Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Iron Flame

Because the authors violent colonial world view became really obvious both by being the second book in the series and the timing of the release of the book with the Palestinian holocaust.

It’s violent in a really colonized way, with unnecessary death and weird justifications. It reads like kids playing at war as if that’s a good and necessary thing. As if children need to be violent and awful to survive a mysterious eastern other. When the truth is THEY are the monster their parents created and the “other” are just trying to live, not kill them. It was present in the first book but I didn’t catch it, now it screams colonization and I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.

One example: She literally goes into detail about how these children soldiers make sure to dye their hair while hiding out at a traitor compound while they are supposed to be doing war games. Aren’t the teachers suspicious when they come back with freshly died hair when they were supposed to be barely surviving and on dragons? How did they find pink hair dye at the hidden revolutionary compound?!!! It just screams “girl boss”. “Isn’t it so cool that they have cool hair while murdering people?!!”

Another example which finally got me to DNF, which I hate doing, was when Violet justified the killing of her classmates. Said it was necessary to prepare her. With the ongoing genocide of Palestine it made me sick. Thinking of what lies and justifications the US and other white dominate countries have for why they have to bomb civilians.

There are way more problems, like her disability, the main reason I read this book in the first place. Just like everything else her disability is appropriated and rings so shallow. I have a literal connective tissue disease like Violet but I can tell you the representation is not real. I was so excited to see it and so disappointed to see that just like revolution in this book, it’s a stolen poor imitation of it.

I recommend the 5th season if you want world building and actual revolution not just the aesthetic of revolution.

Content Warnings

marena02's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny tense 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

3.75

Content Warnings

hxlleann's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.0

Content Warnings

ka_ke's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

lexigoyette's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

It was a little dragged out at parts. That took away some of the magic and allure that I had reading Fourth Wing.

The cliffhanger though…

Content Warnings

spootilious's review against another edition

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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.

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