A review by robertrivasplata
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

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

2.0

Lots of spoilers here, because let's face it, we all have something else we should be reading right now. Much less coherent than Fourth Wing. The Empyrean books feel to me like they were created by two middle schoolers who really liked Game of Thrones (especially the last couple seasons), & Harry Potter, & who recently watched Pulp Fiction & thought it was amazing. The dialogue is incredibly juvenile. Whenever a character hints at something, or says something obliquely, they invariably spell it all out plainly in the next line. It's as if Yarros wanted to be clever, but then worried that the reader wouldn't be able to keep up with her. I'm constantly thinking “you just said that a moment ago”. 

Not sure why, but I found the constant “2nd squad, tail section, 4th wing officially requests permission to...” etc/whatever grating. 

I find Xaden to be incredibly insufferable, & his Violet's relationship is doubly so. All his “ask me” speeches to Violet are infuriating. At the same time, Violet's need to know all the “need to know” information in Part 1 is an opsec nightmare. Xaden's constant glowering just comes across as sullen teenager behavior. Xaden's constant reminders to everyone that Riorson House is his house, & the HQ of the rebellion is simply there at his pleasure looks a lot like entitled aristocrat behavior. The fact that he is an entitled aristocrat does not make it cute. 

Iron Flame feels like at least two books, with three major antagonists, none of which are really dealt with satisfactorily. Big bad #1's (Varrish) death somehow manages to be both abrupt, unceremonious, & also unnecessarily drawn out. Cat (Big bad #2) isn't even that big or bad, she's just supposed to be a big bitch, & she suddenly becomes a good guy. Shadowy scheming Tecarus (kind of a sub-baddie) just kind of disappears. The Sage (Big bad #3)'s death is off-screen, so we can assume (using horror logic) that he'll be back for the sequels. People are constantly stepping forward to help as if they're joining the anchorman fight in Anchorman. The part where Violet is being rescued by one hero after another (Dain, then Xaden, then her Mother, then I lost count) is especially ridiculous. Imagine the movie Spartacus if the “I'm Spartacus!” scene was repeated several different times. 

Not really sure how we're supposed to feel about Violet's mom being killed off. I generally find villain redemption character arcs annoying, partly because it flattens the complexity of the villain characters we love so well (so well that we want them to be good, which they are not). Not to say that I found Violet's Mom to be a particularly enjoyable villain. Similar to Snape in HP, she worked best as a foil whose motivations are obscure, but her being the hero's mother makes that arrangement impossible. Her motivations & machinations pretty much have to be explored, & her “I did it all for you” doesn't really cut it.