READING LOG No. 9: IRON FLAME (The Empyrean, Book 2) by Rebecca Yarros
Since this is a reread, I won't be writing a full review like normal. I'm just going to ramble about it. I liked this book when I first read it in 2023, but I love it now. Upon re-visit, I truly believe that this book elevated the first one and this one with a single detail: Xaden's second signet.
There is so much nuance now with every Xaden interaction. In Fourth Wing, you can see where he uses his signet on Violet, like when she's hiding in the tree and also when she's brooding the night before gauntlet. There are three moments in Iron Flame that are my favorite hints to his inntinnsic ability: first, when Varrish is trying to take Violet for their first interrogation test for RSC and Xaden is mentally telling Violet that Varrish plans to use that as a way to kill her; second, when he insists on meeting Jesinia and Violet's like, "so you can do your reading of her to test her trustworthiness," not knowing that is exactly why; and thirdly, when Xaden yells for Violet right before Aaric grabs at her and pulls her through the barrier in the archives. I figured he must have been using his second signet the whole time to monitor Aaric to ensure his compliance and dependability.
The way that Liam haunts the narrative as an emotional crutch was for both Violet and me. I love that he is still present, even if it was as a delusion. It is actually insane how deeply attached I, and many others, are to him from just one book. I cried again over his death during my reread of Fourth Wing. I hope he continues to haunt the narrative in the next three books.
With the wording used for the excerpts before each chapter, and keeping mind the fact that both books start with a disclaimer that the following story is a translation by Jesinia, I have a prediction for the way this series will end. I think our main cast of dragon riders are all going to die, including Violet and Xaden. I feel like the letters Xaden wrote to Violet wouldn't be listed as "recovered" if one of them had voluntarily handed them over to Jesinia so that she could add it to her records. I also think they were too personal and meaningful for either of them to hand them over. I, also, think that the tradition of burning possessions immediately after a death is going to be stopped for the exact reason of maintaining accurate archiving of information. So much of these books are about government censorship and rewritten history for propaganda and societal control.
I've read a lot of criticism about the pacing of the book, which I don't understand. I loved the pacing. I loved that it's split into two parts, because, at 600+ pages, Yarros could have easily split this into 2 books and that would've been annoying to me.
