Manon asked Holly Black:

How would you describe your upcoming project 'The Iron Trial' with Cassandra Clare? What will make it stand out from others books in the warlock/wizard/witch genre?

Holly Black That's a great question and one Cassie and I discussed a lot when we decided to go forward with the project. There have been a lot of stories about witches, wizards and warlocks. Obviously, Harry Potter casts a long shadow, but there's also Books of Magic, Which Witch, Wizard's Hall, So You Want to be a Wizard, Howl's Moving Castle, etc.

What we tried to do -- and what I always think is the obligation of a writer -- is too add to the conversation. We wanted to build a fun world, characters we loved, and as many twists and surprises as we could come up with. We hope that reader familiarity with witch and wizard books actually allows us a little more flexibility in terms of what readers will go along with -- and also maybe there are things they won't at all suspect!

I would describe The Iron Trial as being about a kid named Call who really, really, really doesn't want to go to magic school. He's been told his whole life that mages are dangerous, that they'll take you down into their tunnels and that if they make him take the test to get into magic school, you better fail. So what happens if failing spectacularly isn't enough to save him?

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