Iron Flame

I know I’m late to the game, but that’s pretty much par for the course with me lately. When Iron Flame was released in November, there were a million things happening in my life and I didn’t have the headspace to dive back into the world of Basgiath, but I’ve been on a fantasy kick in February and the time felt right to dive back in.

Iron Flame is the sequel to Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros’s first foray into fantasy which took Booktok and Bookstagram by storm this past summer. Yarros is under contract for this to be a five book series, and after reading the sequel, I’m not really sure whether I can commit for the long haul - and I’m also not sure there’s enough plot to sustain this story for three more books.

Let’s start with my issues with this book. Iron Flame clocks in at a whopping 884 pages, which is entirely too long. Where was the editing? The first 80% of the book drags, and I’m struggling to remember what happened to fill those pages, despite finishing the book yesterday. The last 20% of the book is jam-packed with the climax of the book, but also somehow feels rushed and too sparse. The fantasy world building is pretty weak in this story, so the resolution at the end of the novel felt a little too convenient to me.

I also needed to continually remind myself that the majority of these characters are basically teenagers, and not one of them has reached the age that their prefrontal cortex has finished developing. I spent a LOT of these 884 pages wanting to scream at Violet and Xaden to just talk to each other. If these two idiots in love could just learn to communicate, maybe we wouldn’t need so very many chapters of them battling with their feelings for each other. I’m not sure I can sign on for another three books of this drama.

That being said, there are a few highlights. Andarna, the baby dragon who bonds with Violet in Fourth Wing, has reached adolescence, which manifests with plenty of angst, resentment, and rebelliousness. The dialogue between snarky teenage Andarna and misanthropic, grumpy Tairn was one of my favorite elements of the book. Tairn is a fantastic character, and his fondness for Violet comes across despite his beleaguered attitude.

Iron Flame also has a few solid romantasy scenes that bring the spice. Unfortunately, you need to be eternally patient to get to them, since our lovers spend the first half of the book resisting their sexual chemistry. Why? Great question. Allegedly it’s because they need to learn to communicate better and trust each other, but neither of those issues have been solved after 884 pages, so I’m pretty sure eventually they just gave in to their hormones and gave the readers what we want. It’s not quite as good as Fourth Wing, but stick around for the throne room scene. Trust me.

I’ll give the next book a shot when it comes out, but it will need to address the unnecessary level of detail and the manufactured drama caused by poor communication in order to keep me around for the rest of the series.