Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

21 reviews

s_r_sparrow's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I hated this more than the first book. The characters digressed, characters were brought back to life unnecessarily, and the story was very stereotypical and took tropes from the popular books that preceeded it. It was a waste of time

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Violence, War, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, Forced institutionalization, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and Ableism

Moderate: Alcohol, Medical content, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Sexual content, Death, Violence, Animal death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Ableism, Grief, Gore, Colonisation, Animal cruelty, Torture, Abandonment, Chronic illness, and Confinement

Minor: Alcohol and Vomit

nanastradamus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Iron Flame is fast paced and has a great (if somewhat clumsy) story — entrapment via ‘one more chapter’. As I was expecting following Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros knows how to write a compelling story but misses the mark on great writing / prose. I appreciate the purposeful use of modern, plain English which makes the fantasy genre so much more accessible. But just because it’s written in plain(er) English doesn’t mean the book wouldn’t be even better to read if the prose made the reader feel something. There hasn’t been one line or phrase in either of the books that has made me stop and go over the beauty or mastery of what I’d just read before moving on. The only time Yarros has made me emotional was during

Liam’s death and when Violet hallucinates seeing him while being tortured

. With a bit more effort, she could make the whole book have that sort of effect. But maybe not prioritising spending much time on the writing itself was a purposeful decision.

The plot is packed, which was one of the book’s — and story’s — downfalls. It felt like too much was trying to be crammed into one book. The story would have benefitted from most (if not all) of the plot points and characters being more fleshed out.

As a side note, it feels like more effort was made in the first book to have an actively diverse cast of characters. There also wasn’t as much character development in this book, which is something the first one already lacked quite a bit. That being said, I loved seeing all of the characters, especially Violet, trust and rely on each other more and become a really solid unit.

All in all, the book was enjoyable with fantastic twists and turns. I loved the stronger focus on politics and war strategy, as well as the found family within the Iron Squad and its newcomers. It just seems like fast pacing is what’s being aimed for with this series to its own detriment. Even more so than Fourth Wing, Iron Flame feels too rushed, like developing both plot and character were sacrificed in favour of fitting as much in as possible. Which is bonkers, considering the book is 600+ pages long. The premise, world building, characters, and story are all so interesting and promising — I can only imagine how incredible this series would read if it were given the space to do so, with an author / editor / publishing house team that were willing to spend more time and care on it rather than prioritising churning the sequel out so quickly. Or maybe Rebecca Yarros just always writes this way.

But gosh darn did she get me and I read it in 13 hours, unable to out it down for long. So, I’m boo boo the fool.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Sexual content, Violence, War, Blood, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Animal death, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cursing, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

rosieholmes99's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Animal death, Sexual content, Torture, Xenophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Genocide, War, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Violence, Grief, and Cursing

josiee's review

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Vomit, Violence, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, War, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Medical content, Animal death, Abandonment, Ableism, Body horror, Grief, Emotional abuse, Classism, Death, Gaslighting, and Medical trauma

erinbahrenfuss's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, War, Physical abuse, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death of parent, and Drug use

hezzahrae's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The only thing keeping this from being a full 4 stars is the fact that the author clearly has favorite descriptor words and phrases that don't actually do much for the scene. Their continued use can get annoying and take you out of the moment. 

That said, it's not a bad read/listen. There are quite a few moments that are fairly predictable but just enough twists to keep you guessing. I did feel quite a bit of emotion at the end so kudos to the author/narrator for being able to immerse the reader in such a tear-jerking scene.

I also feel like this book could have been split into two, because the amount of information that is in both "parts" can get hard to keep up with after so long. The twist at the last two chapters had me gasping. Now, I must suffer the wait. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Death, Sexual content, Gore, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Blood

e_emmaa's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Gore, Torture, Grief, Murder, Animal death, Violence, War, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual content, War, Alcohol, Medical content, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Grief, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Gore, and Torture

Minor: Animal death, Violence, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Grief, Gore, War, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Death, and Sexual content

the_rabble's review

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

CW fantasy drama with theater kid delivery. If that's not your flavor, read don't listen. I find the pacing of the audiobook narrator's action sequences really distracting (has onstage monologue energy which keeps everything at an 11 and can be more anxiety producing than emotionally impactful) but still enjoy the story and writing style.

Has an excellent sex scene involving a

throne- 10/10 very cunning linguists.

Back half of the book moves, but first half is very masc-Dolores Umbridge, but with an unrepentant murder college instead of a whimsical murder boarding school.

You may want to wait for the entire series to be out.

There's enough of a cliffhanger/hook at the end to be impatient about having to wait.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Torture, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Abandonment

mzquirk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

As long as this one was compared to Fourth Wing, I felt the length was a bit much compared to the meat we actually got. Did I like it, yes. But there's some things in there I could've done with out. But I also understood what we needed to get out of this book as well, to help set up what is to come. And I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Things I could do without - Violet's wishy/washy "I'm made, I'm not mad, he's gorgeous and I hate him"-ness. ...and that is it. That's all. I was annoyed by that and only that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Sexual content

Moderate: War, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Death, Bullying, Blood, Animal cruelty, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent