Ironside: A Moders Faery's Tale by Holly Black
Ironside is the third novel of A Modern Faery’s Tale. It had been a faerly fairly long amount of time between reading the first two books, but I didn’t have a problem picking up where everything left off. It even helped me understand why Valiant was in the middle of these two books!
Kaye is unsure where she belongs in the world. She doesn’t know anything about the world she belongs to as a faery, yet she can’t get comfortable in the human world, even though she was raised there, because she isn’t human. Feeling sorry for herself she lets herself become drunk on faery wine at her boyfriend’s, Roiben’s, coronation. Since she is feeling so good she lets Roiben know how she really feels. In her deceleration Roiben sends her on a quest to prove her love, but the quest he requests is impossible to attain. (the quest he requests, say that five times fast) Kaye has to find a faery that can lie.
In the midst of it all Kaye tells her mother, the truth, that she is a faery, and of course that doesn’t go over well. Then there is the whole thing about the two faery courts being at war to deal with, Oh! And Kaye can’t see Roiben again until she has conquered her little quest. With the help of her friend Corny and a reappearance of Luis from Valiant, Kaye must detangle herself from the Seelie Queens web, and save herself and Roiben.
Whew! This is my favorite book of the three. Tithe was the first faery novel I read, well dark faery novel, so I had to figure out some of the faery terminology, like the whole glamour thing. Then being one of those people that love the likes of Meg Cabot and Sarah Dessen’s wholesome, leading ladies, I wasn’t used to seeing young characters drinking, doing drugs, just being so unwholesome! I mean whoa! But then that is what made these novels so cool and different and refreshing! I love the darkness and the edginess! I’m totally faery-punkified!