Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

30 reviews

vee_eb's review against another edition

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

3.0

The world building is quite good, but the characters are annoying and the plot is predictable. Self-insert characters are irritating nearly without exception, and the fact that Yarros has made the FMC her personal fantasy of herself and the MMC an idealised version of her husband (and does not hide this) is uncomfortable. I genuinely did enjoy the construction of the world itself, and the overall narrative, but the characters were nearly all either deeply unlikable or underdeveloped — the FMC's best friends are cardboard cut outs and
you hardly care at all when one of them dies
. The sex scenes were alright, but there aren't enough for this to really be considered smut; which is fine because the narrative is intriguing on its own, I just wish the characters were better written!

It's good for a fun summer read, kind of like the Kardashians or Love Island of the book world — switch your brain off and have some fun!
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kayabaj's review against another edition

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emotional funny sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

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c_dmckinney's review

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

4.25

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abicaro17's review against another edition

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

3.75

So in this sequel, Violet and Xaden are preparing to set up their rebel base and start their new year training. Violet struggles to control her signet and emotions following Xadens new assignment. After the trauma in Fourth Wing, Violet struggles to cope with Liams death and the revelation of her brother. To start on a positive note, I love that this was more like a spy novel with all the sneaking around and secrets. The increase in communication between Violet and Xaden is so needed and well handled. Onto the negatives, giving Xaden a crazy ex is so incredibly unnecessary emotionally that it makes me mad. This has almost no combat or actual training in it despite being a book set in a war college where soldiers train to fight. The lack of raw emotion that emanated from the first book is also pretty disappointing. I just feel like this was good conceptually but so rushed and under edited it loses all the charm that was present in book 1. Overall it was fine and I will read the next book but for me this is trending towards From Blood and Ash (great first book and terrible sequels). 
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rchulin1's review against another edition

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

5.0

Wow such an amazing book loved it just didn’t flow as much as I’d like and it wasn’t as lighthearted and funny as the first book understandably so since this book has a lot more tense moments 
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paulralph's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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darkademiacookie's review against another edition

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

3.25

World building felt incomplete.
For example, they mentioned the different types of wyvern in Fourth Wing and no one elaborated when they could finally talk freely in Battle Brief and other classes, where you'd think they'd learn about the enemy with whatever information they had but not a single mention of the different wyvern happens until during the final battle. Not to mention they received books on venin from the Viscount and no one read them or mentioned what information was in there.
There were many incomplete ideas. I think this had potential but the execution just didn't hit. I also wish there was more real character development. 
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grayscale08's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-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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filipa_maia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

What was this book? I feel like I was hit by a high speed dragon after finishing it.

I love this world and I love these characters. All of them. Even the villains... they are perfect, cruel, merciless...

The only reason this read isn't 5 stars is because the book has a lot of unnecessary stuff. The beginning is slow (but it was the same with 'Fourth Wing') but then the story gains the right momentum. I feel this book is unnecessary long: if they just talked - they share a mental bond, GOD, just mentally talk or whatever - many of the problems would be solved; and I think that are a lot of little details that were left without explanation.

But I don't want to judge too much, maybe all the explanations are in the next book! Yes, because after this ending I expect perfection for the third book. Everything MUST be ok. 
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s_r_sparrow's review against another edition

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adventurous tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I hated this more than the first book. The characters digressed, characters were brought back to life unnecessarily, and the story was very stereotypical and took tropes from the popular books that preceeded it. It was a waste of time
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