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spootilious's review against another edition
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Read: November 29, 2023
Title: Iron Flame
Title: Iron Flame
Series: The Empyrean #2
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Genre: New Adult Fantasy
Rating: 1.5 / 5
Review:
Rating: 1.5 / 5
Review:
Let me start by saying, I’ve been trying…. SO HARD… to like this book and I just… Can’t.
I didn’t care much for the first either, but I’ve been hoping that the series will redeem itself… so far that has not happened.
Did I enjoy reading the book? I suppose so. Is the book good? Absolutely not.
There are two issues more than anything that stand out before I simply provide a list of what I liked and did not like about the book: 1. Yarros seriously needs to find an editor the writing is just terrible! And 2. There is ZERO originality in the series.
Okay… Onto the list of this I liked:
1. The story concept is a good one. And if another author (a skilled one) had written this story I’m sure I would have LOVED it.
1. The story concept is a good one. And if another author (a skilled one) had written this story I’m sure I would have LOVED it.
2. I like Dragons.
Onto the list of things I didn’t like:
Onto the list of things I didn’t like:
1. I don’t think Yarros understand that in order to build the climax of a story you have to have a consistent baseline that is lower than the climax itself. If the punches never stop then the ‘final blow’ won’t feel any different than the first 100 jabs. There is absolutely zero downtime between ‘big’ events throughout this book and thus the ending (and everything really) wasn’t memorable in the least. Yarros didn’t get herself space to build on when she set the base line on the same level as the climax of the book. Honestly, I’ve never read an author who wasn’t self aware enough (or skilled enough… whatever the case may be) to realize this and it’s EXTREMELY disappointing.
2. Almost all the characters (minus a small handful) weren’t memberable and very flat. I can’t even remember all of Violet’s squad members… I might be able to name… 3? And that’s after the merge. All the characters are 1 dimensional and unremarkable… Too many names not enough characters.
3. As mentioned in the things that I liked, the story is good. Which is a problem because Yarros isn’t. It makes the story disproportionate to the author’s skill level. Which is nothing against Yarros, no one starts off skilled, but when your story is better than your abilities it causes problems.
4. This, like Fourth Wing, felt like a young adult novel wanting to be adult by adding sex and violence. Not a good mix.
5. The main character is EXTREMELY hypocritical, expecting so much from so many people when she does the same exact things with no consequences.
6. There is no real character development for any of the main characters.
7. Violet once again gets away with EVERYTHING with practically no consequences, and conveniently finds the solution to all their problems every time just in time. (superman syndrome) Which is amusing considering this isn’t a ‘chosen one’ series.
8. The pacing is TERRIBLE. Which goes back to the whole jab jab punch thing. All jabs… no punches.
9. Every female character in this series are defined by male characters, with the exception of maybe 2 (Mira and Ri which are in the background).
10. Yarros keeps telling the reader how smart and strong and unique violet is but violets actions never really show it. She always has to be saved or comes to these big epiphanies when guided but not on her own. She doesn’t stand out.
11. Toxic relationship(s) on both (and every) side
12. So repetitive both in dialog and plot points.
13. The hole book felt like a scramble to try and fill in every plot hole found in book 1 while ignoring all the ones in book 2. Which means book 3 will probably be the same.
14. Honestly the entire novel felt like a regurgitated version of Twilight but with Dragons.
15. Which brings us back to the first issue of being completely unoriginal.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit
keya_caivalur's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Death, Gore, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Addiction
vaguely_pink's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
5.0
Fourth Wing was mid at best for me, so color me shocked when I absolutely could not put down this book and realized that this was good.
(It's worth noting at the beginning here that this book needs a heavy trigger warning for torture, so if that's the only part of this review you read ((as if anyone reads my reviews )), I'll be okay.)
A lot of the issues I had with Fourth Wing were nonexistent here. Violet is no longer info dumping all the time. The world has been built in book one (no matter how lazily), so the lore we get here is well crafted and executed. It sort of felt like Fourth Wing was just the book she had to write so Iron Flame made sense.
The character writing is also much improved in book two. Particularly when it comes to Violet and Xaden's relationship. (Although I will never forgive Ms. Yarros for naming him Xaden.) This genre has so many male love interests that are too perfect and exist only to teach the FMC something about herself (Manic Pixie Dream Bat Boys™), but Xaden is flawed as hell. They fight and I can't take anyone's side because they're both wrong and toxic as hell sometimes. They both have major character growth throughout the book, and we love to see it.
The more minor characters are much more enjoyable too. In Fourth Wing I could barely keep everyone straight in my head, so it was hard to appreciate the found family banter. In Iron Flame, it's all there and wonderful. Would die for Ridoc.
And of course we love to see this kind of disability representation. And not only EDS, but some great PTSD portrayals in there too. As a neurodivergent disabled girlie, there was lots to warm my cold heart. And all the great family drama in there too. Juicy.
This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. While I could predict every single twist to Fourth Wing, I had no idea what was coming next in Iron Flame. I still maintain that the Empyrean series so far is nothing revolutionary. Despite what the blurb on the cover says, this is exactly like every fantasy you've ever read. But damn if this Divergent/Eragon/wizard-books-that-shall-not-be-named mash up isn't fucking fun. Very excited for the next installment.
(It's worth noting at the beginning here that this book needs a heavy trigger warning for torture, so if that's the only part of this review you read ((as if anyone reads my reviews )), I'll be okay.)
A lot of the issues I had with Fourth Wing were nonexistent here. Violet is no longer info dumping all the time. The world has been built in book one (no matter how lazily), so the lore we get here is well crafted and executed. It sort of felt like Fourth Wing was just the book she had to write so Iron Flame made sense.
The character writing is also much improved in book two. Particularly when it comes to Violet and Xaden's relationship. (Although I will never forgive Ms. Yarros for naming him Xaden.) This genre has so many male love interests that are too perfect and exist only to teach the FMC something about herself (Manic Pixie Dream Bat Boys™), but Xaden is flawed as hell. They fight and I can't take anyone's side because they're both wrong and toxic as hell sometimes. They both have major character growth throughout the book, and we love to see it.
The more minor characters are much more enjoyable too. In Fourth Wing I could barely keep everyone straight in my head, so it was hard to appreciate the found family banter. In Iron Flame, it's all there and wonderful. Would die for Ridoc.
And of course we love to see this kind of disability representation. And not only EDS, but some great PTSD portrayals in there too. As a neurodivergent disabled girlie, there was lots to warm my cold heart. And all the great family drama in there too. Juicy.
This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. While I could predict every single twist to Fourth Wing, I had no idea what was coming next in Iron Flame. I still maintain that the Empyrean series so far is nothing revolutionary. Despite what the blurb on the cover says, this is exactly like every fantasy you've ever read. But damn if this Divergent/Eragon/wizard-books-that-shall-not-be-named mash up isn't fucking fun. Very excited for the next installment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal death, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
torturedreadersdept's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
chasingpages1's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Abandonment
solarel's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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? Yes
3.0
The first book was so much fun and well thought out. We all loved the theories and guesses about what was coming next. Iron Flame only delivered partially.
The story itself was engaging about a third of the way through. The first third was just excruciating watching our loved characters just be miserable.
The relationship conflicts were confusing and unnecessary, easily solved if given one rational conversation. These aren’t teens, so why are they acting so broody and immature? We expect better from them.
The ending felt more like an attention grabber than a plot twist. It just made me disengage from the story for how left field it was.
And lastly, the publisher really messed up on the delivery of this book. Not only did it have a slew of misprints, but there were dozens of typos and the grammar in some places was horrible. Not to mention the cheesy lines and nonsense derailments. They rushed this big time and the quality tanked because of it.
The story itself was engaging about a third of the way through. The first third was just excruciating watching our loved characters just be miserable.
The relationship conflicts were confusing and unnecessary, easily solved if given one rational conversation. These aren’t teens, so why are they acting so broody and immature? We expect better from them.
The ending felt more like an attention grabber than a plot twist. It just made me disengage from the story for how left field it was.
And lastly, the publisher really messed up on the delivery of this book. Not only did it have a slew of misprints, but there were dozens of typos and the grammar in some places was horrible. Not to mention the cheesy lines and nonsense derailments. They rushed this big time and the quality tanked because of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
skillyillian's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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? Yes
3.5
spoilers ahead.
idk, y'all. i was so excited for this but i think i have just lost patience for violet, xaden, and their relationship. the side characters, specifically iron squad, were more fun and i enjoyed their scenes more than most of the violet + xaden ones. rhiannon and ridoc are my favorites. i wish sloane and jesinia got more time being present, but at the same time this book was long enough to begin with. other things took priority that i don't think needed to.
the longer the book went on the more annoying violet and xaden became. if you cut out all of the unnecessary drama and secrets the book would be like two hundred pages shorter. like there's miscommunication trope and then there's whatever the fuck that mess was. every time they spoke to each other it was "i don't trust you" and then "you're not asking the right questions" like holy fuck dude you can't know what you don't know so just be honest if you want her to trust you ffs. don't be such a spiteful pissbaby about her not trusting you if you're not giving her reasons to believe anything you say. good god.
Also, what's the deal with their relationship being almost entirely physical???? either one of them walks in a room and they're both immediately drooling. violet only ever thinks about getting to know xaden when she realizes he's hiding things. i don't remember xaden literally ever, maybe even in fourth wing, asking violet a single thing about her. they're just being horny, but also still willing to risk the entire world for each other, to an irritating degree.
and what's up with violet being so dumb, for someone who is supposedly the smartest person at the whole school?? she sees the symbols in warrick's journal and is like "ah yes, the six and the one" but doesn't think about what that means at all and only does the initial wards with six dragons. and then when jesinia is like "yo, that's just a seven, you clown" she's completely mind blown and "how could i have missed this?" like yeah that's actually an excellent question. it's almost like she needed to not figure it out for like 200 pages so the solution at the end was more impactful. not only this but all of the logical, analytical traits she was originally written with are just gone. she doesn't think anything through, she takes unnecessary risks that don't fit her character, and she can't find any control with her magic until the very end. it's one of those things where the MC struggles so badly until the very end and then they almost never miss, but if they do, it's by inches bc the enemy moved so through no fault of their own.
the MCs feel like yarros forgot who they are and rewrote them for the sake of finding ways to keep tension between them. and cat? jesus christ don't even get me started. i did NOT like that. that was so fucking ick. good god.
idk. there's a lot of other logic flaws that just didn't need to be included. this book felt too long and some of the pacing was kind of weird. things would be brought up and then forgotten for actual months of the story, despite seeming urgent when it first happens. i had moments where i was fist pumping, cheering, laughing, or crying, and then some moments where i didn't understand why we needed to know about what was happening, or what happened to the earlier stuff that seemed so important.
It also feels like yarros just took from the most popular romantasies and kinda plopped in a lot of those stereotypes. this book feels like it was written more to sell to market instead of to tell a story, if that makes sense. idk. a lot of hype for something that feels like it ended up falling flat in more ways than one. my score is the way it is ONLY for the moments i loved that were enough to bring it up. if it weren't for the rest of iron squad, i'd have probably only given it 3 stars.
i'll probably keep reading the series but i'm not as impressed as i was the first time i read fourth wing. (and i did a reread before the iron flame drop and i think i'll be changing my review)
idk, y'all. i was so excited for this but i think i have just lost patience for violet, xaden, and their relationship. the side characters, specifically iron squad, were more fun and i enjoyed their scenes more than most of the violet + xaden ones. rhiannon and ridoc are my favorites. i wish sloane and jesinia got more time being present, but at the same time this book was long enough to begin with. other things took priority that i don't think needed to.
the longer the book went on the more annoying violet and xaden became. if you cut out all of the unnecessary drama and secrets the book would be like two hundred pages shorter.
Also, what's the deal with their relationship being almost entirely physical???? either one of them walks in a room and they're both immediately drooling. violet only ever thinks about getting to know xaden when she realizes he's hiding things. i don't remember xaden literally ever, maybe even in fourth wing, asking violet a single thing about her. they're just being horny, but also still willing to risk the entire world for each other, to an irritating degree.
and what's up with violet being so dumb, for someone who is supposedly the smartest person at the whole school??
the MCs feel like yarros forgot who they are and rewrote them for the sake of finding ways to keep tension between them. and cat? jesus christ don't even get me started. i did NOT like that. that was so fucking ick. good god.
idk. there's a lot of other logic flaws that just didn't need to be included. this book felt too long and some of the pacing was kind of weird. things would be brought up and then forgotten for actual months of the story, despite seeming urgent when it first happens. i had moments where i was fist pumping, cheering, laughing, or crying, and then some moments where i didn't understand why we needed to know about what was happening, or what happened to the earlier stuff that seemed so important.
It also feels like yarros just took from the most popular romantasies and kinda plopped in a lot of those stereotypes. this book feels like it was written more to sell to market instead of to tell a story, if that makes sense. idk. a lot of hype for something that feels like it ended up falling flat in more ways than one. my score is the way it is ONLY for the moments i loved that were enough to bring it up. if it weren't for the rest of iron squad, i'd have probably only given it 3 stars.
i'll probably keep reading the series but i'm not as impressed as i was the first time i read fourth wing. (and i did a reread before the iron flame drop and i think i'll be changing my review)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail
keelirae113's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Confinement, Xenophobia, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Bullying and Kidnapping
oldladysadie's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
5.0
What the fuck did I just read. I can’t wait to read it again. What a wild. Fucking. Ride.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual content, and Blood
Moderate: Torture, Xenophobia, and War
readwithria's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
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
5.0
HOLY SHIT
Iron Flame took the world that was established in Fourth Wing and fucking ran with it. I didn’t see this story coming, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
This is going to be plot spoiler free, but if you don’t like emotional spoilers you should stop reading here.
The character development not just of Violet, but if so many other characters was great. Second Squad, Flame Section, Fourth Wing is some good ass found family. I love them with my whole heart. And there were some other surprise characters that really stood out in this book for reasons I wasn’t expecting! Especially around the end of part one.
Speaking of, the transition from part one to part two was NOT on my bingo card. I had no clue that was coming! Definitely a good development for the series.
There were one or two twists that I saw coming, but in a good way! I felt like I was learning things as Violet did, which means that the information was laid out in a way that was realistic and didn’t feel like it came out of nowhere. I love learning with the characters!
The end of this book hurt me so much, but it left me excited to see what comes next! 5 stars
Iron Flame took the world that was established in Fourth Wing and fucking ran with it. I didn’t see this story coming, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
This is going to be plot spoiler free, but if you don’t like emotional spoilers you should stop reading here.
The character development not just of Violet, but if so many other characters was great. Second Squad, Flame Section, Fourth Wing is some good ass found family. I love them with my whole heart. And there were some other surprise characters that really stood out in this book for reasons I wasn’t expecting! Especially around the end of part one.
Speaking of, the transition from part one to part two was NOT on my bingo card. I had no clue that was coming! Definitely a good development for the series.
There were one or two twists that I saw coming, but in a good way! I felt like I was learning things as Violet did, which means that the information was laid out in a way that was realistic and didn’t feel like it came out of nowhere. I love learning with the characters!
The end of this book hurt me so much, but it left me excited to see what comes next! 5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, and War
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Vomit