Review - "Iron Cast"

Iron Cast
by Destiny Soria
rating:☆☆☆☆☆
published: 11th October 2016
spoilers? yes

Goodreads

More than anything, she wanted to kiss him. He was so bright and beautiful and vulnerable in the daylight. But she couldn't let herself.

Galley provided by publisher

Hands down, this is one of the best books I've read this year. Perhaps I found it a little slow, up until about the halfway point, and was thinking of rating it only 4 stars, but then it burst into life. There were so many twists and turns that I didn't see coming, and I was emotionally drained by the end.

Iron Cast is set in Boston in 1919, in a world where there exist 'hemopaths' - people with powers to create illusions, manipulate memories, and various other things, based on poetry or music or painting. Following a con where a politician ended up losing $2,000, the use of these powers is outlawed and the Hemopath Protection Agency is set up, ostensibly to register and protect hemopaths, but more often than not they pick up hemopaths and take them to Haversham Asylum. In the city however, there remain clubs where hemopaths put on shows. The main characters, Ada and Corinne, are members of the Cast Iron club, one such place. Then the club owner, Johnny Dervish, is killed and suddenly they are no longer safe.

I honestly don't know how to review this book. It was so amazing and I loved pretty much everything about it. The setting was so unique and interesting - it reminded me a little of The Diviners (but almost in reverse because hemopaths are persecuted in this) and The Great Gatsby (which I hate but love the setting of). Fantasy like this, based in the real world but in the past, is my favourite kind, really.

Beyond the setting, the characters were amazing too. Maybe they could have done with a little more fleshing out. In some cases, it seemed that the reasons behind their doing things (like Corinne moving to the Cast Iron club) were a little bit subtext rather than being explicitly stated (which, I guess is OK as the reader, it's just when she was talking to Gabriel about things that it felt slightly off). Other than that, they were all brilliant, and I probably cried a few times over them but I'm not admitting to anything. I would have liked Corinne and Gabriel to end less openendedly but it made sense in the context of the story, so I'm not complaining too much.

Then there are the plot twists. Not one of them I saw coming - each and every one was a (usually unwelcome) shock. And they went on right to the end. I don't think I've read many books that have had so many twists in such quick succession and I've not been able to see any of them coming.

Overall, this book was amazing and everyone should read it, basically.