Review: Iron Flame, by Rebecca Yarros
by
Stuart Holland
Keeping up this kind of breakneck pacing over the course of such a long book is a challenge and Iron Flame largely succeeds. Like its predecessor, the story is violent and sexy and delivers narrative punches well. There are a lot of great “showstopper” endings to chapters that keep you reading, and variety in chapter length makes them difficult to predict.
There were some great surprises and a couple of my casual theories along the way turned out to be wrong, but their alternatives still sensible, which I appreciate. The book also manages to answer my initial question going in of how there can possibly be a “second year” at the school, after the events of Fourth Wing.
Like the first book, but moreso with this one, I had issues with narrative clarity several times. I was confused about what was actually happening on the page in a few places - for events both big and small. While that confusion was usually cleared up soon enough (within a page or two), I got the impression that the missing information was because I’m a reader who doesn’t already know what everyone is thinking, rather than an intentional misdirection from the author. And on a very specific level, it was sometimes not clear to me who was talking when I read lines of dialogue.
Overall I would definitely recommend. Tairn continues to be delightful. Violet can be frustrating, but her heart’s in the right place. I’m glad to see . The whole cast of students and young riders shows up strong. I look forward to the next book(s) in the series!
