You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

29 reviews

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Spoilers ahead

I’ve just finished reading in the middle of the night. It definitely can hold up with Fourth Wing but I was a bit frustrated with Iron Flame.

Violet and Xaden didn’t really grew character wise, they fought and were stubborn throughout the whole book and that annoyed me so much. Xaden’s way too overprotective and Violet can’t see past any mistakes and blames herself for everything that went wrong in Resson, in Aretia and with the wards failing. I felt like any scenes with them fighting just slowed down the plot unnecessarily. 
The plot in itself was really well thought out and written and the ending left me here in tears, just like every time Violet hallucinated Liam. I didn’t expect Lilith to sacrifice herself at all or Xaden turning Venin, just to keep Violet alive.


Even though it didn’t capture me like Fourth Wing did, I still think Iron Flame is a fantastic read and I  can’t  believe I have to wait 4 months for Onyx Storm and suffer from not knowing what happens next 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

The relationships in this book are so realistic, where communication and trust must be the foundation for any relationship to thrive, whether its for friendships or love. And that feeling of failing for the first time and then feeling like everything you do is also a failure.... *chef's kiss. The fact the author wrote these emotions so accurately makes me feel SEEN. 

Also, the level of dragon sass is through the roof and I'm here for it lol.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really feel like the relationship between Violet and Xaden regressed in this book. They're keeping secrets, but the secrets that Xaden is keeping could kill him and his dragon, while the "secrets" Violet thinks she's keeping would just make Xaden roll his eyes at her. They're truly not comparable. Violet is insufferable, and I do not like her as a main character. Just like the first book, I would much rather read this book from Xaden's point of view. I hate to say it, but this makes it out to be that there is very little character development from Violet in the entire book. 

The book is also really, really long. I feel like the book could have ended after
Violet was sprung from the interrogation chamber
and nothing would have been any different. There's a definitive mark of the "before" and the "after" after that scene, and ending the book there would not have hurt it.

At this point, also, I feel like the author is just killing people for shock value. I do like the Gryphon riders' reactions to the Dragon riders, though - one of them says something along the lines of "The way you kill your recruits/cadets is staggering." If a potential Gryphon rider fails their mounting challenge, they just pick themselves up and choose a different service branch. If a dragon rider fails ANY of their stuff, they die. Quick, but not always painless. Some of the deaths seem warranted, but a great many feel as if they are only to shock the reader.

And let's not even get started on the ending of this book.
Turning Xaden into the enemy? I knew that General Sorengale would have to die at some point, especially because she had just learned that her oldest kid Brennan was still alive, but at least her sacrifice appears to have been for the greater good. What is the point of turning Xaden? I'll read the next book, but to end the book on a cliffhanger like that seems like a step too far, again.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings