Month: February 2024

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Caraval by Stephanie Garber

All right, we’re back with another book review! It hasn’t been that long since I wrote a review because I posted the Iron Flame review about a week ago. But, I did read one book between that and this one, Caraval, which I didn’t think was worthy of a lengthy review because it didn’t feel like the type of content you guys might be looking for. But, if you’d like to hear about it (it’s called Less is More by Jason Hickel), I will post a review. Now, back to business!

I read Caraval in about two days, which is pretty close to my record of a day and a half (no surprise, that was Icebreaker), but I think that’s a pretty big indication of how much I liked the book. It was a super cool and fun world, and the layout and structure felt similar to a heist, fantasy book, so I loved the vibes of Six of Crows that it gave me. I love Six of Crows, so that was definitely a pro. But, it was unquestionably Y/A, had little smut/physical romance, and was a super simplistic writing style. That’s probably why I flew through it; I was super engaged the whole way through and could understand what was going on easily.

That’s not to say the plot twists and turns didn’t surprise the heck out of me, because they did. I was gasping and nuh-uh-ing for my life in the last half of the book, which gave me such an awesome feeling of drama, theatrics, and high tensions. That was the vibe of basically the whole book, and it was absolutely what I needed. I have little to no complaints about this book. Would it be one of my all-time favorite books? No. Did it change my life and force me to question my soul? Nope. But it took me back to parts of my childhood while also appealing to my taste in books right now. I loved the Six of Crows vibes, the fantasy and tension, and the colorful, magical, performance world. It was difficult not to visualize everything about the book, which is one of my favorite things to do, so I enjoyed that as well.

In conclusion, I had lots of fun reading Caraval, breezed through it, and didn’t see the plot twists coming—but then again, I never do. It was a great read for me to have at the moment and a perfect world to escape to, which is what I love about fantasy and fiction.

Genre: Y/A, fantasy, fiction, light romance

Age: 12+

Rating: 8/10

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Iron Flame (Fourth Wing Book 2) by Rebecca Yarros

Alright, I’m back! I know everyone was missing me, but have no fear—I have returned! I was reading this book over a vlog that will be posted in a few weeks and I want to write a review of it as well. So, here goes!

I’d like to start by saying that I know for certain that I didn’t like the book as a whole more than I liked Fourth Wing. In my opinion, Fourth Wing was cohesively better and had more of a distinct plot, whereas Iron Flame added so much new world-building and elements to the story that I not only couldn’t keep track of what was happening, but I just wasn’t as invested in the story anymore. Not to say I didn’t have a good time and wasn’t losing my mind over the ending, but it’s just an observation I had comparing the two books. So, I’d have to say that whatever I rate Iron Flame, it’s going to be less than I rated Fourth Wing.

One thing that got on my nerves in Iron Flame was how much the new elements of the story painted Xaden in a bad light for most of the book. Firstly, he and Violet were fighting for over half the book, and his “terms” for their relationship were bogus. I mean, trusting his secrets? Sorry, if my life was put at risk multiple times for his secrets, if he hid my un-dead brother from me for a year, forced me to lie to my friends and family, and then refused to tell me any of his secrets because it’s “for my own good”? Yeah, I think I’d just be a little wary and at least set some boundaries up. But even then, he is so insulted by her being less blindly trusting of him. Excuse me for taking Violet’s side, but it’s so difficult to take Xaden’s throughout the book.

However, he does redeem himself a bit at the end and I understand that it’s just his nature to hide everything because he’s been threatened and hunted for his whole life. I can understand it, I just wish he would be more trusting and open with Violet. That’s my two cents.

On another note, I loved seeing some of my favorite characters get more space in the book, like Rhiannon, Mira, Ridoc, and Violet’s mom, Lilith. I love Rhiannon especially and sometimes the side characters can carry the whole story; here they definitely did. But, again, the rapid and complex world-building throughout made it so difficult to stay with the characters. I was constantly trying to figure out who they were fighting, why this thing that happened was significant, who owed who a debt, or where the heck they even were in the continent. Thankfully, Rebecca finally included a full map, but even so, there’s just a million and one pieces that I’m not invested in enough to keep in my brain. I am capable of keeping track of world-building and I’ll reread or think through the world-building to understand it if need be, but this just wasn’t good world-building.

Y’all know I rate books mainly off their vibes, and that’s the case with Fourth Wing. I rated it 10/10 at that time (not sure if I’d still rate it that) because the vibes and the energy were kept so high throughout, which I loved. However, Iron Flame didn’t have the same vibes at all points in the story, and as the world-building took front and center, the energy and pace were kind of second place. This made it not as memorable to me and also lowered it in my rating. However, I’ll admit I had a good time, which you’ll see if you watch the vlog, and I’ll probably continue with the series when the next book comes out, only because I need to know what happens to Xaden!

Genre: fantasy, romantasy, fiction, Y/A

Age: 14+

Rating: 7/10