IRON FLAME is an ABSOLUTE DISASTER | DEEP DIVE PT1 

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I think the worst part about this series is that there's a good story in there somewhere but the author is two busy making her dolls kiss to notice it.

The bar was so low and somehow Rebecca Yarros limboed under it

A book that explores the question, "What if the Chosen One was an idiot? And also there's 🐉"

I still can't look at the book cover without reading it as Iron Flamf

honestly, the idea of violet not caring about the prince/the royal family would be cool if it showed how disconnected the military was from the monarch. it would show how much they were secretly in control and the king was a puppet. but no, violet just doesn't care.

The Rebellion? The Separatists? The Empire? Pack it up George Lukas

the worst part of the book for me was the complete erasure of Violet's disability outside of Yarros using it like a disability super power 🤢 So now it is not only that she pushes through all her pain and symptoms (which is toxic and unhealthy but doesnt seem to affect her), she is now the poster child for the super-crip trope. For an author to allegedly want to "represent EDS and all its subtypes" and to inspire people, to put a foreword to Zebras (people with EDS) saying "not all strength is physical", and then go about writing these books where Violet's strength very much IS her physical prowess and ability to transcend her pain.... Violet has a super-human pain tolerance and can apparently take being tortured so much better than everyone else. She is never doing realistic pain management or anything and I have to wonder why the rep is being held up like some amazing achievement when it's so shallow and neglects even basic EDS logic? I LOATHED how she was "still healing" from said torture and then that was only mentioned because Xaden was so horny and he wanted to be rough with her, and she just goes "give it to me" and there is once again ZERO consideration of her body's needs in relation to her EDS. The rep at this point is problematic af

This book gives a 14 year old’s passion project that lives in a Lisa frank notebook and never should have seen the light of day

god the whole time i was like WHY in gods name is this librarian translating violet's smut journals

Jesinia over here transcribing the same argument between Violet and Xaden 500 times... plus on top of that, documenting all of Violet's thirsty thoughts and then going into explicit detail about them having s3x ...girl I know they' ain't paying you enough for that sh!t

Wait. The MC is wounded and she wakes up where a rebellion against the evil government is secretly based, which happens to be a place that was supposedly destroyed? This all sounds glaringly familiar...

Violet reads as very annoying unreasonable and immature, yet we are told she is also the most smartest wise empathetic and powerful girlboss slayyy hope for humanity like…

This whole second book felt like the = of "somehow Palpatine has returned!"

Violet’s failure to ask questions or think about the implications of anything is a real indictment of Scribal training, when you think about it.

I think Iron Flame could be called A Book of Endless Arguments and Frustrations.

i love that she is putting Rhiannon in the same position she was in with regards to info about what’s going on and can’t see the hypocrisy

Your use of Kronk for these reviews is iconic tbh

its incredible how little happened in a 2 hour synopsis of 30 percent of a book thank you so much for your service

There's a criticism for books where people will say a book feels like its written by a frustrated screenwriter and I have a hard time articulating why exactly but I got a really distinct feeling "Fourth Wing" started as a movie or TV pitch like "Harry Potter/Divergent with dragons! :D" like something about the way the plot is unfolding feels really like a fantasy show for the CW or something. Even the development for "now this book is about anti-imperialism" feels like a show going into its new season like "stakes are high, alliances are formed. who can you trust?" Like even somehow the tryhard cringey millenial slang in the dialogue feels straight out of "Riverdale" or something.

A 2-hour video absolutely ripping this book to shreds? ...I'll clear my calendar. We MAKE time for trashy YA teardowns.

Linguistics/languages is one of my special interests, and whenever someone does something like conflating two endangered languages with a history of repression, it...does not make me happy. I have no issues with creators drawing heavily on existing languages for their conlangs, but only if they respect the real languages and know which ones they're using-not accidentally using a language because they thought it was the same as another one!

The second book appears to have more plot than the first but somehow feels less engaging. I think it largely has to do with the “drama” between Violet and Xaden in the second book. The misunderstandings between them, coupled with Violet’s emotional immaturity, are so contrived and ridiculous that it feels not only frustrating but insulting to me as a 20-something year old; were one of my girlfriends as immature about a situationship as Violet was, after an initial bout of sympathetic listening to her complaints, our other friends and I would sit her down and stage an intervention to let her know how unhealthy her relationship is for her. Also, that’s what Violet’s and Xaden’s relationship is: a situationship. They know each other as well as college f*ck buddies who’ve had inane pillow talk about “what’s your favorite food” to fill up the silence out of courtesy when one of them is too tired to go home. And because of the superficiality of their connection, it feels extra icky for Violet to lash out at Xaden and demand things from him that he really doesn’t owe her; why tf would he risk the lives of those he holds close and dear to him for a girl he barely knows enough to know whether or not she buys into government propaganda? Violet was certainly in need of character flaws that didn’t serve to make her look heroic, but her mind numbingly stupid inability to care about the feelings of a man who she supposedly loves devolves her from merely annoying to contemptible. If Rebecca Yarrows was trying to write realism or the passion of epic star-crossed lovers by widening the divide between between Xaden and Violet through trust issues, then she failed.

You should look into how Yarros basically ripped off the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard and basically copied everything but just added dragons. Her book wasn't 'inspired' by Red Queen it was copy pasted with dragons and other minor things added in but all the major things and important stuff is exactly the same. Even the main character Violet, looks exactly like the main character in the red queen series, Mare Barrow, down the the brown hair with silver ends. She has the exact same powers as that main character and *spoiler alert* the main plot point of her thinking her brother is dead and then finding out that he is actually alive and joined the resistance...exactly the same. It also had a love triangle and there is more but I want list every single thing she ripped off and poorly for that matter. She copied all the major things from this series and then sprinkled in some Sarah J Maas but didn't actually come up with anything original unless you count the awful attempt at dragons. And there is proof that she was aware of this book before fourth wing and it wasn't a coincidence because Yarros posted a picture on her social media of her bookshelf and Red Queen is prominently displayed, so she clearly read it since it was displayed with the front cover facing forward rather than the spine of the book which most people only do when its a favourite book of theirs. No one is really talking about this either and it really annoys me that she is getting a huge amount of hype and praise for a book that she didn't even come up with herself, not to mention I hate how this book came about because it wasn't a passion project, it wasn't something she wanted to do, her publisher wanted a new adult fantasy with dragons and before looking for new authors with stories like that they offered the chance to the authors they already had and Yarros decided that after years of writing military romances she was qualified to write a fantasy series like its not that hard. Sorry for the rant but the entire circumstances around how this book came about and the actual content of the book and how her and the publishers don't give a shit about creating and selling a quality product they just want to take peoples money really annoys me, not just as a reader but as a writer myself.

The rules about the general not being able to see anything in groups of three or more is just...so arbitrary. I'd have loved to have witnessed him discover this. Did he have groups of people help him? Two people: I SEE YOU. Three people: WHERE'D YOU GO?!

Also the way I laughed out loud at my job over “DO NOT CITE THE DEEP MAGIC TO ME WITCH, I WAS THERE WHEN IT WAS WRITTEN”

70% of this book is just Violet and Xaden having the same fight over and over again it really is exhausting and then when you think yay that’s over…. fake love triangle and then what was that? Oh right back to Violet and Xaden nonsense again… it’s also ridiculous that at no point during all the actual torture she went through did she think maybe she could ask her mother for help 🙄

thank you for the character photos, it is both helping me keep track and also sending me into orbit

I was gonna stop crocheting for tonight, but I guess I can do some more 🤷

17:21 The circus is empty, and all the clowns are here

Your channel is literally the greatest thing to happen to me. I tried finishing Fourth Wing last week and DNFed at chapter 7. It was AWFUL! I immediately knew I couldn’t read book #2 😭. Then I found your 3 part deep dive and had WAYYY more fun listening to you brilliantly critique every single issue I had with this book more than I did reading the actual thing. I’m SO PUMPED to settle down with some food and tea to watch this one. Thank you for taking one for the team Rachel.

“Are the dragons in charge or the humans?” What I asked myself the whole time!! like, what do you mean the dragons wouldn’t just tell everyone to f*vk off and do what they want? Why would they allow humans to control how often they’d be able to see each other…

This review is 15 minutes short of being as long as Dune Part 1. Perfect.

Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows) would have taken over the world by now. And he would have done it in style.

potentially the most egregious thing, out of many egregious things, is her NEVER thinking about her dead-suddenly-not-dead brother. what was even the POINT of that

I watched the last video but hearing the recap, i realized that i still have no idea wtf happened

The thing about these books that absolutely slays me is that Yarros has managed to write such a huge Mary Sue while also making her one of the most idiotic heroines I've read in a long time. Zero common sense or ability to think ahead, no reasoning skills, totally unable to connect the dots on anything. It makes me want to write fan fiction where she just dies the first day and we're all spared this nonsensical story.

As a brazilian portuguese native speaker, i think translating Iron Flame( Chama de Ferro) results in a prety cool name

Hey at least we didn’t get “she ran like she was running for something”

Sometimes I wish authors would just unabashedly sell me their free-written manuscripts instead of trying to pretend it’s a well-thought out, edited story. Like, don’t piss on me and then try to tell me it’s raining.

I feel like the author was like take every trope rthat fantasy has blended it all together and the sneeze in the smoothie

I'm sure I'll have more to say later, but 30 minutes in and Violet just sounds like a selfish and immature character. As it came across, she was giving Xaden an ultimatum of "either choose me or the rebellion." Which, miss ma'am, the rebellion is more important.

it makes absolutely no sense that someone raised by a General would not understand the concept and necessity of classified information. It's okay for Violets mother, the other superior's and even Dane to keep classified information from her and other students, that makes sense to her -- but she can't understand why that also might be necessary for her brother and boyfriend to do?

Zaiden Ryderson is the most Disney name I’ve ever heard

I laughed out loud when the dragon said "don't they teach you anything" because No. Yaros does not.

This book may not be good, but you pointing out why is not only entertaining, it's good because any reader that watches your video with an open mind will learn to read more critically. These kind of reviews can be extensive and consuming, but if anyone here is planning on writing a book this is basically a guide of what not to do. If I can ask something, could you please do a video about the editorial aspects of this series, such as how it was promoted from start, the many special editions, and the issues with the publishing of the second book (the printing errors, the lack of and editor, etc)?

Why would- no, how COULD- the transcriber transcribe Violet's monologue about "Omg Xaiden he's soooooooo hot but I'm gonna cut my thoughts off right there!" 1- No one cares! This isn't history! 2- You can't transcribe someone cutting their thoughts off! You can't do that! It's completely illogical! I'm going to scream!!!

here from krimsonrogue dropping a mention about your dissection of the previous book in his critique, and what a godsend this channel is god bless keep doin this stuff its rocks

I have no skin in this game because I'm not going to read these books, but I just want to say that due to the opening with the missing brother, I now just assume this book is that creepy folger commercial with the brother and sister who are a little too close, but if they had dragons.

I think the thing I dislike about this romantasy genre with the books I've either read myself or watched long reviews for is that the focus on the romance takes the driver's seat in a setting where that type of centering actively harms the overall plot. The worldbuilding and actual story gets shoved into the background to the point that it ends up being underdeveloped or full of plot holes, and that's not something you can do with a fantasy (or a scifi) setting. It's hard to get invested in the characters we're even supposed to be focusing on when nothing they do within the setting makes sense because the worldbuilding is on the backburner. And with this series specifically it's SO obvious that the author just shoves in what little worldbuilding she does do solely to move the romance forward, thus nuking any previous worldbuilding almost every time she does it. Violet has no agency, the plot doesn't move because of her, it moves because the author is just shifting the chess pieces around to set up the next sex scene.

It's so strange to me that the climax of the last book was going AWOL to fight this unknown threat and then they just go back to school for so much of this book. It just seemed like a real "crossing the Rubicon/point of no return" and then they just... go back across the Rubicon. They return from the point of no return. I don't think it's impossible to pull that off, I'm not a strict adherent to "heroes journey" stuff, but it just makes me not interested in the events of the story because I don't trust that anything that happens will actually end up mattering.

I knew I wouldn’t like this book based on your review of the first one, but man as someone with EDS it’s so sad seeing this be touted as good rep. I should have known it was going to be bad as soon as she got silver hair tips out of the deal. I wish Yarros had done her research on disability advocacy before writing Violet (or the whole series, I guess). I know she also has EDS but man, you would not be able to tell based on how she writes it.

Rebecca yarros is not the only American fantasy author to use languages from wales, Scotland, and Ireland with absolutely no thought into how they’re pronounced. Sarah j maas also does this, Ava Reid does this, Rebecca Ross does this. Please call all of them out. As a Welsh and Scottish person I am absolutely sick of Americans taking our languages and 1. Using them in place of actual worldbuilding or thought and 2. Butchering their pronunciation 3. Fans of said authors claiming it’s said ‘whoever the author says it since it’s their book’ except it’s a real language so no it’s not 😡

*grabs tea and settles in*

the pictures you use to depict the characters never fails to have me weakkkk.

The fact that I laughed when you said "So just another red shirt" As a little kid I would periodically joined my grandfather when he would watch anything Star Trek

This book constantly tells us how smart Violet is but never shows it…

"What's stopping them!!!!!!?" Literally Yarros's imagination... or lack there of...

This is peak Sunday entertainment and I'll die on this hill

I feel like the dragons not actually being able to communicate clearly, like in httyd, would fix some of the plot holes about the dragons and what they know. Why didn't her dragon tell her about her brother? He couldn't. Why aren't the dragons on the same page about baby dragons? They are, the humans just don't know/don't care. Why is Violet's dragon not just eating all her enemies? He's not sure what's being said to her. 🐉

RIP Nadine, I didn't know you, I don't understand why you piped up, and I will not remember your name tomorrow 🙏🤷‍♂️🕊️

Re: the accusations of misogyny because of criticising a book a woman wrote... I feel like it's misogynistic to act like women are too fragile to have any kind of genuine criticism levelled against them. But that's just me 🤷🏻‍♀️

The “Ma’am, that was several sentences long” at 9:00 was so visceral I felt it in my soul

The fact that this series had SO much potential in theory and turned into this is sad

As someone currently unable to work due to depression and avoiding people due to ginormous anxiety, I hate the trope of “power through” especially when the person has a disability. Powering through let to this stupid depression/burnout and I know that it will take so much time for me to even reach similar energy levels as before. If someone in a similar situation reads this please slow down and get help if possible. Who thought 🐉🌽 would make me dig so deep on RU-vid.

You are a genius to use Yugioh cards to represent the dragons. Makes every so much better.

An over 2 hour long vodeo?! Is it my birthday?! Yay!!!

ok. so. if Xaden and Violet get horny when their dragons do because of the mate bond thing, does that mean Xaden ALSO had sex with the guy who was bonded to Tyr before Violet or nah? Or, at the very least, did they also have to stay close to each other like Xaden and Violet have to? Somehow, I feel like Rebecca didn't actually think of that question when she made that decision and was only thinking about how to make Xaden and Violet have sex even though they were still """enemies""" at that point..... Unless they WEREN'T still considered enemies at that point and I forgot just because I don't care enough to remember, lol

I love how we’re constantly told how intelligent and different Violet is when she’s shown to have all the intelligence of a doorknob

I did not have the mental fortitude to even read Iron Flame after the hot mess of Fourth Wing.

“DO NOT CITE THE DEEP MAGIC TO ME, *WITCH*” GIRL WHEN I TELL YOU I WAS HOLLERING SKSKSKSKSKKSKSSKSKS Also seeing Rachel become more and more unhinged in the editing and herself as she breaks down this nonsensical book-this is so much better than the “Love is Blind” reunion, I’m on the ground bloody duck-walking like Anetra HELP MEH 😂You and withcindy have the BEST "snark" voices with truly BAD, OTT dialogue. Y'all are great. Thank you for your service, *Officer Rachel*. RIP your therapy bills after this video though 😭

Putting the character visualizers in there is EXTREMELY helpful, hard to tell what the fuck is going on at any time and those help a lot

Yeah, no. The orange cat/orange dragon thing also doesn't grok for me, and I have an orange cat who holds the brain cell.

rebecca yarros' writing just sounds like the how to train your dragon version of sarah j mass 💀

This book needed to be divided into 2 books. There was too much happening and at the same time nothing happening and it felt like it dragged on.

I'm just lost on the general and his ability to see the outcome of any battle. Does that mean no one in the revolution has ever fought or argued with each other? At what point does an argument become a battle? Is it when they start screaming at each other or is it when the fists and/or weapons come out? I am so confused

As somebody who was the target audience during peak Divergent/Hunger Games/Uglies I am exhausted by the “my government is corrupt and the last line in a trilogy is ‘welcome to the resistance’” trope, especially when it is as heavy handed as this series is. There is a way it can be done well and this is just not it

This book is longer than Crime and Punishment btw.

How...How did this series get so much love and praise?? Violet is the most selfish, whiny character and very unlikeable!

For someone who just had her older brother come back from the dead, she really doesn't give a fuck aboht keeping him alive

Violet wants to be part of a secret society but sucks at keeping secrets. Cool. Cool cool cool cool cool. Makes sense.

I’m so sick of seeing this book in my feeds. 180,000 reviews on Amazon and not a single 1 star review? Suspicious.

I’m honestly appalled that something like this was professionally published. It reads like a twelve year old just learned about the classic narrative structure.

Hey Rachel! I've found your channel recently and you got me to pick up "The Will to Change", by Bell Hooks! Haven't read for myself in ages as the only thing I read are assigned scientific articles sand textbook chapters ( by read i mean skim through asksjhfkasjhdfkl). And now I've been picking up more books to read and learn from because of you!

Empyrean: "Face it. You're. Never. Gonna. Get. My. Power." Wings of Fire, holding an uncancelled Netflix deal: "Do I look like I need *your* power?"

alternative title: rachel remembers what the author wrote more than the author does 🤣🤣

All in one go baby! 🐲🐉 On one hand the people who were fans of 4th Wing deserve better, but on the other hand I'm not surprised (and a little vindicated) in how right the predictions saw the writing on the wall for the fast fashion like production process of Red Tower (and the author's seemingly lack of thought and care of the fantasy genre from what I could glean from interviews) would churn out the worst version of an already subbar romance with barely any fantasy book.

I swear this series is "IDK because it sounds cool, teehee" the novels

As someone called violet, I speak on behalf of all violets when I say that we don’t claim her.

this series was supposed to be 3 books but yarros had to extend it to 5... i understand now... she cant pace...

Please never stop with the Emperor's New Groove references it's truly the funniest thing 😅😅

This book is so frustrating because literally every interpersonal problem seems easily solvable by her giant fucking dragon eating them but he only occasionally threatens someone and it's never someone who's like. AN ACTUAL THREAT

This was EXHAUSTING, I cannot believe we're only 35% through... (Also people crying "internalized misogyny" towards those criticizing this book...idk who needs to tell you this but anyone of ANY gender is capable of shoddy writing. Sometimes a bad book is just a bad book!)

I want to start a micro Fandom that hates the books but does nothing but write long 200k word stories and talk for hours about a gay dragon ridding revolutionary and his best friend he's super in love with and just explore that and the complexity of what he's going through instead of his sister the surprisingly boring main character

I had a good ol' blast laughing at Fourth Wing when I read it. Iron Flame, I couldn't bring myself to read past chapter 5. I don't even think I finished the fifth chapter. Thank god for libraries.

Oh I’m so excited to hear your rip this apart for 2 hours

Wait- if all dragons are gold feathertails as babies, how are people NOT going to make the connection that dragons change as they age? Wasn't violet bonding to two dragons a big deal in the last book? doesn't EVERYBODY know about it because it's so unusual? is the general public just not going to ask questions once they see she has TWO black dragons?? (or worse, what will they think if she somehow convinces them that andarna somehow just disappeared (in order to protect the secret of baby dragons)??) Like, I remember it being explained that andarna's parents weren't there to stop her from joining the threshing, but if the secret of baby dragons is so important to the adults, why didn't they make more of an effort to stop her?? did they not think that she would, you know, AGE AND CHANGE WHICH THE HUMANS WOULD DEFINITELY NOTICE??? I listened to this video in 4 separate chunks for my commute to work, so it's very well that I may have missed any explanation you passed on, but still, for a species that supposedly wants to protect their youngest and stay super secretive about all their ways and biology, they're doing a shit job of it!!

One could pick out nearly every aspect of this series and figure out without much issue what book/movie/show Yarros yoinked it from and that is truly something. It’s not the first series that’s done this patchwork style of writing but it’s definitely one of the ones that does it so obviously.

I dropped this book for a lot of reasons but the endless repetition of the same fight is definitely number one. How can a writer recycle the same argument that many times and never come to the realisation that Violet is WRONG? Literally all she has to do is train her shields and she can get what she wants, but she doesn't. Then she complains about how everyone is keeping things from her. Then they say to train her shields and they will. And then she doesn't. Then the same argument occurs. Ohhhh my god.

everytime I entered a sex scene I turned the pages without reading until I notice it ended because like, she doesn't stop to describe and talk about the world or anything but whenever sex comes up it's way too descriptive