The Iron Thorn

Gr 7 Up—For Aoife Grayson, the prospect of going mad is a reality she'd rather not face in Caitlin Kittredge's steampunk novel (Delacorte, 2011) set in post-World War II Massachusetts. The necrovirus is blamed for all sorts of evils, including her family's hereditary madness. As she nears her 16th birthday, the age when her mother and brother went mad, she discovers that her brother has gone missing. Escaping from Lovecraft, a city controlled by the Proctors whose reliance upon science and reason have created a nationalistic and near totalitarian world, Aoile sets out to find him at her family's ancestral manor, Graystone. with her best friend Cal and a roguish rebel Heretic named Dean in tow. She discovers that Graystone contains the key to a family secret beyond what she ever imagined. Is the madness real or a cover for a magical, but very real world? Katie MacNichol tackles the author's complex combination of steampunk and dark fantasy with moderate success. Her timing is spot-on, but her voicing of the male characters is not up to par. The story's plot is complicated with many twists and turns, and there's so much going on that many listeners will find themselves lost halfway through. Those who persevere to the abrupt ending, however, will look forward to a sequel to help explain the world and Aoife's role in it.—Necia Blundy, Marlborough Public Library, MA