Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - Iron Flame

Not quite as good as Fourth Wing (honestly, that might be impossible so I knew it probably wouldn’t / couldn’t be), but Iron Flame still had a death grip on me until I finished it. I read FW and IF back-to-back, and I felt like I was living on adrenaline and almost disassociated from my life because ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS READ AND ALL I WAS THINKING ABOUT WAS THIS SERIES. I read literally all night until 7am or later multiple times. I was so sad when I finished IF because now I have to wait until the next book is released. But at the same time, the flood of relief I felt when I finished was PALPABLE (like after you turn in the last thing during exam week after running on fumes for days) lol. I was like thank god I’m no longer held captive by these books and can relax now and get back to my normal life haha
A few things that brought it down from 5 stars for me: Violet and Xaden’s relationship dynamic gets pretty repetitive and frustrating, but I’m hoping that it was intentional and we’ll see growth from them moving forward. I also didn’t like how many times the story jumped forward to the next day or several days / weeks later because I felt like I was missing things (like, did they talk about xyz but we didn’t see it or have they not even discussed it?). I just want to know what happens every minute of every day!! Even the “boring” day-to-day stuff because that’s when we get to see Violet’s friends and learn more about the world :( but I also get that it’s already a long book. Similar to FW, the writing is simply fine — not so terrible it ruins the story but also not good (I swear to god everything is measured in heartbeats as if this world does not have any other unit to measure time)

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense slow-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? No

3.5

🇳🇱: jeetje was een dik boek. Toen ik begon aan dit boek voelde ik meteen weer de vibes waar ik fourth wing mee geëindigd ben. Naarmate ik verder kwam in het boek werd dit minder. Het boek is in mijn mening gehaast geschreven, het bevat veel actie die slecht uitgewerkt is. Er komt heel veel op je af in de 600 pagina's maar veel had beter uitgewerkt kunnen worden. Ook waren er veel nieuwe (soms onbelangrijke) namen die je in de war brachten. Het einde maakte een hele hoop goed, maar die had wat uitgebreidere gemogen. Beter uitgewerkte actie in het boek had beter op zijn plaats geweest dan de hoeveelheid korte actie. Ook was dit boek zoals wordt gezegt veel meer gefocust op informatie over de wereld en de manier van besturen en magie. Dit is niet voor iedereen weggelegt, vooral als je niet zo veel fantasie leest. Al met al een goed vervolg, maar hij had beter uitgewerkt kunnen worden. Door het einde ben ik enorm benieuwd naar deel 3.

🇬🇧: wow, that was a big book. When I started this book I immediately felt the vibes that I ended Fourth Wing with. As I got further into the book this became less. In my opinion, the book was written in a hurry, it contains a lot of action that is poorly developed. There is a lot to deal with in the 600 pages, but much could have been developed better. There were also a lot of new (sometimes unimportant) names that confused you. The ending made up for a lot, but it could have been a bit more elaborate. Better developed action in the book would have been more appropriate than the amount of short action. Also, as stated, this book was much more focused on information about the world and the way of governing and magic. This isn't for everyone, especially if you don't read much fantasy. All in all a good sequel, but it could have been developed better. The ending makes me very curious about part 3.

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