Review: Ironskin by Tina Connolly

Ironskin
(Ironskin #1)

Author: Tina Connolly

Publication Date: October 2nd, 2012

Publisher: Tor Books

Genre: Fantasy / Retelling

---

Synopsis:

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.

It’s the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin.

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a "delicate situation"—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.

Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn’t expect to fall for the girl’s father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her own scars, and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey.

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things is true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of her new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

My Thoughts: Ironskin is a very unique take on the fey. I really enjoyed reading this one and love that it's a retelling of Jane Eyre. I found myself constantly trying to think about how what was going on compared with the classic, which probably wasn't a good thing for me to be doing. I'm not really sure what time period it was based in, I believe it was a steampunk environment in the Victorian era, but the steam technology wasn't  really a huge thing yet. Humans had been relying on fey technology for years, until there was a war which resulted in them losing the fey technology as the fey disappeared. So the humans needed to create their own technology.

Jane, who is quite similar to Jane Eyre (obviously), was injured during the Great War. She was curse by a fey bomb and now wears an iron mask over the scarred part of her face to suppress the curse. The curses make all of those around the curse feel strong emotion, whatever their curse is. Jane is cursed with rage, so everyone around her becomes angry, therefore she covers it up to keep that from happening. She has a hard time holding a job as a governess, that is until she goes to help Dorie, who has a strange curse of her own. Dorie's father is Edward Rochart, a mysterious man. Jane finds herself falling for him, but who could love someone so ugly and cursed as her? She is a strong character, when you get to the end she really proves just how strong she is *shudder*. She's a great heroine and I felt bad for her most of the time because her life isn't easy. She finds herself in the end and does everything she can to help those she loves.

Tina Connolly has done a wonderful job creating a unique fey in this world. The fey don't have a solid form of their own, they are mostly made up of energy and lights, but they can take over a dead human body if they kill it. They still take people to their world to entertain them, but I just found them very intriguing. There are more creatures in her world other than the fey, mythical creatures that no one really believes in. I'm not sure why they don't when the fey are obviously real and have attacked them. This is a great retelling and if you are a fan of Jane Eyre and enjoy fantasy, I think you would really enjoy this. Even if you haven't read Jane Eyre, you'll still probably really enjoy this. It's definitely a story to watch out for and one that I will be recommending for sure!