The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge

#1 in the Iron Codex series
Published February 22, 2011 by Delacorte Books
4 Stars


Goodreads Review
In the city of Lovecraft, the Proctors rule and a great Engine turns below the streets, grinding any resistance to their order to dust. The necrovirus is blamed for Lovecraft's epidemic of madness, for the strange and eldritch creatures that roam the streets after dark, and for everything that the city leaders deem Heretical—born of the belief in magic and witchcraft. And for Aoife Grayson, her time is growing shorter by the day.
Aoife Grayson's family is unique, in the worst way—every one of them, including her mother and her elder brother Conrad, has gone mad on their 16th birthday. And now, a ward of the state, and one of the only female students at the School of Engines, she is trying to pretend that her fate can be different.

Review:  The Iron Thorn was my first jump into a real Steampunk novel, and I loved the world it created.  I honestly wish it was a movie because I wanted to see Lovecraft and how the city worked as well as the fashions of the people living in it.  This is definitely the strongest part of the book for me.  The fantastic world building which includes one of my favorite settings, mansions with hidden passages and rooms!  It's totally awesome.

I also really enjoyed the characters.  First off, Aoife (pronounced EE-fa) is a fantastic name for a fantastic character. Lets just hold up for a minute and recognize that this girl is an ENGINEER!  HOLLA!  Being an engineer myself, it was absolutely awesome to read a character like me!  We aren't just told that Aoife is smart, we see her intelligence when she creates solutions to problems like a lady Macgyver.  There's a lot of sexism in Lovecraft's society, and I like how Aoife starts to stand up for herself and is all "You know what?  Women can be smart AND hot and STILL save the day!"  I also loved the swoon worthy Dean.  Like for serious, he is a fantastic hottie bad boy.  Their romance developed at a good pace and, yes I'll say it, smoldered all over the place. 

Now onto what disappointed me a bit.  If you took out the fantastic steampunk elements, I would have to say this story is not very imaginative.  It's got a very generic adventure story plot.  Girl and friend and hot boy go off to save something, run into problems, discover a much greater problem, go on mission to solve it, almost get thwarted by bad guy, beat the bad guy at the last minute, but then something totally unexpected happens and cliffhanger ending.  I really enjoyed the story up until the fey were introduced.  I just don't see why they had to be in the story.  I would have been down for the "weird" magic, but I didn't want it to go that far into fairytale, I wanted it to stay more science fiction.  I also didn't really like what happened to Cal, it felt too convenient of a twist that was too forced.

Overall The Iron Thorn is a great introduction to the steampunk genre, but still has a bit of magical fun for people who like a little fantasy.  While the story can be paced a little slow and some of the magic lore a bit confusing, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes alternative histories with beautiful imagery.