Ironside, by Holly Black

Fans of Holly Black’s earlier books will be delighted to find that her new novel, Ironside, picks up shortly after Tithe ends and features many of the characters in Valiant. As Ironside opens, Unseelie king-to-be Roiben’s coronation is approaching, and changeling Kaye decides that it’s time to declare her love for him. Unfortunately, tradition demands that she prove her feelings by completing a quest—and when Roiben sets an impossible goal for her, Kaye realizes that he’s declining her affections. Heartbroken, Kaye and her human friend Corny travel to New York, where they find themselves entangled in the Seelie Queen's plot to destroy Roiben and seize the Unseelie Court.

One glance at Black’s book will tell you its target audience: this is a novel designed for youthful Hot Topic shoppers—the kind of kid who wears a lot of eyeliner and black nail polish, but secretly watches The Parent Trap whenever it’s on TV. Ironside’s cover art (a crown of thorns with a few pretty blue flowers in it) and font (suggestive of urban decay, yet still perfectly legible) shout “Disney goes Goth!” in a way that will entice young readers without arousing parental concern.

Not that that’s a bad thing—there are plenty of very entertaining Goth-lite novels out there. However, this is one of the rare cases where the book is actually grittier than its artfully sinister cover suggests. The supernatural dramatics in Black’s earlier books have always been less hard-hitting than the human relationships, and Ironside is no different: Corny’s awkward attempts to impress Luis, Kaye’s bond with her mother, and Dave’s junkie desperation are far more unsettling than the battle between Roiben and the Seelie Queen. Black has never shied away from the uglier side of her characters (I’m still recovering from that squashed kitten in Valiant), and new readers to the series may be taken aback by how truly Gothic her imagination can be.