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literaryadventures 's review for:
The Iron Flower
by Laurie Forest
4.25 stars. AGGHHH! “The Iron Flower” was amazing! Filled with incredible world-building, magic, high stakes, and plot twists. Another unputdownable story.
Laurie Forest has crafted a fantastical world that feels, in some ways, like a mirror to our own existence. Many of the issues the characters in this story face reflect our world’s past and present. I love when authors tie real-world issues into the narrative in this way and have deeper discussions about important topics. I also appreciated how Forest allowed the characters to uncover the plot in natural ways, rather than creating events in the story that felt fabricated for the purpose of making the novel more interesting.
And I LOVED the storyline surrounding Yvan and Elloren. Give me a star-crossed lovers trope and I am sold! And finding out Yvan could be the Icaral of prophecy? That added a whole new layer to the story. I’m also excited for the changes we might get to see in Lukas because it appears as though he is full of complexities.
I will say, however, that for a vast majority of the novel, I felt like the whole storyline surrounding the Selkies took over the plot, and while I understood that it brought to light the realities of the war they were facing and the horrors that were often overlooked, it also brought serious darkness to the story and made me question whether I wanted to continue reading. And when Diana and Jarod lost their entire Lupine pack, and Ariel died?! I was devastated! Laurie Forest is definitely not an author who shies away from the atrocities that occur before, during, and after wartime.
Laurie Forest has crafted a fantastical world that feels, in some ways, like a mirror to our own existence. Many of the issues the characters in this story face reflect our world’s past and present. I love when authors tie real-world issues into the narrative in this way and have deeper discussions about important topics. I also appreciated how Forest allowed the characters to uncover the plot in natural ways, rather than creating events in the story that felt fabricated for the purpose of making the novel more interesting.
And I LOVED the storyline surrounding Yvan and Elloren. Give me a star-crossed lovers trope and I am sold! And finding out Yvan could be the Icaral of prophecy? That added a whole new layer to the story. I’m also excited for the changes we might get to see in Lukas because it appears as though he is full of complexities.
I will say, however, that for a vast majority of the novel, I felt like the whole storyline surrounding the Selkies took over the plot, and while I understood that it brought to light the realities of the war they were facing and the horrors that were often overlooked, it also brought serious darkness to the story and made me question whether I wanted to continue reading. And when Diana and Jarod lost their entire Lupine pack, and Ariel died?! I was devastated! Laurie Forest is definitely not an author who shies away from the atrocities that occur before, during, and after wartime.