Ever since Holly Black released her Modern Faerie Tales, countless tales of teenage girls who discover their connection to the fae have been published. 
 Most of them are pretty generic. However, "Iron King may be one of the rare few who even comes close to Black's urban fantasies -- Julie Kagawa's lush debut is filled with hauntingly lyrical prose and a likably down-to-earth heroine. Even better, she weaves some rare, unique faeries into her world. 
 After a rotten day at school, Meghan Chase returns home to find her mother injured and her brother Ethan replaced by a malevolent doppelganger. Her friend Robbie Goodfell Ethan has been kidnapped by the Unseelie Court and replaced by a changeling; his only hope is for Meghan to bring him back. He whisks her off to the wyldwood of Faeryland, and Meghan quickly encounters wild hunts, unicorns, cait sith and noble fey. 
 And when Robbie (aka Puck) takes her to the court of King Oberon, Meghan discovers some shocking facts about her own family. But she's still determined to rescue her baby brother -- and soon discovers that to get him back, she must venture into the realm of the iron fey and King Machina. But even with the help of Puck and the chilly prince Ash, can Meghan reclaim her brother? 
 "Iron King" starts as a rather typical urban fantasy, with Megan consumed by her high school problems even as it's hinted that something sinister is lurking nearby. But once Kagawa shifts her story into the Nevernever, the book shifts into an ethereal, moonlit tale filled with nature's beauty and silken prose. 
 In fact, Kagawa's exquisite prose is why this book stands head-and-shoulders above most other faery tales -- she laces the story with hauntingly lovely scenery and luscious descriptions ("Crushed leaves and cinnamon, smoke and apples, fresh earth, lavender, and the faint, cloying scent of rot and decay"). On the other hand, she inserts some moments of pure horror ("... his face blue and wrinkled, his lips pulled into a rictus grin"). 
 And the faery world she creates is suitably "rich and strange" -- while it's hauntingly beautiful, everything there is deadly. But with the idea of "iron fey," she also adds something new to the genre. 
 Meghan is a fairly average teen girl in the first few chapters, getting mocked at school and struggling with a crush, but she blossoms into a very strong, capable young woman after her brother vanishes. Robbie/Puck is deliciously mischievous, while the chilly Ash manages to be both dangerous and alluring -- and of course, he seems to have a growing interest in Meghan. 
 "The Iron King" is head-and-shoulders above the average "girl discovers she's a faery" fantasy books out there -- mostly because of Julie Kagawa's exquisite writing.