You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

70 reviews

blacksphinx's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.5

My feelings from the first book hold steady - an entertaining popcorn read with the worst aspect by far being the romance. I groaned every time Xaden showed up because I knew I was going to be subjected to page-long kiss descriptions and poorly written sex scenes. Violet has so much stupid emotional drama over this boy, I hated it. It really dragged down the middle of this book, especially the jealously subplot. I kept reading because I wanted to know how the conflict with the venin was going to shake out and because I wanted to learn more about the dragons. There were some nice developments on that front, and the set up for the next book will keep me reading.

Some things stood as as really jarring. There is a returning minor character whose actions are all over the place in an illogical way. I cannot reconcile their behavior. It also bothers me that
torture is constantly portrayed as a valid and reliable way of getting information, when in real life torture is completely ineffective. The fact that the author is military-adjacent only makes me feel more sour about this.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

thepeculiarlibrary's review

Go to review page

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

4.5

takes a minute to get through, but goddamn that plot twist at the end…
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

clownfishz's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional 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

4.5 rounded

the ending is still a shock to me although I expected it, I just knew it forreal.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

emmiej's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

5.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

khucc's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional informative sad 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

3.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

katymat18's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.5

I’m truly at a loss for words. That ending has me spiraling, yet again. I enjoyed a majority of this book but I do feel it was slow to get going, and then the ending was all action packed. But even being slow I still think everything was necessary. Excited for the next installment! I have so many questions and curiosities now that I just need some damn answers! 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

cait's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

barda's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

1.75

I wasn't the biggest fan of the first book, but this one is even worse.

The one positive is that I still do like the dragons, and find them to be much more compelling than any of the human characters. However, they're still not very fleshed out (especially Adarna), and I genuinely can't tell if that's because the author is trying to create an air of mystery about them that will be solved in later books, or if she's having trouble figuring out dragon culture and characterisation.

I feel that encompasses the main flaw of this book - that the author is making everything up as she goes along. This would explain the paper-thin worldbuilding (with country names and towns being thrown around without any context), inconsistent use of magic (where did all of this rune magic come from????), and exceedingly silly plot twists (the whole
Jack coming back to life
plot made no sense in-universe). 

I also felt like I didn't care about the characters. She kills off a lot of characters, which normally would be fine (and if done properly, like in A Song of Ice and Fire, can make a book feel more compelling and thrilling), but I didn't feel any emotional connection to any of the characters killed off (and apart from Liam, it seems like Violet didn't either). The romance between Violet and Xaden is also very mediocre, with lots of unnecessary drama created between them just from a lack of communication. 

I rated the first book a higher rating as, even though it had the same problems as this one, it was more entertaining; I found this book to be 200 pages too long, with a lot of it dragging in the middle. 

In short, it's just not very good, even with the dragons. I would happily just take a book about the dragons and forget about all the human characters. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

spootilious's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional 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? No

1.5

 
Read: November 29, 2023
 Title: Iron Flame 

Series: The Empyrean #2 

Author: Rebecca Yarros 

Genre: New Adult Fantasy
 Rating: 1.5 / 5
 Review: 

Let me start by saying, I’ve been trying…. SO HARD… to like this book and I just… Can’t. 

I didn’t care much for the first either, but I’ve been hoping that the series will redeem itself… so far that has not happened. 

Did I enjoy reading the book? I suppose so. Is the book good? Absolutely not. 

There are two issues more than anything that stand out before I simply provide a list of what I liked and did not like about the book: 1. Yarros seriously needs to find an editor the writing is just terrible! And 2. There is ZERO originality in the series. 

Okay… Onto the list of this I liked:
 1. The story concept is a good one. And if another author (a skilled one) had written this story I’m sure I would have LOVED it. 

2. I like Dragons. 
 
 Onto the list of things I didn’t like: 

1. I don’t think Yarros understand that in order to build the climax of a story you have to have a consistent baseline that is lower than the climax itself. If the punches never stop then the ‘final blow’ won’t feel any different than the first 100 jabs. There is absolutely zero downtime between ‘big’ events throughout this book and thus the ending (and everything really) wasn’t memorable in the least. Yarros didn’t get herself space to build on when she set the base line on the same level as the climax of the book. Honestly, I’ve never read an author who wasn’t self aware enough (or skilled enough… whatever the case may be) to realize this and it’s EXTREMELY disappointing. 

2. Almost all the characters (minus a small handful) weren’t memberable and very flat. I can’t even remember all of Violet’s squad members… I might be able to name… 3? And that’s after the merge. All the characters are 1 dimensional and unremarkable… Too many names not enough characters. 

3. As mentioned in the things that I liked, the story is good. Which is a problem because Yarros isn’t. It makes the story disproportionate to the author’s skill level. Which is nothing against Yarros, no one starts off skilled, but when your story is better than your abilities it causes problems. 

4. This, like Fourth Wing, felt like a young adult novel wanting to be adult by adding sex and violence. Not a good mix. 

5. The main character is EXTREMELY hypocritical, expecting so much from so many people when she does the same exact things with no consequences. 

6. There is no real character development for any of the main characters. 

7. Violet once again gets away with EVERYTHING with practically no consequences, and conveniently finds the solution to all their problems every time just in time. (superman syndrome) Which is amusing considering this isn’t a ‘chosen one’ series. 

8. The pacing is TERRIBLE. Which goes back to the whole jab jab punch thing. All jabs… no punches. 

9. Every female character in this series are defined by male characters, with the exception of maybe 2 (Mira and Ri which are in the background). 

10. Yarros keeps telling the reader how smart and strong and unique violet is but violets actions never really show it. She always has to be saved or comes to these big epiphanies when guided but not on her own. She doesn’t stand out. 

11. Toxic relationship(s) on both (and every) side 

12. So repetitive both in dialog and plot points. 

13. The hole book felt like a scramble to try and fill in every plot hole found in book 1 while ignoring all the ones in book 2. Which means book 3 will probably be the same. 

14. Honestly the entire novel felt like a regurgitated version of Twilight but with Dragons. 

15. Which brings us back to the first issue of being completely unoriginal. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

vivivi's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ohhhhhh things keep happening ahhhh 

It's one thing after another! People are dropping like flies! 

Really hard to put down. 

Finally able to catch my breath at the halfway mark. 

And somehow we manage to come back to a school setting, which I love. 

Things are looking bleak. I'm in the final 2 hours of the audiobook. Anything can happen. Anyone might die. Ahhh 

Holy cow that ending. Two cliff hangers in a row!! Amazing. Love it. Also, I need the next book. 

Are reviews supposed to make sense? I can't make any sense at the moment.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings