The Iron Flower (The Black Witch Chronicles #2)

Laurie Forest’s sequel to her 2017 debut The Black Witch extends the primary storyline and invokes new points of view to add to the epic scale of the conflict. Elloren Gardner is now firmly ensconced in the Verpacian resistance to encroaching Gardnerian rule. Her aunt has kept up the pressure for her to marry (wandfast) and the harassment of non-Gardnerians increases. Her small cadre of teen revolutionaries is secure and expanding, but Elloren finds herself caught between feelings for a boy she can’t be with, and her duty to the resistance. If she fasts to Lukas Grey, she might be able to turn him to the resistance, and make him a powerful ally. But her true feelings lie with Yvan, a Kelt whose secrets become harder to hide.

The action really heats up when the Gardnerian military cadets refuse to hide their prejudice, start riots, and attack members of the other races. Everyone makes an escape plan, and Elloren plans to stay behind to help whoever she can.

This book is an incredibly complex epic fantasy with an original take on fantasy races. There are so many reasons I wouldn’t like the Black Witch Chronicles: it’s YA; it uses stereotypical fantasy races like elves, dragons, selkies, amazons and so on; it’s overtly political, possibly even allegorical. But dig beneath the surface and you’ll find a well-written story with a compelling character and a compelling conflict at its heart. Thanks to Elloren’s hazy memories, we know she’s powerful, but she cannot access her power, leaving her at a disadvantage and feeling useless. The Iron Flower traces Elloren’s rise into her own power over the course of the Spring following the events of The Black Witch.

As for conflict, this is again, on the surface, the same conflict brought up by so many Tolkien-derived fantasy books of the nineteen-seventies and eighties, but Forest puts a twist on everything by introducing new races and giving unique qualities to the ones we’ve already heard of. At least two of the races, the icarals and the Gardnerians, are her own creations, and they are the most crucial. The final third of The Iron Flower reveals just how unique Forest’s creation is, and how far she has come in introducing and maintaining tension.

Laurie Forest knows how to build suspense, specifically tension, and Elloren’s growth to power is just one of the ways she does it. Other examples: what’s going to happen with Lukas Grey? What is the deal with Yvan? You’re going to find out. You may have your suspicions, but you’ll be surprised. And you’ll find all of that amid one of the most turbulent and troubling third acts I’ve read in a long time. Not predictable, not gentle. INTENSE.

The impression I had at the end of The Iron Flower (other than “WOW”) was this is an intense, complex epic masquerading as a YA fantasy drama. The choice of point of view gives an impression of the emotional intensity we expect for a teenage girl character (and yes, it verges on melodrama sometimes), but the conflict she’s embroiled in is huge, and she won’t be able to solve all these problems herself. At the end, we’re left with a character who’s embroiled further in the conflict, and further torn by the necessity of doing what’s right.

Read the book. It’s excellent.

4.5 Stars

It’s pretty darn hard to write this review without massive spoilers. But try, I shall.

The Iron Flower picks up Elloren Gardner’s story right where The Black Witch left off. Elloren remains at the University in Verpax, still sheltering Marina, a rescued Selkie, and rooming with her friends, Diana, a Lupine, and Wynter, and Ariel, who are Icarals. She still resists being wandfasted to Lukas Grey. And she is still drawn to the mysterious Yvan Guriel, who she’s beginning to think is hiding more than she previously realized. Her affinity lines continue to strengthen and her feel for power moves beyond just earth and fire. While her friend Amaz friend, Andras, and Ariel try to heal the rescued military dragon Naga, and Elloren ponders how to help her friend Tierney escape Council-mandated wandfasting and iron-testing, the unthinkable happens. Overnight, Marcus Vogel becomes High Mage on the Gardnerian Council and events are set into motion that will change Erthia forever. If you thought the sexism, racism, and hatred were bad before, you haven’t seen anything yet. Pogroms, genocide, and other atrocities begin to occur, all with the horrifying support of Elloren, Rafe and Trystan’s despicable Aunt Vyvian. Most importantly, the Shadow Wand appears at last. Its bearer comes as no surprise.

Against this backdrop of terror, with Mage Council Rulings one after another, each viler than the last, the Gardnerian Mage Council is poised to pass Vyvian’s edict that would result in the execution of all Selkies. Meanwhile, Elloren is shocked to find that Marina is learning to speak the Common Tongue and has quite a lot to say. Elloren also finds out that her childhood friend Gareth has Selkie heritage, and that even in a university town like Verpax there is a terrible sex-trafficking trade in Selkies. Someone needs to help the Selkies but that would mean returning them to the ocean with their skins. Marina needs the help of Elloren and her friends to rescue the captive Selkies but how on Erthia is the task to be accomplished? It’s going to require far more power than this group of student dissidents has at their disposal.

To try to find aid, Elloren is willing to risk leaving Verpacia in order to seek assistance for the Selkies in neighboring realms who are harboring other threatened groups like the Urisks, Fae, Kelts, and Smaragdalfen. While in Amaz she encounters her friend Sage, the Light Mage who gave her the White Wand, and who broke her wandfasting vows. Sage is hard at work trying to break the wandfasting spell that keeps her in constant pain, dulled to bearable levels by Amazian rune magic. (A point I can already see is going to be vitally important to Gardnerian women’s future. I can think of more than a few wandfastings that need to be broken ASAP.) Elloren ponders yet again what role she can play in opposing Vogel. As the action ramps up, she finds herself having to make the hard choice to appear more Gardnerian in order to best help her friends. That path is fraught with danger since she looks so much like her infamous grandmother, the Black Witch, but appears to have none of the actual power of Carnissa Gardner to safeguard herself. Elloren is equal to the task as she begins to fight for everything she believes in. There are sorrows and losses in this book, but they only strengthen Elloren’s resolve.

While I enjoyed this second book, I did feel that some of the plot points were less smoothly handled. There were plenty of further daring adventures with the varied band of friends. (Elloren’s journeys, especially to Amaz, were fascinating. Forest’s world building is just terrific. Even her choice of names provides delight.) There was also genuine horror. But I was less enamored of the love interest dynamic in this book and thought that if Elloren and her paramour said just one more time that they couldn’t, shouldn’t be together I was going to pass out from all the eye-rolling I was doing. We all knew how this was going to go and a good hundred plus pages of “we shouldn’t, oops! we can’t, oops!” was getting mighty old by the end. Also, the two big reveals of the book come in such short order, in the last twenty pages of the book, and at least one of them just felt unrealistic, since if Elloren saw him so unguarded, anyone could have? The other, well… if you haven’t been expecting that since the beginning of the first book, you haven’t been paying attention. I guess I was just expecting something with a bit more gravitas and I’m still wondering how it never happened before (because spoilers).

Many things are still unresolved, not least of which is what Jules and Lucretia aren’t telling Elloren about the fate of her parents. They clearly know something that Elloren and her brothers don’t. And I have a few other questions, especially about that famous prophecy. Don’t you ever wonder why the prophecy doesn’t say anything about the White Wand and the Shadow Wand? I do. I want to read original prophecy and know more about who prophesied it. Because if history is written by the victors, it seems like prophecies are subject to the same kind of bias.

The Black Witch Chronicles continues to be a series that encourages young people to learn as much as they can about everything and everyone they can and to fight for what is right, while being pragmatic enough to know when they’ll need help doing so.

“The Wand knows you have her power in your blood. It chose you anyway.” – Sage Gaffney

I received an Uncorrected Proof of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Iron Flower by Laurie Forest is the ambitious second installment in the Black Witch Chronicles.

Words. Guys. Really. Laurie Forest is an incredible storyteller. Her masterful use of language to describe both physical setting and the personalities of the characters of the story cannot be overstated. Watching the scenes she describes come to life inside my head — this is real magic. Every building, every landscape, every emotion — it feels like you’re really there. A part of the story. And isn’t that what we really want when we sit down to read fiction? A completely immersive experience into another world?

In this second book, Forest builds upon the foundation of characters set out in book one (and the two prequal books – Wandfasted and Light Mage, which I also highly recommend). We delve deeper into the lives of Elloren Gardener and her University companions and watch their reactions as the world they know starts to spin out of control around them.

We also meet several new characters, who reveal even more complex lairs to the world of Earthia and the many races living there. The meticulous detail Forest includes as she unfurls this fascinating fantasy world is impressive. Each character’s story adds a different color to the intricately woven tapestry that is this epic tale.

Characters and events are starting to connect, as the reader begins to understand that there is so much more to the story than what’s on the surface. It’s clear that this all building to something much bigger, and the excitement and anticipation are both delicious and torturous.

The world Forest creates is both breathtakingly magical and heartbreakingly cruel. This book will take you on an emotional ride. But it is so, so worth it. Bring on book three!

I often diapause if finding things that are well written. I came across the first book earlier in the year and really enjoyed it. I think its refreshing to have a heroine who isnt a teenage nightmare ball of contradictions. This series stands out because of the quality of the writing. The sequel does not disappoint. Well constructed and quality of writing that is ( in my view unmatched in young adult even by ACOTAR series) the story is really good and it expands the world building. Great threads drawn together by the author from the prequel ( also good) and the original novel. Charachters that you care about. Who is right when wrong has been done in all sides? We know that sequel novels can be often a source of disappointment ( thinking of ACOWAR & ACOFAS) but none of that here. I really like the historical nods and the handling of other cultures. Very much Looking forward to the next one!!

I love this series. At times it seemed a bit slow..but the good points outweigh the slow pace. I’m kinda torn with how Lukas is written, i really like him and feel like hes getting the short end of the deal despite the fact hes a fun character who had me speeding past pages to get to scenes hes in. I think i’m Team Lukas at the moment despite his flaws.

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