A review by meguniqueuser
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

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

3.75

This book took me 4 months to finish. I enjoyed reading it while I was actively reading, but when I put it down it was hard to pick it back up again. And it is quite long. 

It often annoyed me that the same tropes were used from the first book or just repeated in this book, especially the bullying and the war college leadership being idiotic, obstinate adults. 

The leadership are often stupid and stubborn with little reason given. For one, many of them bully Violet just because they want to and hate her. Or the silly college rules that let the cadets fight each other and generates animosity between them. 

I often lost the urge to read because of the bully tropes that Yarros insists on using. It seems to be the only way she knows how to create conflict in the plot; with schoolyard bullies. It happened in the first book, and when one was taken care of in this book they were immediately replaced with another bully. It’s not a super enjoyable reading experience for me, and it’s annoying that these bullies are so over the top. 

Also I am really upset about a certain bully character being present. There was literally no reason for leadership to have brought back this person. They didn’t have any information, they didn’t provide any strategic support; Yarros just brought them back to shock readers. 
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