Adult Fantasy: Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

7.5/10 

Dear Reader, 

This sequel was a great followup to the first novel, “Fourth Wing”. We get to see the story and plotlines of all of our favorite characters.

One thing that deducted points for its score was the amount of characters I had to remember. There were countless riders, fliers, professors, and dragons to remember. It got messy and at times I forgot about characters entirely, so when they were reintroduced I was a bit lost. It was also hard to remember which gryphons or dragons were bonded to which rider or flier. A dragon or gryphon would appear and be named, and I would be like who do they belong to?

My major problem with this book is the ending. In my opinion, it doesn’t leave readers wanting to pick up the next book as soon as you finish this one. “Fourth Wing” had me asking questions and biting my nails in anxiety to figure out what happened next. “Iron Flame” answered most of the questions and wrapped everything up quite nicely. The only thing that I’m really curious about is finding out what happens to Xaden after the events of the battle. 

One major thing I loved about this sequel was Xaden’s chapter at the end, we got to see the big fight from his point of view and how he was faced with an impossible decision. While I loved getting the story from Violet’s perspective, Xaden is a more interesting character in my opinion. I think if Yarros wrote more from his point of view, I think readers would feel more of the tension between him and Violet. 

Overall, the story picked off at a great point and answered most, if not all, of my questions from the first book. Some points were confusing and overcomplicated, but for the most part each question that we ended “Fourth Wing” with either gets an answer or gets further into its storyline. 

-Grace Sofia