Zooloo's Book Tours | The Iron Fists by A.G. Charon

Hello all!

Today, I am joining the fantastic

again to spotlight some new books. The book I am looking at is The Iron Fists by A. G. Charon.

This was a surprise of a book for me, so I will get on and tell you about it.

Book Blurb

Long ago there were six species: the Shadows, Gods, Beasts, Dragons, Humans, and Rebels.

The humans locked them away to gain power of the world. When a nihilistic, Mexican young adult girl is summoned into the world beneath our own she discovers her true power and purpose alongside The Iron Fists who are dead-set on overthrowing the overlord who terrorizes them.

Her lies get her in the door, but it is her resilience and growth that makes her essential to the cause.

Devastation and death expose the nature of each character’s soul as some rise to greatness overcoming otherworldly challenges, mystical curses, and their status as underdogs while others reveal their true colours and betray the ones they claim to love.

As one of the few survivors of the War of the Six Species, an in memory of my deceased friends, it is my duty to tell you about the incidents that took place before the world you know came to be.

All of these happened thousands of years ago before the continent broke into six pieces and my friend destroyed the second moon. So. if you want to learn the bittersweet truth about your world, this is the book for you; if not, then you can always read the plain lies of your history books

Ok, full disclosure! I wasn’t sure about this book. I knew absolutely nothing about it and I had preconceptions in relation to what it was about.

However, this book surprised me, and I ended up actually gobbling this book up in two extended bites. Yep, to say there were those things there, I sat down with this book with a little trepidation and ended up falling in love with this tale of revolution, friends and family.

The story takes place in a rather hazily built world of Pangea at a time of unrest. We are introduced to our main character Iris Mahoufort and her family in the first chapter, prior to their house being bombed by the powers that be and subsequently leading to her and her two siblings becoming dispossessed. The siblings attempt to make their way in the world, but unfortunately they get split up and Iris has to make her own way in the world.

When we meet Iris, she is twenty years old, unhappy, alone and living in Izdar, a dull city with tropical weather and lots of mangos. As you can imagine, after experiencing the things that she has, she is not really that happy and suffers from PTSD. She works in a padlock shop and she saves up her money to buy chocolate, her favourite food (isn't it everyone's, except if you are one of those people who likes….savoury things!).

We get the impression that there is something different about Iris Mahoufort. She is regularly called names and her differences pointed out in the street.

One day at the local chocolate shop she meets a stranger which leads her into an adventure and ghosts from her past.

Like I said, I loved this book and following the adventures that Iris Mahoufort finds herself in.

I fell utterly head over heels with the vibrancy of this story. There is definitely a Latin American flair to this story that just brought sunshine into this book. Don't get me wrong, this book is not happy, but then again it is, especially as we watch Iris grow and move out of her solitary existence. Not only that I wa entranced by AG Chacon's prose. It just seemed to zip along, flipping your emotions. From one minute from Iris's melancholia to utter joy.

The book is full of magic, with the system revolving around 'Shadow Stones'. Each one having different attributes, and when she meets The Iron Fists, the leaders of the rebellion, we learn that they tend to give the user something which is part of their personality.

The world in which the characters inhabit is vibrant. We learn that there are six different ‘districts’, although we only meet two in this book, Pangea and the Shadow world, which kind of resembles Dante’s nine circles of Hell.

I have to say that this book was an absolute pleasure to read, full of characters that you want to spend time with, rich and well realised world building and zingy, vibrant prose.