A review by ariireads
A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Did not finish book. Stopped at 52%.

Tw - dubious consent, sexual assault, rape, Ch 22 of AKOFAF

Dnf at 52% 

This series is not good and im so confused on why its so rated highly like the writing is terrible, the plot is non existent and the books are 95% poppy’s inner monologue. There’s repetition EVERYWHERE, the same shit being said every chapter, poppy asking questions, poppy wanting to stabbed casteel, poppy torn over her feelings towards casteel; its the same fucking shit every chapter like these books do not need to be this long. Over 600 pages and nothing happens till the last 100 pages. 

Also the characters and the worldbuilding are lackluster. Too many infodumps and vague explanations about the world. JLA created an interesting world (although not anything new) and is doing nothing with it. The characters are also lackluster like i said; Casteel ?? no fucking personality except getting horny when Poppy is violent; actually getting horny when Poppy does anything. Casteel is the worst character in this series and I can’t believe people actually like him and are attracted to him like not only is he a basic bad boy with troubled past (its 2021 we’ve moved past this trope), he also have major issues with consent and does not respect Poppy. He’s a terrible character and an even more terrible love interest.  Onto Poppy, she’s a walking ya female character trope; she can fight, sassy and speak her mind so she’s not like other girls, in the beginning she doesn’t have any powers but by the end she has all the cool powers and the most powerful (the chosen one), she’s 18 and her love interest is over 100 years old (idk why this trope still exists in fucking 2021) and thats it she has no personality. And Kieran is just a walking dictionary and babysitter

The underlying issue with the characters and the worldbuilding and everything wrong with this series is that JLA is a terrible writer and this series is written like it belongs in 2015. Seriously with all it terrible issues if this was published in 2015 i would’ve turn a blind eye because in 2015 the world wasn’t as politically and socially conscious as it is now and a lot of problematic shit went under the radar and wasn’t addressed. However this series was published in 2020 but it has all the problematic themes that a 2015 book has which im shocked cause its 2021 all the problematic themes in books have been addressed already and  the book community had conversations about why shit is problematic; but lo and behold here comes jla with her trashy series with it problematicness (toxic/inappropriate love interest that’s borderline sexist, a major power imbalance relationship with the two mcs because the male is a century old and the girl is 18/19 so its “legal”, racist undertones with the characters( naming your black character whos a maid...brown like its 2021 you can’t be that stupid to not understand why that’s wrong, also making your poc characters be the wolves who coincidentally are secondary to the vamprys and are basically their servants), romanticizing sexual assault/harassment ( casteel does not understand the word no and constantly does things when poppy explicitly said no, also he assaults/rapes poppy multiple times).

This series is written like a 2015 ya fantasy book and tbh it is a terrible and problematic 2015 ya fantasy book the only reason this is adult is because of the fucking sex scenes.

That said I kept reading the series because it was entertaining and I was bored. We all have some form of media that is objectively bad and borderline bad that we still intake because it’s entertaining and it cures the boredom. This is what the FBAA series is for me. However I don’t think I can carry on reading this series after a very triggering and equally uncomfortable scene in Chapter 22 ofA Kingdom of Flesh and Fire; which im shocked that barely anyone is talking about ?

In the scene Casteel is experiencing bloodlust because he hadn’t fed in a while (note that its canon that when Atlantians experience bloodlust they often not only drained their victims but also sometimes raped them due to the fact that they’re out of control/out of mind). Him and Poppy was sleeping in the same bed. He woke up and then he started to attack Poppy, due to the bloodlust Casteel wasn’t in his right mind and didn’t know it was Poppy so he started to attack her, had her pinned beneath him, Poppy tried to attack him with a dagger but she couldn’t move, literally in the scene she said she couldn’t escape. Poppy told Casteel to get off her two times, Casteel didn’t listen instead he started to ate her out. What makes this scene even more uncomfortable is that afterwards JLA tried to make it seem as if what happened wasn’t assault and that Poppy wanted it because she was aroused. It’s the same excuse rapists, that their victim was aroused and even orgasmed so they wanted it, however thats your body’s natural response it doesn’t mean anything. Yes Poppy was aroused but Casteel wasn’t in his right mind to give consent, nevertheless ask for consent, Poppy couldn’t escape she was trapped and she explicitly told Casteel to get off her...twice. Later Kieran asked her if he forced him on her; a weird thing to say about your best friend unless...it was possible in the state Casteel was in (hint: yes) and ofc Poppy said no. Which is my major issue cause yet again JLA is romanticizing assault. Numerous times in FBAA Casteel does not listen to Poppy when she says no, continues to ask her even after she said no and then after awhile she says yes which isn’t a good thing thats consent by coercion which isn’t really consent, and basically Casteel does not get consent from Poppy. He rapes her (had sex with Poppy under the disguised of Hawke which is rape) and now this shit where he ate her out without her consent. And JLA is saying that shit is okay, that there isn’t a problem and the readers are saying its okay too because no one even mentions this shit or talked about it, instead its seen as “spicy” which is so problematic. Someone is going to read this and think that this shit is okay. 

The whole scene was uncomfortable to read and then JLA is gonna turn around and say that he didn’t force himself on her and that Poppy could’ve push him off if she wanted too; not only is this disgusting of JLA to romanticize assault but its also proof that she’s a terrible writer because in the previous chapter Poppy literally said she couldn’t escape, and now in the next chapter she’s saying she could’ve push him off ???

I cant continue with this series cause this scene was very triggering to read and JLA has multiple scenes where she overlooks and romanticizes sexual assault. This book doesn’t even deserve 1 star

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault