Ironskin [Kindle Edition]

Tina Connolly (Author)

Book Description

Jane Eliot wears an iron mask.

It's the only way to contain the fey curse that scars her cheek. The Great War is five years gone, but its scattered victims remain—the ironskin.

When a carefully worded listing appears for a governess to assist with a “delicate situation”—a child born during the Great War—Jane is certain the child is fey-cursed, and that she can help.

Teaching the unruly Dorie to suppress her curse is hard enough; she certainly didn't expect to fall for the girl's father, the enigmatic artist Edward Rochart. But her blossoming crush is stifled by her scars and by his parade of women. Ugly women, who enter his closed studio...and come out as beautiful as the fey.

Jane knows Rochart cannot love her, just as she knows that she must wear iron for the rest of her life. But what if neither of these things are true? Step by step Jane unlocks the secrets of a new life—and discovers just how far she will go to become whole again.

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A lyrical, beautifully crafted debut. I was particularly taken with the beautifully conceived strangeness of Connolly’s fey-touched, just-a-shade-away alternate magical England. A haunting exploration of the true price one must pay for magic, beauty, and love, Ironskin will stay with me for a long time to come.”
—M.K. Hobson, author of The Native Star

“Clever and romantic at the same time—no mean feat. A magical and entertaining waltz across the fairy forests and dark moors just a sideways step or two from Haworth Parsonage.”
—Ian R. MacLeod, author of Wake Up and Dream

“A gothic, eerie, and pitch-perfect retelling of Jane Eyre, in which the moors are haunted by menacing fae and the hero's secrets are steeped in magic. Ironskin kept me up past my bedtime and stayed with me long after the last page has been turned.”
—Leah Cypess, author of Mistwood

About the Author

TINA CONNOLLY lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and brand-new baby boy. Her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Fantasy, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Highlights Magazine, and the anthology Unplugged: Year’s Best Online SF 2008. Her Young Adult dystopia play, Witebox, will premiere in Portland in 2013. Connolly is a frequent reader for Escape Pod and Podcastle, and works as a face painter, which means a glitter-filled house is an occupational hazard. Ironskin is her first novel.

www.tinaconnolly.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 461 KB
• Print Length: 305 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0765330598
• Publisher: Tor Books (October 2, 2012)
• Sold by: Macmillan
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0087OSSFU
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #145,721 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars My Life is a Notebook Reviews: Ironskin October 2, 2012

By Gretchen @ My Life is a Notebook

Format:Hardcover

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor/Forge for the ability to read this eARC!

There are books that I would die to have enjoyed completely, and this is one of them. Sadly, it fell short of my expectations.

In case you didn't already realize, this book is a fey/steampunk retelling of Jane Eyre-you know, that book by Charlotte Bronte we all had to read in school. Jane Eyre was a school book that I actually didn't mind, surprisingly, and I had high hopes for the awesomeness that could come out of adding fantasy elements.

For much of the book, however, it seems like Connelly stays too close to its original text. The names are hardly changed (not a big deal, but still) and the biggest part for me is that Ironskin reads just as slow as Jane Eyre did for a majority of the text. Retelling or no, this is still a YA book and people still want a faster pace than classic books-that's why I read YA, at least.

My biggest problem was characterization. I never connected with Jane as a character-she was far too stiff all the time. Worse, she all of a sudden simply decided she was in love with Mr. Rochart without ANY kind of connection being made between them at all. This Mr. Rochart is more absent and strange than the one in Jane Eyre, and that's saying something. Several other decisions and plot points were also simply made without any preamble or reasoning, and that bothered me to no end. Much of the story seemed to happen without much reason other than that it had to happen for the sake of the story.

I did, however, greatly enjoy the idea behind the story. This retelling was far more interesting than the original. However, the plot holes that were left in several places continued to irk me throughout the book. I can't ask many of the questions I wish without giving away the plot, but I found myself at least mildly confused throughout the entire novel.

So why the 3 1/2 star rating, then? Because of the idea. This refreshing, interesting idea that-yes-wasn't fleshed out to all its credit. Also, towards the end of the novel, the pace picked up greatly and was actually exciting. If Connolly had put that kind of pacing into the first three-fourths or so of the novel, I would have been much more invested. Also, moving towards the end, the story began to depart more and more from it's very serious Jane Eyre parallels that were present in the beginning. I kept waiting for key plot points of Jane Eyre to crop up, some with dread (St. John, anyone?), but fewer of them actually came up, and when they did they were decidedly different from the original text. The end of Ironskin did not entirely make up for the beginning, but it did make the rating of this book much higher than I thought it would be.

All in all, though I enjoyed Ironskin, I wanted more from it than I was given. Perhaps this book requires more love for the classics than I have, or more patience, but I consistently felt like I was being let down by all the potential it most certainly had. The end of the book was a great deal more exciting than the beginning, but in truth I was lucky to make it that far. I have put the second Ironskin novel, currently untitled and due out in 2013, on my TBR list just because I'm curious to see where Connolly will take this story now that she's exhausted Jane Eyre. Perhaps being freed from that model will open up more of the story's potential.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Jane Eyre + Fey October 5, 2012

By Sarah

Format:Hardcover

Cursed by the fey war, Jane wears an iron mask to contain the curse and to hide her scar.
She takes up a job for Edward Rochart. Being governess to Mr. Rochart's daughter is not what she thought it would be.

This is a retelling of Jane Eyre, which I have not read, so I can't compare how alike the two are, but I do know what the book is about.

The cover! Yeah it's amazing, but everyone knows how I like my covers! I liked the Gothic atmosphere of it, and the beginning was promising, but it sort of slowed down and went downhill form there. The last half of the book stood at a standstill for me. I was confused and found myself rereading pages back. There was nothing wrong with the heroine Jane. And I liked Dorie somewhat, I liked the interactions between Jane and Dorie. It was the romance didn't do it for me, it was weird and creepy.

I don't know if I'm going to be picking up the next book.
You might enjoy it if you like classics.

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGally for this ARC.

2.5 out of 5

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Ironskin October 2, 2012

By Book Flame

Format:Hardcover

2.5 Stars

I had such high hopes for this book, the cover the blurb everything screamed this has to be a 5 star book but no not the case. I was a little disappointed the book had so much potential especially with that blurb but in the end it didn't live up to it entirely. Also if you have read Jane Eyre this is a retelling... a very loose retelling.

The book starts off letting us know that the Fey war has been over for the past five years. We are introduced to Jane who has to wear an iron mask since she was struck with the shrapnel's of a fey bomb and in turn she is cursed with rage and the iron mask keeps her curse in check. The people who wear ironskin are looked down upon and Jane has a hard time keeping a job until she gets the chance to work in the home of Edward Rochart who has a fey cursed child.

I was expecting a fast paced thrilling read, what I wasn't expecting was to be bored for the first half of the book. The majority of the book was Jane trying to teach the child (Dorie) how to stop using her powers and use her hands to do things. I was tempted to mark this as dnf but I was stubborn, I was determined to see this one to the end and I'm actually glad I did, it got a lot better in the second half. It was more fast paced and we finally had other interesting characters to read about. I was expecting romance but there wasn't much and what did develop did not seem believable. Jane and Edward barely saw each other, didn't have much interaction but somehow fell in love.

I did like the world building it was done very well, I was able to really picture it all with vivid detail. I really liked the fantasy aspect of the world. I also actually really liked Jane. She is half the reason I continued reading when I normally would have put this one aside, she wasn't a damsel in distress when things got tough and chaotic she took action.

Overall this book was not for me, There were a few things I liked but not enough to where I want to pick up the second book when it comes out.