Book Review / The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.

Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.

All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him.

So he tries his best to do his worst - and fails at failing.

Now the Magisterium awaits him. It's a place that's both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.

The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come . . .

Published:     7th September 2014
Publisher:  Scholastic Press
Author Website:  Cassandra Clare: Click here & Holly Black:  Click Here
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Book 1, Magisterium
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher
Review:   3 out of 5
 

My Review

What I loved about this story...
I really enjoyed the mystery and history of this story.  At the beginning of the story, you have a flashback to a 'great war' and out of that survives a baby.  Flash forward and you have the main character Callum who finds himself  going through the Iron Trial go get into the Magisterium and wanting to fail.  I really enjoyed him trying to fail at the different tests he is given and the way he chooses to try and fail, I found it so funny.  The unknown in this story was the big pull for me in this story, I  am definitely intrigued to find out more about Callum's past and also the history of the Magisterium.

What I was not fond of with this story...
Although I enjoyed reading this story, I did find it very predictable and there were very few things in the story that surprised me.  


 About the Authors     

Cassandra Clare was born overseas and spent her early years traveling around the world with her family and several trunks of fantasy books. 

Cassandra worked for several years as an entertainment journalist for the Hollywood Reporter before turning her attention to fiction. 

 She is the author of City of Bones, the first book in the Mortal Instruments trilogy and a New York Times bestseller. Cassandra lives with her fiance and their two cats in Massachusetts.

Holly Black is a best-selling author of contemporary fantasy novels for kids, teens, and adults. She is the author of the Modern Faerie Tale series (Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside), The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), and The Good Neighbors graphic novels (with Ted Naifeh) The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction, and The Curse Worker series (White Cat, Red Glove, and Black Heart). She is also the co-editor of three anthologies, Geektastic (with Cecil Castellucci), Zombies vs. Unicorns (with Justine Larbalestier), and Welcome to Bordertown (with Ellen Kushner). Her most recent works are the middle grade novel, Doll Bones, and the dark fantasy stand-alone, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret library.