Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

19 reviews

mermaidswithcoffee's review against another edition

Because the authors violent colonial world view became really obvious both by being the second book in the series and the timing of the release of the book with the Palestinian holocaust. 

It’s violent in a really colonized way, with unnecessary death and weird justifications. It reads like kids playing at war as if that’s a good and necessary thing. As if children need to be violent and awful to survive a mysterious eastern other. When the truth is THEY are the monster their parents created and the “other” are just trying to live, not kill them. It was present in the first book but I didn’t catch it, now it screams colonization and I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. 

One example: She literally goes into detail about how these children soldiers make sure to dye their hair while hiding out at a traitor compound while they are supposed to be doing war games. Aren’t the teachers suspicious when they come back with freshly died hair when they were supposed to be barely surviving and on dragons? How did they find pink hair dye at the hidden revolutionary compound?!!! It just screams “girl boss”. “Isn’t it so cool that they have cool hair while murdering people?!!”

Another example which finally got me to DNF, which I hate doing, was when Violet justified the killing of her classmates. Said it was necessary to prepare her. With the ongoing genocide of Palestine it made me sick. Thinking of what lies and justifications the US and other white dominate countries have for why they have to bomb civilians. 

There are way more problems, like her disability, the main reason I read this book in the first place. Just like everything else her disability is appropriated and rings so shallow.  I have a literal connective tissue disease like Violet but I can tell you the representation is not real. I was so excited to see it and so disappointed to see that just like revolution in this book, it’s a stolen poor imitation of it. 

I recommend the 5th season if you want world building and actual revolution not just the aesthetic of revolution. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Islamophobia, War, Body horror, Genocide, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Slavery, Xenophobia, Murder, Ableism, Animal death, Biphobia, Cultural appropriation, Child death, Colonisation, and Emotional abuse

widgetknits's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Kidnapping, War, Animal death, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Chronic illness, Blood, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

ka_ke's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gaslighting, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Confinement, Sexual content, Cursing, Blood, Death of parent, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Abandonment, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, and Medical content

Minor: Toxic relationship

comfy_anna's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Sexual content, Death of parent, Grief, War, Bullying, Torture, Kidnapping, Confinement, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Medical content, and Murder

micaelamariem's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.0

While not as good as Fourth Wing, I still enjoyed this book! It still sucked me into this fantasy world which is the escapism I’m always looking for. I love the dragons and the revolutions. I hate the jealousy trope though as well as the miscommunication trope and this was chock full of it. I am hoping that part of the relationship is all resolved and won’t have to be revisited in the rest of the series. I love Andarna so much. And the whole fourth wing second squad flame section. A lot of my theories were wrong but I’m looking forward to seeing where the books will go. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Colonisation, Confinement, Alcohol, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Torture, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, War, Violence, and Vomit

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Death, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Grief, Murder, Violence, Gaslighting, War, Xenophobia, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Chronic illness, and Classism

Minor: Abandonment, Bullying, Gore, Medical trauma, Genocide, Drug use, Kidnapping, Medical content, Vomit, Toxic relationship, and Cursing

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Ableism, Blood, Chronic illness, Gore, Grief, Medical content, War, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Body horror, Classism, Child death, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Sexual content, and Torture

Moderate: Gaslighting, Alcohol, Xenophobia, Confinement, and Vomit

Minor: Bullying and Kidnapping

jennabeck13's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.0

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

Genre: Fantasy 

About 625 pages

🚩TRYING TO BE AS SPOILER-FREE AS POSSIBLE WHILE NOT BEING TOO VAGUE🚩

In the sequel to the hit book, Fourth Wing, we follow Violet Sorrengail through her second year at Basgiath War College. She survived her first year and a vicious attack, but that is nothing compared to what is to come. At school this year, she will be tested both mentally and physically. In her personal life, she will be forced to determine where her loyalties lie and who she can trust besides her dragons 🐉 

Rebecca Yarros does it again! While it didn’t hit quite the same way as Fourth Wing for me, Iron Flame was still a knockout book. Certain parts felt a bit slow, but the ending was action-packed! I think the slow parts also had a lot to do with world-building, which I understand is necessary when creating and further developing fantasy worlds. One thing I found super interesting was how the characters from the first book evolved in Iron Flame. My feelings toward certain characters shifted SIGNIFICANTLY. We also got more dragon personalities in this one, and I hope we get even more in the future! Andarna is a sassy teenager and I LOVED IT💛

Also, can we talk about how STUNNING these covers are?😍 I can’t wait for the remaining books to come out and to see how they turn it into a TV series! 

Favorite Quote: “Because love, at its root, is hope. Hope for tomorrow. Hope for what could be. Hope that the someone you’ve entrusted your everything to will cradle and protect it. And hope? That sh*t is harder to kill than a dragon.” 🐉 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Colonisation, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Torture, Violence, Blood, Gore, Grief, Murder, and War

tiana_king's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Screaming. Crying. Throwing up. Why did I finish this in 3 days? The first third of the book is slow but then it takes off from there. This book doesn’t cover a whole school year like last time so I’m curious how much time the next three books will cover. Prepare to be thrilled, heartbroken, baffled, and more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Grief, Abandonment, Confinement, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Colonisation, Torture, and Death of parent