Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

172 reviews

jessicarenz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

I hated that ending (but in the best way), and now I’m mad at Rebecca Yarros. She better give us a better resolution in book 3.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Blood, War, Cursing, Sexual content, Murder, Gore, Confinement, and Violence

If Rebecca doesn’t give us a cure for Xaden being venin in book 3, I’ll never read one of her books ever again. I’m so angry at last few pages of this book!

fuchsiarascal's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Let's talk about the good and the bad. Because, overall, I loved it, but there were definitely things that I didn't like.

Let's start off with one good: the diversity of characters. While I genuinely don't recall characters of color being described other than a couple times (but admittedly, physical character descriptions tend to not stick in my mind, yay face blindness! it's not just for real life!), which is something that I'd love to see improved upon, we have nice representation of different sexual and gender identities. Same-sex relationships are treated just as equal as heterosexual relationships (at least as far as we see in the college; we don't know marital laws in Navarre but one can assume), and we've had a couple mentions of non-binary cadets between Fourth Wing and this book. They're never explicitly stated as, "Hey, look at this non-binary person!" but Yarros effortlessly includes gender neutral pronouns while talking about them. But, of course, I'd love to see more of these characters (they're fairly background characters in Violet's squad), maybe in the next book?

Now, one bad. I very much disliked Violet for most of the book -- the "conflict" standing between her and Xaden having a happy relationship was so immature and forced. Big deal, he didn't tell you about a super secret rebellion that would cost him his life, and at least 107 other people's lives, if people found out. It wasn't his secret to share, and for her to hold that against him was so infuriating. I could have been spared at least 107 pages of this contrived "will they-won't they" angst. Definitely my least favorite part of the book. (I understand now why reviewers focused on the romance were disappointed with this.) If Yarros wanted to include some conflict to keep them from having a perfectly happy relationship from the start, that's fair! But the way it happened was just... immature and frustrating to read.

However, I loved the actual story line that had to do with the rebellion. I didn't expect things to happen so quickly when they finally did around the middle of the book

(so many cadets leaving the college once the truth was revealed)

. Varrish was an excellent villain, working fully within the power of a corrupted government and school. And I'm personally cheering for Dain's redemption arc, even if he was an overprotective prick in the first book.

I love that he immediately supported Violet as soon as he knew the truth, and was ready to before then if she had only talked to him.

I don't love him, but he's alright.

I loved the friendships with Rhiannon, Jesinia, and Imogen, although I disliked that Imogen falls to the wayside unfortunately about halfway through. I would have LOVED to see their friendship develop further. Although we see Imogen's respect and like of Violet grow throughout the book, the friendship all but disappears once Rhiannon is brought into the fold. Maybe Yarros should spend less time writing about Violet's immaturity with Xaden and focus more pages on developing these friendships further. (I also would have loved to see more time with Sloane and Cat.) Also, it's kind of weird that Rhiannon has been such a central figure and Violet's best friend for two books, but we know absolutely nothing about her girlfriend other than her name? I know, different squad and all, but... I feel like we should actually have some scenes with her. I guess what I'm saying is, more attention to the women, please. <3

Andarna was one of my favorite parts of the book, which is a shame that she spent most of it gone. It was kind of like Yarros didn't know how to work her into half the book so she was just like, "idk, she's sleeping" until she became an important plot device. Still, I love Andarna despite that.

So, obviously I had some issues with the 4 of the writing, but I really did enjoy the plot and all the twists that they had to navigate. I couldn't put this down and accidentally stayed up until 8am reading it the night I got it, oops!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Forced institutionalization, War, Torture, Gore, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death

Minor: Alcohol

seren's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, War, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Cursing, Torture, Confinement, Genocide, Kidnapping, and Panic attacks/disorders

rachelwiththelonglegs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I can see why a lot of people would rate this 5 stars. I give 3.5 because I hate war and this was very heavy on the action. But it’s about a war college and it was expected. 

Also I was recovering from surgery when I started the book and there was a ton of emphasis on detailed injuries

for the torture-heal-torture cycle that

and I had to take a break from reading for a few weeks. Probably would have rated it higher if I wasn’t! Probably the worst part of this book! 

First book was better but I hated this ending. I’m so mad but overall enjoyed the journey. Will still read the third book! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Torture

Moderate: Sexual content, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Blood, Genocide, Chronic illness, Murder, and Medical trauma

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Torture, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, War, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, and Animal death

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

---

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

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Oh My Goodness!!!!! I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t think it was going to be this good. Multiple times I had to put the book down to get a grip on myself, before I continued. It was action packed, not a page of this book was extraneous. I can’t say enough good things, highly recommend.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, War, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Death, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

anarcia_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

I wanna cry scream and keep the story going ITS SO GOODDDDDD

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Drug use, Genocide, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Physical abuse

rainbowscuba's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

After the first book I had quite high hopes but unfortunately the author got lost too much in the feelings of the main character while neglecting the page of the story development , which got lost a bit. 

The amount of time the protagonist spends wallowing in her guilt and her mistrust and feelings for her love interest become annoying. She also does not seem to learn from previous mistakes as she seems to insist to repeat them at the next opportunity. 

The sex could have been dialled back as it was not needed for the story and felt out of place at times. 

Overall, the  book could have easily been cut by 1/3 and it would have been faster paced  and the main story would have not been so disjointed and it would have been more enjoyable to follow. 
I was also disappointed that the story about Andarna was left so vague, became important in the end but felt rushed. 

One last thing I did not enjoy the voice actor who read the story for the audiobook version. She felt to have the need to convey the urgency in battle situations by reading louder and louder and faster and faster. It made it comical. 

The ending sets us up for third book but I am not sure if I will even bother. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Torture, Sexual content, Cursing, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Physical abuse, and Violence

erindarlyn's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, and Violence