Review of The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney

Freak. That’s what they called seventeen year-old Donna Underwood in high school after a horrific fey attack that killed her father when she was just a child. Her injuries and rehabilitation resulted in magically enhanced strength, thanks to the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. As a child of the alchemists, she is both blessed and cursed with a magical heritage that permeates her life with duty and sacrifice. Now, after ten years of wishing for a normal life, she finally has to accept her role in the centuries-old war against the darkest outcasts of Faerie: the Dark Elves. Aided by a gorgeous half-fey dropout, Donna must race to save her best friend’s life – even if it means betraying the secret of immortality and confronting the very thing that destroyed her family.

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How gorgeous is that cover? It has a slightly Steampunk feel to it, no? And the pages smell amazing. End of positive comments...

Donna's journal entry sounded promising but then everything went downhill. Donna goes to a party she doesn't want to go because her friend wants her to go. I wouldn't mind that but she then proceeds to moan for the next few pages about her miserable she is. Donna seems to think she's above everyone because she has magic and she's different. Escaping the party she meets Xan, a guy with quite possibly the stupidest name ever. Xan's different too, if you can call sitting on a rooftop smoking different. When she leaves, she bumps into Nav who, understandably was worried about her after see disappeared. But, being a total b word that she is, she just brushes him off, too busy thinking about Xan. And so the story progresses...

Donna is branded with iron tattoos, so she wears gloves to cover them up. Naturally people are curious so she uses this excuse to moan some more about how awful her life is. Someone grabbed her in a corridor and tried to take her gloves off and she completely freaks out – that's hardly a life-threatening situation is it? Kids are curious. Some freaky tattoos and super-strength are hardly a disability that would hinder your life but she seems to think it is. I'd like to take her to meet actual disabled people, she how she copes there. Or cut her legs off, then she'd have something to complain about. I feel sorry for Nav, but I honestly can't see why he's her friend. He's worried about her, so he follows her. His reward? She shoves him to the floor.
Thankfully the book gets better later on and Donna slowly becomes less annoying. I'd go as far as to say that the plot becomes intriguing.

3/5