I dunno what happened within a year, but I just wasn't feeling this book, I got so bored, that by the end I could barely tell you what had happened in the book, The main character just really vexed me, And I have no idea what she accomplished in this book, I went about fifty percent of the way, not sure of where the book was going, And by the end she hadn't even accomplished anything, she just managed to make things worse, So on the whole plot facet of this book, I just couldn't like it,
As for the writing, I did quite understand why it was written the way it was, To me the setting felt like it was at least fifty years before now, but the writing sure didn't show it, Other than the say, "stone and sun", there was barely an indication of the way they spoke, Rather it seemed like they were speaking as if they were from thest century, given the slang they were using,
As for the characters, the main character irritated me to no end, I just couldn't buy what she was selling, Just, arghhhh.
This is the second book in the Iron Codex series by Kittredge, This third book is supposed to be titled, The Mirrored Shard, and from what I could find is scheduled for a late/earlyrelease, I absolutely loved the first book and couldn't wait to read the second, In this book we venture into the Mists and get to meet the secret Brotherhood that Aoife's father was part of, I love the world and the characters created in this series although I was a little disappointed that Aoife kept making the same mistakes over and over again.
Aoife has destroyed the Great Engine, unintentionally loosing the monsters of the Thorn faerie lands into the Iron lands our world, She is forced to flee into the Mists with her brother, Cal, Dean, and Bethina, Eventually Aoife meets up with her father back in the Iron land, She finally decides that rather than slowly go insane in the Iron land waiting for her father to do something, she is going to take matters into her own hands and try to find the Nightmare Clock.
With the Nightmare Clock she should be able to turn back time and mend the world,
I know a lot of people are upset that Aoife makes the same huge mistakes in the second book that she does in the first.
In a way though I kind of liked this, it made the story ironic and makes Aoife a perfect tragic heroine of sorts, I love Aoife's blend of toughness, rashness, tenderness, and vulnerability, This blend makes her a very realistic character, The fact that she makes her decisions out of a wellintentioned need to protect those she loves makes the whole story all that more gothic and tragic.
I continue to absolutely love this world, In this book we get to venture deeper into the Mists and deeper into the land of Thorn, We also join the characters on a trip to the Brotherhood's icy and distant headquarters, The worlds are beautifully described and absolutely came alive for me, I was sucked into these worlds and really want to read more about them,
I enjoyed most of the characters as well, There are no simple characters in this story they all have tragic backgrounds and complicated motives, Dean is another favorite of mine he continues to be supportive and respective of Aoife in a way that makes me just love him, Cal also continues to be a wonderful addition to the story,
I will say that the story starts to a get a little ambiguous at parts, Especially as Aoife begins to teeter on the edge of insanity again, sometimes it is hard to tell her dreams from her real actions, Some readers may not enjoy this, but I thought it was cleverly done and gives the reader an excellent feel for what Aoife is going through.
The end of the book is heartrending and ends on a super horrible cliffhanger, It had me dying to know what happens in the final book, The Mirrored Shard,
Overall I absolutely adored this book, I love the dark and gothic steampunk world that the story takes place in, I love Aoife's realistic personality and how she is a tragically flawed heroine, I love the supporting characters, I love the strange and unpredictable shifts in the plot and I love the new worlds we get to explore in this book, I highly recommend this book to steampunk and fantasy fans of all ages, Second in the Iron Codex steampunk series for young adults,
My Take
I'm half and half on this, Kittredge wrote a great story, but Aoife drove me nuts, She is such a typical chargeinandpaynoattentiontotheconsequences kid, I couldn't decide if I wanted to smack her or shoot her, She keeps charging into situations just to satisfy her own needs, She whines. Omigod, she whines on and on, Dork. She rushes off to rescue her mom without any planning, She runs away to find the Brotherhood of Iron and pays no attention to the signs that practically scream stay away when she gets to Innsbrook.
I think her dad is as much of a jerk as her brother, Honestly, the only two I like in this series are Dean and Cal, And Dean is the most decent one in this,
I just don't buy the reasoning Archie Grayson has for abandoning his children, For not telling them why they go nuts at, If Archie knows that Nerissa has fae blood and she's allergic to the iron in the cities, why doesn't he get Nerissa out of the city
I hate Aoife.
She whines on and on about how she shouldn't have listened to Tremaine, That he lied to her, So now she decides she can fix things by ignoring what Crow tells her because he's "too scared to see clearly" Andon what authority is she basing this decision And she just has to make the choice I'd like to "choice" her!
I did like the lanternreel of nightmares Aoife endured as she saw what scared her friends and family the most.
Lame endingno, I'm not talking about it as it might ruin it for you
The Story
At the end of sitelink Iron Thorn, the Winter Folk are coming to Graystone to take Cal, Aoithe, Dean, and Bethina, but Conrad shows up with the People of the Mist to rescue them and take them into the land of the Erlkin.
Only. There's a problem. Seems Conrad isn't too welcome, No one with fae blood is particularly welcome, Fortunately, an attack provides an opportunity for the four of them to escape, Even more for Aoife to escape into dreams, into nightmares,
A world that seems both too real and too fantastic and yet one that holds truth for Aoife, Then there's another kind of truth that Aoife finds back in Lovecraft, A new name. A rescue. Family members she doesn't want to know,
Too impatient, too untrustingfor which she does have reasonAoife runs, She believes the Brotherhood is her only chance to set things right, It doesn't matter what anyone says, It only matters what Aoife wants,
The Characters
Aoife Grayson and her brother Conrad are practically orphans what with their mother in the nuthouse.
But we learned in sitelink Iron Thorn,that it's not a virus that haunts them, that makes them go crazy when they turn sixteen.
And it seems that Aoife is the one who will be the new Gateminder
Archibald Grayson is her father and the fourteenth Gateminder.
And he came to Aoife's rescue when Draven imprisoned her, It seems he'll rescue her again and again Nerissa is their mother, Their insane mother. Valentina Crosley is Dad's girlfriend, Her father is Harold Crosley, a member of the Brotherhood of Iron, Turns out the Casey who helped in Lovecraft is an agent of the Brotherhood, A very unhappy one.
Calvin Daulton, a, k. a. , Carver, is really a ghoul! Aoife learned that Cal was only her friend because Draven forced him to spy on Conrad and Aoithe to save his own family.
Bethina is the maid left behind at Graystone, She's terrified of everything but desperate not to be alone and she's in love with the Cal she believes is human, Dean Harrison, a, k. a. , Nails, is halfErlkin with magic of his own, and he'll do anything for Aoife, Skip is a childhood Erlkin friend of Dean's, Not so much anymore. Shard is Dean's mother, She's also captain of Windhaven,
Grey Draven was the Head of the City and still plans to use Aoife to lure her father in, Only, he's managed to turn the disaster of the engine being destroyed into a plus for him, getting himself more power and is now in charge of the Proctors, a type of policeman and guard combined.
Tremaine is the Regent for the Winter Lands who lies, and doesn't care what he must do to get Aoithe to break the spell Grey Draven put on the Queens of Summer and Winter so the Thorn Land will live again.
Octavia is the Queen of Winter with some huge secrets and a deal to broker with Aoife,
Captain Rasputina Yelena Ivanova takes Aoife north in her submarine, the Oktobriana, Jakob is a fae spy planted by Tremaine, Crow is the man in her dreams, The one who keeps back the Great Old Ones,
The Crimson Guard were German witches and the enemy in the war, The Kindly Folk are the elves, fairies, Seelie and Unseelie those who met with the Gateminder, The Erlkin are looked down upon by the Kindly Folk, considered slaves, Ruled by the Wytch King, they are also called the People of the Mists,
The Cover and Title
The cover is dark, but in a warm way even as snow falls softly around Aoithe, A slightly thorny bit of wrought iron scrollwork encompasses the title,
The Nightmare Garden would be more appropriate as the nightmare clock since that's what this story is all about, Although, I suppose I am just a mite too unimaginative and Kittredge could be referring to all of Aoife's nightmares growing a garden of thoughts and ideas in Aoife's head.
Stupid ones Totally awesome!
Though, it wasn't as good as the first,
Just sayin'.
Before I start this review, I just wanted to clear something first, As excited as I was to finally read this book I totally loved The Iron Thorn, I sort of had a hard time reading it, But that wasn't the books fault not entirely, Mostly it was because I've been in a reading slump for the past week, I don't know why. Guess it could be because of all the school work, or I maybe it was because I was having a crappy week, So it really effected how I read this book, and the experience wasn't too pleasant, This book, like the first one, is heavy in the details, so it might not be a great idea to read it while you're stressed, But I'm going to try to review this book without all the crappy feelings I went through in the past week,
Ok, enough of me and my weird problems,
The Good
I kind of liked how we were never sure who the "bad guys" really are, Not every situation is black and white, Each group
of people had their own reason for wanting the Gates to be opened or closed, This would make me really confused in other books, but here, it just made sense, With that much power, there would be many people who want to manipulate it,
Loved the adventure! It was so much fun following Aoife into these other worlds The Mists, Innsmouth, and The Bone Sepulcher, One of my favourite parts had to be in The Mists, it was just so creepy!
The ending was so kick ass! Best part of the whole book.
Oh man, it was SO shocking,
The Bad
The plot was a little, . . disoriented. I mean, at first I wasn't even sure where the story was going, I thought it would be clearer later on, but it was even more confusing, It wasn't until the last part when there was finally some clue, Also, the way Aoife kept getting captured and escaping got boring after a while,
The romance had basically NO development, Which sucked because Aoife and Dean have so much chemistry to gether,
The InBetweens
Not a lot of development of the secondary characters, though I could see why, since the story was more about Aoife.
The Characters
Aoife's dark side comes out! And was she ever scary, I notice this happens a lot to the main female characters in YA Paranormal novels, how around the second book they become and mad and scary.
Anyways, Aoife did some really dumb things and boy, does she know it, yet I loved her determination to ten what she made wrong into a right.
That takes guts. Especially of you're dealing with the Fae folk,
Dean was Dean, Awesome as always. Always by Aoife's side even when she's bitchy.
Yay for Conrad! I was really looking forward to getting to know him in this book, And yeah, he was a jerk, And he didn't hide it, But I liked him. His and Dean's arguments were hiiiilarious!
Aaaaaand then there were the "bad guys", Tremaine cleverly creepy. Grey Draven EVIL and kind of crazy.
I wish Cal and Bethina had bigger roles, but oh well, Their relationship also needs to develop soon!
Reccommended
I wouldn't say this series is for everyone heck, I didn't even think that I would like it but if you were able to get through the first book, then you'll like The Nightmare Garden.
And now, with an ending like that, I desperately need the third book, GAH. .
Procure The Nightmare Garden (Iron Codex, #2) Expressed By Caitlin Kittredge Displayed In Manuscript
Caitlin Kittredge