A Review of The Iron Trial

     By: Kyler Abdelzaher

    The Iron Trial, a book written by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare, is the first of a 5 book series. In this series, you see the adventures of Callum Hunt and his friends in the Magisterium, which is a school for young mages. In The Iron Trial specifically, you follow him through his first year there, also known as the iron year. In the beginning it starts with the trial itself, where the students test their magical potential and some of them get chosen to go to the school. Call's father told him to intentionally flunk these tests, however it didn't go as planned and he ended up going to the Magisterium anyway. Throughout most of the book you see Call getting accustomed to his new life as a student of magic. Yet his is troubled by his father's ominous warnings about the school. This creates a conflict in Call, because he enjoys being a mage in the Magisterium, but his father's warnings create a sense of fear.

    Call's conflict rises early in the book, in the form of a memory. He had just used magic for the first time. At first he wasn't sure what happened, but as his father tells him what happened, despite the horror he feels, he can't help but to feel happy. Shortly after this, he tells Call about the Magisterium. Describing it as a maze, a place with no lights or windows, where you can get lost and die without anyone knowing. This gave Call nightmares, and any sense of conflict vanished for a while as he was simply terrified of anything magic related.

    By the time of the test, Call had a plan for how to fail. His father told him "Make your mind totally blank. Or focus on something that's the opposite of what those monsters want. Or focus your mind on someone else's text instead of your own. Before the test starts, while one of the mages gives a speech, Call's father is telling him about the lies the mages tell the parents, making them believe whatever they want. However, before the first test, conflict rose again. He got a glimpse of what the Magisterium looks like, and despite all his father's warnings, he wanted to go. He was amazed by it, however he remembers what his father said, increasing the conflict inside him.

   Once he made it to the doors of the Magisterium he was extremely conflicted, because despite all his father's warnings and hearing what happened to his mother, he was enthusiastic once he heard what he could learn. He finds himself filled with doubts when one of the mages mentions how easily one can get lost, but quickly justifies it by telling himself he'll learn to fly. At breakfast on his first day there, he saw his classmate Tamara wave to her older sister, and the conflict inside him grows as he begins to realize that his father's stories of the Magisterium might not be true. Throughout the rest of his time at the Magisterium, Call's conflict grows and dissipates as he learns more things about the magical world and continues to be haunted by his father's warnings.

    In conclusion, The Iron Trial is a great book and it is interesting to follow Call's journey through the Magisterium and feel the overwhelming sense of conflict that affects his every move. I would definitely recommend reading it. Once you start reading, with all the action and conflict, you feel compelled to keep reading. There's never a dull moment in this book or any of the following ones in the series.