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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, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Classism
Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Abandonment
Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
I also didn’t love the weird love triangle with Cat. I felt like she was just a really angry character with not a lot of depth besides “I want power and Xaden will get me that” because she was never really a threat to their relationship even though Violet and her had a rivalry over him???? I don’t love when strong women fight over a man.
Ridoc and Sawyer were my favorite characters throughout this book and were really fun to read more about them and Rhi. Their relationships were my favorite dynamic in the book and I liked that they were finally included in the plans about halfway through.
Tairn dealing with a teen Andarna was also really fun and kept up a little bit of the lightheartedness the novel needed.
I didn’t expect Xaden’s second signet at all, but I’m wondering if Violet has one from Andarna because she has 2 dragons? Alo I’m shook about her being a 7th dragon breed.
Also, why the hell would Violet and Xaden both almost die at the end to save the other when their lives are tied together??? Like did Violet not think about the fact imbuing the stone to save him would kill her, which would then kill Jim because they’re connected??? That made no sense to me then as well why Xaden became a venin? Like I don’t get his mind in terms of how that would help either of them.
Lastly, Brennan was super annoying during this book. I get he was hurt by his mom but the moment she sacrificed herself to save them all he’s all crying?? What was that about? I get he was salty, but the entire book was him not believing in his sisters or mom.
I did really enjoy the history of the cities in this book, along with the political aspects as well. It really helped with the world building and pushed the plot along really well.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
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.
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, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Confinement, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
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)
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, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, War
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, Classism
Moderate: Confinement, Xenophobia, Vomit, Gaslighting, Alcohol
Minor: Bullying, Kidnapping