Iced Review: An Uncool Love Triangle Ruins This Teen Heroine’s Story
breathe in, breathe out
No that was not for you. It was for me. I need some deep breathing because I need to calm down, gather my thoughts and tell you exactly what I feel about this book. However, the only hurdle here is that I understood not a thing that happened in this book. Really! I know this makes me sound dumb but that is how it is. After reading every single page in this book, I still don’t know what happened in it. It is not the first time this happened to me. I often feel this way for books that go bouncing off my head.
Before I get into the review let me tell you that I adore the Fever series. ‘Darkfever‘ was my first urban fantasy novel. Initially, I thought that the series had only five books, which I completed in 2016. I have to mention this here that I was blown away by all the books. I fell in love with Mac and Barrons. I read several other fantasy series after that but nothing really matched the Fever series for me. I started missing Mac and Barrons. So, early this year, I decided to start with the extended part of the series. When I got to know that book six is all about Dani I dropped the idea of picking up this part of the series. It was because Dani was the only character I hated in the entire series. I preferred the antagonists over Dani only because she was just plain annoying. I used to skim through pages where she spoke in the story. So, imagine reading a whole book on her. Ugh! I read several reviews of the book and noticed that majority of the fans slammed ‘Iced’. I’ll get to the reason why the book was slammed in the review part of this post but for now, let me tell you that those reviews had forewarned me of what was in the book. Since I missed Mac and Barrons badly, I decided to somehow get through this book to finally be able to read about my OTP in the next book.
I am now at the point where I have completed the most challenging task of getting through Dani’s story. I now stand at the door of book seven. However, before walking through the next door, I just want to reflect on what happened behind door six. After a lot of rumination, I finally have jotted my feelings about Iced and here is what I feel about it.
Iced by Karen Marie Moning
Publisher: Delacorte Press
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The year is 1 AWC—After the Wall Crash. The Fae are free and hunting us. It’s a war zone out there, and no two days are alike. I’m Dani O’Malley, the chaos-filled streets of Dublin are my home, and there’s no place I’d rather be.
Dani “Mega” O’Malley plays by her own set of rules—and in a world overrun by Dark Fae, her biggest rule is: Do what it takes to survive. Possessing rare talents and the all-powerful Sword of Light, Dani is more than equipped for the task. In fact, she’s one of the rare humans who can defend themselves against the Unseelie. But now, amid the pandemonium, her greatest gifts have turned into serious liabilities.
Dani’s ex–best friend, MacKayla Lane, wants her dead, the terrifying Unseelie princes have put a price on her head, and Inspector Jayne, the head of the police force, is after her sword and will stop at nothing to get it. What’s more, people are being mysteriously frozen to death all over the city, encased on the spot in sub-zero, icy tableaux.
When Dublin’s most seductive nightclub gets blanketed in hoarfrost, Dani finds herself at the mercy of Ryodan, the club’s ruthless, immortal owner. He needs her quick wit and exceptional skill to figure out what’s freezing Fae and humans dead in their tracks—and Ryodan will do anything to ensure her compliance.
Dodging bullets, fangs, and fists, Dani must strike treacherous bargains and make desperate alliances to save her beloved Dublin—before everything and everyone in it gets iced.
(Blurb as on Goodreads)
I LIKE Iced Because,
…I like Karen Marie Moning’s writing. The flair with which she builds her fantasy world is what attracts me most to her books. Though Iced lacked a strong plot, Moning still managed to keep me hooked till the last word.
I Do NOT Like Iced Because,
…I was unable to understand the whole point behind the book. Call me stupid but I won’t hide the fact that I never fully understood what was happening in the story. I could understand every page, but I did not get the actual reason behind the events that took place in the book. Why was the book about Dani? I get it that there is a crisis. A sudden new villain has been making his presence felt throughout the globe and Dani takes up the responsibility of eliminating him. I get the general premise but everything in the book was too confusing for me only because nothing substantial happened through a major portion of the story. It was either Dani blabbering non-stop or the two guys wishing for her to grow up so they could get into her pants. Which brings me to my next point.
…I did not enjoy the supposed love triangle. This is one reason why Iced received a lot of flak from readers. The lead protagonist cum superhero Dani is only 14-years-old. Now, this little teenager is blessed with certain powers that enable her to hunt dark fae that feed on humans. But Dani cannot really go to war with these scary creatures alone and needs guidance and support from others. From those helping her out, we have an immortal creature, Ryodan and the newly anointed Unseelie Prince, Christian. If Christian is more than a decade older than Dani, Ryodan is centuries older than her. Now, these two men along with the teenaged Dani form a ‘love triangle’ similar to V’lane, Barrons and Mac. There is another guy named Dancer but I’m not sure if his angle will get any importance in the following books. So, the biggest hurdle in this love triangle is Dani’s age. Two older men fighting for the attention of a teenager does not paint a pleasant picture. What makes it worse is that these men unabashedly bombard this little girl with their fantasies for her. They make it known to her that she would make a fine ‘woman’ and that they need to wait till she ‘grows up’. This may not be entirely fiction. We have sick pedophiles roaming around us but trying to romanticise it in a book is not a good idea. However, in an attempt at trying to understand Moning’s idea behind it, I even tried to ignore Dani’s age but her age was constantly thrown at me by Dani herself who kept mentioning it on every alternate page. I was a little okay with Dani getting beat-up by Ryodan because I felt that since Dani calls herself a ‘superhero’ a little beating here and there will only toughen her to face bigger monsters in the future. However, this whole love angle thing got a little cringey because, like a lot of other readers, I too did not find it appealing. Since I was aware of it before getting into the book, I was fully prepared and could sail through it. In fact, I was expecting much worse, but thankfully it was bad only to a certain limit.
Favourite Quotes in Iced
“You’ll never be just anything. A tsunami can never be ‘just’ a wave.”
“Get off my chin.”
“I like that about you. Waves are banal. Tsunamis reshape the Earth. Under the right circumstances, even entire civilizations.”
I blink.
“You’re going to be one hell of a woman one day, Dani.”
“This is exactly why I hate lies. The second you tell one, you know something everybody else doesn’t know and you have to constantly keep reminding yourself to behave like you don’t know it, so they don’t decide you’re acting weird and figure out you know something they don’t. If they do, they’ll back you against a wall and demand to know why you’re acting weird and you’ll say something stupid and they’ll use it to trip you up with. Then everything comes spilling out and you’re in ten kinds of trouble! It’s so much easier not to tell any lies to begin with.”
“Guilt is for losers. Guilt is for folks who have stupid things like regrets. I contemplate the notion that maybe regrets are a process of accumulation of time, as unavoidable as a closet full of clothes and more bags of them in the attic. Is accumulated baggage what makes people get old? If so, they need to clean out their fecking attics, send the stuff to consignment shops and remember how to walk around naked like kids, little bellies sticking out, always ready for a good laugh.”
“There are a few absolute no-brainer rules in my world. Real close to the top of this list is: if an Unseelie prince runs from it, I’m going to run from it, too. I’m not even going to ask any questions. I’m just going to vamoose with all my might.”
Final View: I could not identify with any of the characters in Iced. Though I saw this book till the end, I still don’t have any major recollection of a big event in the book. I am lost as far as the story is concerned. I do not see myself ever recommending this book to anyone. Especially not to a fan of the Fever series. If Mac and Barrons have lured you here then take my humble advice and jump straight to book seven ignoring this one.
You can check out Amazon.in for a discount on this book.
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