Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

20 reviews

lorraine19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I put this on par with the first book. Definitely more heavy on the trigger warnings. There are some absolutely brutal scenes that make deaths from the first book seem tame. Don't take that warning in the beginning of the book lightly. That being said, this book plays on all the emotions and is just wonderfully written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, War, Sexual content, Cursing, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Violence, Emotional abuse, Torture, and Gore

Moderate: Animal death, Classism, Drug use, Vomit, and Alcohol

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

lindasoderlundd's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Cursing, War, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Grief

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Alcohol

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

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!

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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

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

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

My feelings from the first book hold steady - an entertaining popcorn read with the worst aspect by far being the romance. I groaned every time Xaden showed up because I knew I was going to be subjected to page-long kiss descriptions and poorly written sex scenes. Violet has so much stupid emotional drama over this boy, I hated it. It really dragged down the middle of this book, especially the jealously subplot. I kept reading because I wanted to know how the conflict with the venin was going to shake out and because I wanted to learn more about the dragons. There were some nice developments on that front, and the set up for the next book will keep me reading.

Some things stood as as really jarring. There is a returning minor character whose actions are all over the place in an illogical way. I cannot reconcile their behavior. It also bothers me that

torture is constantly portrayed as a valid and reliable way of getting information, when in real life torture is completely ineffective. The fact that the author is military-adjacent only makes me feel more sour about this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Vomit, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death of parent, Xenophobia, Genocide, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Ableism, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death, Colonisation, Alcohol, Medical content, and Bullying

cait's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood, Xenophobia, Confinement, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Torture, Classism, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Ableism, Colonisation, Stalking, War, Dysphoria, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Violence, and Vomit

skyelarks's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I do feel that this book could have been improved with further editing and more time between the release of the first book and itself. However, I did still find the story enjoyable and enjoyed receiving more moments of world-building because I think that’s the coolest part of the story. 
I also appreciated that the spicier scenes felt more tactfully done than in Fourth Wing. While they are fun, I do find that I enjoyed them more when they made sense to the plot of the book and not just in there to be in there.
I did not enjoy some of the very cringe modern phrases that were written in the book, especially those said by characters.

Calling someone endgame in a fantasy novel just immediately took me out of the story.

I am curious to see where the story goes in the next book after the ending this one had. I feel like it ended with a major shift in character for Xaden that didn’t align with who he was as a person prior. That could be due to the fact that we don’t really get to see what took him to the place he ended in. We get the one chapter in his POV that shows a little but really leaves out the rest of the battle that got him there. I honestly think the final bit of the book could have benefited with switching between POVs of him and Violet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death of parent, War, Gore, and Blood

Minor: Cursing and Alcohol

sarahsbooklife's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed it. But it wasn't as good as the first one. It should've been shorter. And the miscommunication should not have last for practically the whole book. Because let's be honest that was annoying as fuck 🙄 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, and War

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Sexism and Alcohol