Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Iron Flame

What. Even. I have to wait until DECEMBER? I really can’t. The ending of this book is such a cliffhanger and a twist I was not anticipating. I enjoyed this book, but felt some of it could’ve been condensed. I also felt that some of the magic wasn’t explained as well as I would’ve liked, but all in all, this was a good part 2. The characters are embedded in my heart now, and I hope they all have a happy ending.

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thebelovedreadingnook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I really liked "Fourth Wing", I gave it 4.75/5. It was such a fun book, but I wasn't utterly obsessed with it like everyone else was. However, it held some intrigue for me so I decided to read the second book. I heard from a lot of people that this book was a let down so I was fearful when getting into it, but as I was reading it I was eating it up. I didn't understand how people weren't liking this book cuz I was enjoying myself UNTIL I got to Part 2 then things just went downhill from there. I feel there was just an overwhelming amount of information dumping that became too overwhelming and convoluted. Too many new phrases. Too many locations to keep track of. Wayyyyyyy too many new characters and pointless scenes. The chapter felt so inconclusive. Like there would be an issue or a scene that should've been fleshed out more, but then is completely taken care of in the next chapter. The conflict between Xaden and Violet dragged out for wayyyy too long. Xaden would be so wishy-washy; he'd want to communicate but then also hoard secrets from Violet, but oh my gosh Violet would make me scream sometimes because when it came to Xaden she legit loses all her agency and becomes so head over heels that she loses her common sense

Her taking an eight-hour flight to Samara just to see him even though he was fine. And sometimes it's like time-and-place with these two cuz literally after Violet almost kills Cat, Xaden eats her out in the throne room where the Assembly just had their meeting. Like c'mon guys!

. It was cute at first, but then after a while, it just annoyed me. I wanted to scream at Violet like "girl, GET UP off your knees!". I also want to note that WE WERE ROBBED by not getting those letters. I feel like they would've given their relationship more emotional passion, you know considering toward the end he's still not really open with her. Their romance in this book just seemed underwhelming, to say the least.

There were plot points that were given that were backtracked and never really brought up again

Like I still don't understand Varrish's purpose. I thought he was going to be a constant threat throughout the story and then he just gets killed in the first half? I wasn't expecting his character to have depth or anything, but I did want to know more about why he was there. I think that was supposed to be inferred when it should've been told.

. Contradicting scenes used for drama

We're indirectly told by Bodhi at the beginning that Xaden had a big thing for a girl named "Cat". And instead of Violet bringing it up right away we don't explore this until later in the book. We're told that Xaden possesses no feelings towards Cat at all and that their relationship was an arranged marriage. Which is so stupid to me because then why have that scene with Bodhi basically inferring that Cat was Xaden's first love? And honestly having that would've made more sense actually cuz Violet and Cat were fighting FOR WHAT exactly. It was all so stupid.

.

Honestly close to the 500-page mark I started to not care cuz I was so confused as to what was happening and just the general politics of what was going on. Of course, my own comprehension skills play a part in this, but I also feel like she didn't explain a lot of things well. And I'd like to add that I don't writing battle/fighting scenes is the author's strong suit. Maybe it's just me but I found it difficult to imagine her descriptions a lot of the time. I also felt like a lot of important questions went unanswered.

Sill unsure why Xaden HAD to become venin to save Violet? The dreams were too cryptic to really get anything out of them. I still don't understand how venin exists in the first place. That might've been explained in book 1, I don't know. And I wish they delved into how the wardstones are powered because how was their mother able to do it or how was Brennan just able to power it? Also, Andrana not being punished for killing Solas is a little too convenient for me. I hope we get more answers on the species of dragon she is. I need answers. Also, I hope we get more insight into the history of Basigath because the contrast between how the gyrphon fliers and the dragon riders operate is interesting. It makes no sense how this war college would casually let their students get killed.

I'm glad Dain got his redemption. I'm not his no.1 fan or anything, but I do feel like he's over-hated.

I was also going to rate this book a 3.5/5, but I really enjoyed the final scenes of the book. I know for most of my review I've pointed out so many negatives about this book, but I do think this was a decent sequel. I did enjoy seeing Violet's inner turmoil when it came to her friends, Tairn and Andarna are always a delight, and Ridoc is just so funny (hope we get more of him). I feel like the author was just put under a lot of pressure to produce a second book due to the overwhelming success the first book got. I hope she's able to take her time with the series continuing forward. Hopefully, the third book can answer some of the unanswered questions and redeem the series.

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blacksphinx's review against another edition

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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.

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redpollrory's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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cait's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

lunar_mermaid's review against another edition

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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.

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