Review: The Nightmare Garden

Author: Caitlin Kittredge
Series: Iron Codex #2
Pages: 417
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 3/5

Summery:
Everything Aoife thought she knew about the world was a lie. There is no Necrovirus. And Aoife isn't going to succumb to madness because of a latent strain—she will lose her faculties because she is allergic to iron. Aoife isn't human. She is a changeling—half human and half from the land of Thorn. And time is running out for her.

When Aoife destroyed the Lovecraft engine she released the monsters from the Thorn Lands into the Iron Lands and now she must find a way to seal the gates and reverse the destruction she's ravaged on the world that's about to poison her.

Review:

After reading and loving the first book in this series, The Iron Thorn, I had really high expectations for this book.  Sadly, it fell short for me.

When I read the summery for this book, I was like, Okay, looks interesting.  This should be an exciting read because The Iron Thorn was that great.  But, the story didn’t really get going until literally half way through the book.  Everything before that was all just pointless nonsense that, while thrilling, didn’t work.  If those events had happened after Kittredge introduced the point of the story, to find the nightmare clock, it would have been fine.  But looking back, it was pointless to have Aoife run back to Lovecraft to get her mom.  It didn’t help the book in any way, except maybe to add fifty pages to it.  And, while the writing was still amazing, I didn’t feel like this book was as complex as The Iron Thorn.  You guys don’t understand, I LOVE The Iron Thorn because it was fast-paced and thrilling, but this book had none of that really.  The ending was a snooze-fest that lasted this long *snaps fingers*.  And then, on the very last page, the very last page, Kittredge slips in at the last minute a little tidbit so that she can write a third book.  That’s bull-crap.  You had three hundred pages to develop a sequel, and you save it for the last page, where, I must admit, it’s pretty obvious what you were trying to do.  So, to me, that was a hugely epic fail at staging for a third book.

Like in the first book, I really really like Aoife.  She’s so strong and kick-butt and she really has a smart mouth, which I really like because I do too.  She’s just like a little fire-cracker and I love that.  I just hope she doesn’t turn wimpy in the third book.

Once again, like in the first book, I.  LOVE.  DEAN!  Love love love love love Dean.  He’s so cute and sexy and totally cool.  Why oh why can’t he be real?

And then there are the bad characters I don’t like.

Conrad would have to be my first pick.  I jus don’t like him.  He’s such a jerk.  He tries to control everyone and won’t let anyone get a word in edgewise.

I also don’t like Aoife’s father, Archie.  Seriously, I think that, in real life, if she had spent more time with him, she would be some weakling who has no self-esteem.  Archie tears her down all the time, saying “You’re not strong enough.  You can’t hold your own in a fight.  You’re useless.”  What the heck man?  She’s your daughter.  You should support her, not tear her down.  I’m sorry, but I just don’t like this guy.

So, sadly, this book was nowhere near as amazing as The Iron Thorn.  This book is pretty much everything The Iron Thorn isn’t, and that’s not very good because The Iron Thorn was amazing.

What do you guys think?