Reviews with content warning for Ableism - Iron Flame

Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

48 reviews

amy_in_the_city's review against another edition

slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book was such a slog to get through. It was like a third-act breakup stretched across hundreds of pages because Violet and Xaden spent most of the book fighting. They were hardly ever together and when they were, they were having the same argument over and over. It was extremely tiresome, and I felt this romance novel was missing the romance. A lot of their issues seemed very contrived, like Violet was just looking for things to be mad or insecure about. She makes a whole issue about Xaden not saying he loves her, only that he's fallen for her. What does she think "fallen for" means exactly? I understand she was still upset with him for not telling her some big secrets in the first book, but I think it was way overblown and drawn out. It was also a bit hypocritical of her to be upset at Xaden for not telling her all the super-secret mission details while she was also not telling everything to her loved ones and was going behind Xaden's back on her own mission. All of the internal conflict was exhausting, and I kind of just wanted them to break up already so I wouldn't have to read about it anymore.

I also really didn't like that they had Violet and Xaden's ex fighting over him. It was childish, and I'm just done with books pitting women against each other because of some guy.

Xaden was just kind of there, without much personality. All of the side characters were also lacking development. I couldn't remember much about the friends and professors from the first book despite reading it only 4 months ago and was always mixing the characters up in my mind, but it didn't matter much as they weren't very present in this book.

I did like the non-relationship parts of the book, for the most part. I thought learning about the wards and more about Andarna were both interesting, as was the final part of the book. Even during the really exciting plot stuff happening, I was still easily able to put the book down and not feel the need to pick it up again for another day or two.

Just when I thought I was ready to give up on this series, that cliffhanger ending happened. I might give the next book a chance, but I'm really not interested in reading 3 more long books if they're like this one.

Content Warnings

skyfluff's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous tense medium-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

3.75

Content Warnings

apriltee's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

F*************k 😱 Ok so, starting with what I didn’t like: there was a lot of “waaah I can’t trust him, even though I also keep secrets from my friends who are way more understanding than I am to my bf who could literally die if he tells his secrets”. Call me a Xaden apologist or whatever but Violet was annoying the living hell out of me at some points. The not-like-other girls business got worse in this book, I felt she was more arrogant and even her insecurity felt like a form of narcissism? Or maybe I was just annoyed with her and it was clouding my judgement. I kept getting attached to side characters that just end up dying. I think there were scenes in the book that did little to advance the plot, and it made the story just insanely long without satisfying the need to move things along. I wanted to enjoy the relationship between the main characters, but the arguing and fighting about the same thing over and over was giving more “flashbacks of my ex” than “romance” but hopefully the next book irons that out and develops their relationship in a more healthy direction. Altogether though there was some spice, some action, some twists. The end had me 😱 idk how I will live till Jan

Content Warnings

stitchbooks22's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

Content Warnings

s_r_sparrow's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

anilein's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

emilycfox's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Not quite as good as Fourth Wing (honestly, that might be impossible so I knew it probably wouldn’t / couldn’t be), but Iron Flame still had a death grip on me until I finished it. I read FW and IF back-to-back, and I felt like I was living on adrenaline and almost disassociated from my life because ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS READ AND ALL I WAS THINKING ABOUT WAS THIS SERIES. I read literally all night until 7am or later multiple times. I was so sad when I finished IF because now I have to wait until the next book is released. But at the same time, the flood of relief I felt when I finished was PALPABLE (like after you turn in the last thing during exam WEEK after running on fumes for days) lol. I was like thank god I’m no longer held captive by these books and can relax now and get back to my normal life haha
A few things that brought it down from 5 stars for me: Violet and Xaden’s relationship dynamic gets pretty repetitive and frustrating, but I’m hoping that it was intentional and we’ll see growth from them moving forward. I also didn’t like how many times the story jumped forward to the next day or several days / weeks later because I felt like I was missing things (like, did they talk about xyz but we didn’t see it or have they not even discussed it?). I just want to know what happens every minute of every day!! Even the “boring” day-to-day stuff because that’s when we get to see Violet’s friends and learn more about the world :( but I also get that it’s already a long book. Similar to FW, the writing is simply fine — not so bad it ruins the story but also not fantastic (I swear to god everything is measured in heartbeats as if this world does not have any other unit to measure time)

Content Warnings