely agree with, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless.

Kagawa also does away with the “My name is… and…” that starts off the books for the previous two series; quite frankly, that was a nice change since I recall getting a little tired of seeing that sentence repeatedly by the time I got to The Iron Warrior. And there are also a few new characters as well, including Nyx, an assassin who is silent, deadly and gets under Puck’s skin as quickly as she pulls out knives and gives comebacks to his comments.

Puck’s voice is enjoyable to read, with charm, humor and mischief that made him one of my favorite characters and the first series one of my favorites of all time. From the moment I found out The Iron Fey: Evenfall would be about Puck, I pretty much expected him to be up to shenanigans, and it was definitely delivered.

But with The Iron Raven, I feel Kagawa is also diving into Puck as a character and making him even more well-rounded. He’s still the same court jester of the Summer Court, but he has more depth to him that we never truly got to see in the previous books (mainly because he’s not the main character). And honestly? I really enjoyed having him as the protagonist. My only issue is that I wish he would’ve been darker and that we got to see him more as Robin Goodfellow before he became Puck since it’s mentioned quite a bit but doesn’t truly happen. However, considering this is the first in a new series, I think it’s a little too early for me to be judging that just yet.

Overall, I enjoyed the newest novel in The Iron Fey world.

I think at some point I may grow out of the series (considering the vast age difference when I first started), but as of right now, I loved going back into the NeverNever and seeing my favorite characters on the page. Ultimately, I’m just really excited with how Kagawa could take the series, and The Iron Raven feels like it’s just a taste of what’s to come in the remaining novels as we get more of Puck in this new era.