I have no words for how I feel after finishing Flamefall. I am emotionally wrecked. This book took me on a wild ride and the last 25% hurt my heart. I need the sequel ASAP because I AM IN PAIN! I guess what was I expected after Fireborne….Keep reading this book review for my agony.
Summary
After fleeing the revolution and settling into the craggy cliffs of New Pythos, the Dragonlords are eager to punish their usurpers–and reclaim their city. Their first order of business was destroying the Callipolan food supply. Now they’re coming for the Dragonriders.
Annie is Callipolis’s new Firstrider, and while her goal has always been to protect the people, being the government’s enforcer has turned her into public enemy number one.
Lee struggles to find his place after killing kin to prove himself to a leader who betrayed him. He can support Annie and the other Guardians . . . or join the radicals who look to topple the new regime.
Griff, a lowborn dragonrider who serves New Pythos, knows he has no future. And now that Julia, the Firstrider who had protected him, is dead, he is called on to sacrifice everything for the lords that oppress his people–or to forge a new path with the Callipolan Firstrider seeking his help.
With famine tearing Callipolis apart and the Pythians determined to take back what they lost, it will be up to Annie, Lee, and Griff to decide what to fight for–and who to love.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
TW: assault, torture
Flamefall is a thought provoking and moving story about revolution, change, and oppression. Munda knows how to emotionally wring out every feeling in our heart. We move from the boiling rage of Griff’s treatment, to the agony of miscommunication, to the joy of flying. Flamefall delivers Annie, Lee, and Griff struggling to fight for the future. Your heart aches because of their treatment, the ways we are vilified, our emotional blackmail, and the rage we feel in the face of injustice. But it’s the ways they fight for the future.
The power imbalance in these relationships of invisible strings and explicit coercion. How do we tackle everything that’s wrong with the world? As readers we want them to all rebel and tear down these injustices. But is that truly the way to enact change? Flamefall is a book about doing the right things the wrong ways, of seeing the flaws and mistakes in the causes we fight for, in not accepting the cycle we find ourselves in. Seeing all of these POVs, we are torn between these competing efforts, which, even if they can’t see it, more in the right direction.
Overall,
It’s thought provoking and emotionally wrenching. We are bound. Pushed to the breaking point by our solidarity, our rebellion, and our desires for freedom. We can see that they’re just trying to do their best. That they’re complex, flawed, and making mistakes left and right. But in this system, how will they ever win? Torn between the bad of those we hate, and the good, how do we shape the vision of our future? Nothing is ever simple. And we have to be able to see the rot in our organization, the good and the bad. To be able to ask the hard questions about what, and who, we can fight for at the end of the day.
Find Flamefall on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound, Bookshop.org & The Book Depository.