Author: Rebecca Yarros
Genre: High Fantasy
Summary: In this highly anticipated sequel, readers continue along with Violet Sorrengail and her life outside of Navarre’s magical borders after defecting from the war college that she attended. Whilst Violet, her friends and other students from the Riders Quadrant, along with the dragons they have bonded, learn the atrocities of their kingdom, they start to unravel and question the whole history of their world. The growing group of revolutionists try to figure out how to save their kingdom and the innocents previously left to fend for themselves by Sorrengail’s own mother, the General of Basgiath War College.
My Review of Fourth Wing
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2.5)
Plot
The plot of Iron Flame is exactly what you would expect following Fourth Wing. The only issue with this one is that half the book (possibly more?) has nothing to do with the progression of the plot, making it a little hard to read at a good pace.
Unlike Fourth Wing, which was a little stretched out as well, this book seemed to contain a huge amount of filler scenes and unnecessary drama (if you can even call it drama). My guess is that the author was going for the miscommunication trope but missed the mark.
Characters
Something that seems pretty strong in this sequel, which I highly respect, is Yarros’ characters. Just like Fourth Wing, the old and new figures that appear in Violet’s story all have a part to play and come across as multi-faceted. Not only do individual characters have depth to them, but it is captivating seeing relationships forge and watch them develop. The twist that is combining students from two different colleges/countries into one was well done.
World-building
A better view of the overall vibe of Navarre was needed from outside the country, which is what we get in Iron flame. Though the settings are still usually not in villages, towns or cities, there is more world-building in this book to help add layers to the story. It’s interesting to hear about and see more of how other people not growing up around Basgiath is living.
Writing
The writing in this book could have done with more editing. Had Fourth Wing not been such a hit and Iron Flame not been so highly-anticipted by the community, I think the author and publishers would have chosen to spend more time on going another few rounds in the editing process – which is what it desperately needed.
As mentioned, a lot of the book was filler scenes or a casualty of the miscommunication trope, neither of which moved the story along at an enjoyable pace. That’s not to say that Yarros’ writing is bad by any means, I do enjoy her form of story telling and character development.
Side note: one thing that irks me as a Welsh-speaking native of Wales (a Celtic country) is that the author chose to use Gaelic words for her locations and names yet chose to pronounce them incorrectly.
Vibe
I can’t quite put my finger on the overall vibe of the book but one word to describe it would be… rebellious. There’s still a little academia to Iron Flame but nothing like the dark academia vibes emanating from the pages of Fourth Wing. There was a lot of sexy vibes, too. And personally, there was too much smut and too much arguments-that-aren’t-really-arguments going on here. I actually found myself cringing a lot, which is usually when I start to question my choice of literature.
Is this bookstagram sensation on your TBR? Or have you already devoured it? Let me know in the comments, and share your Iron Flame review with us.
If you haven’t seen my review of Fourth Wing (Book #1 in The Empyrean Series), read it here.
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