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jamoseason 's review for:
Onyx Storm
by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The corner of my mouth tugged upward. No matter how bad this series is, I know I cannot stay away, even through the awful communication I know we share.
The writing is poor. There is so much repetition with phrases and descriptors and it makes the book feel rushed. The corners of mouths quirk upward or are tugged almost twice as much as in previous books. The internal bond was described as "onyx" for the first time in the series this book, and also 50 times after, which I am convinced is because of the name of this book. (Onyx can be black, but is really more known for being striped? I had to google it because I was convinced she was trying to go for "obsidian"). Everyone speaks in a stupid quippy way that doesn't really fit the fantasy realm, but I guess that's fine because some people enjoy how that makes characters feel relatable (e.g. "Challenge accepted," "Same"). Violet and Xaden also definitely don't talk like normal people do, but I can understand that some people enjoy flowery, excessively poetic romanticism in love so I will give that a pass.
The pacing is bad. So much of the book was repetitive and I understand that they couldn't accomplish their goals immediately because it would be boring and too convenient, but also the journey was not worth the destination. It definitely does feel like it was written with an episodic TV show in mind, which is totally fine if that's some people's cup of tea, but it was definitely not mine. If anything, I would have loved to see the journey be MORE inconvenient just to prove that each point wasn't a special episode on the journey.
The world building is confusing. The author kept Proper Nouning all these names and places and I had no idea who these people were, where the places are, the lore, etc. It was confusing to keep up with everything since it was probably introduced through some text dump in a past book instead of a proper build up.Also out of nowhere, we started talking more about the religions of the world. In the other books it was certainly brought up, but since it was being HAMMERED at every point in this one I immediately knew it would be suddenly story relevant. But at the same time I did not care at all about these random gods because, again, they were never important before.
The main characters are exhausting. They have always been toxic, this is even explicitly stated once in the book by one of them. I am not convinced of their chemistry. They say "I love you" all the time but I am constantly asking, "but why?" I was never sold on the reasons they like each other and Violet is way too horny for these serious situations. Violet is overly special and way too good at everything and her only flaw is that her boyfriend won't communicate with her because she is always talented and correct. And her disability only kicks in when it's convenient? Xaden is just boring now. His inner turmoil revolves around Violet per usual and he doesn't have any qualities that make him interesting. He is also just extremely talented and quippy and that's so one-note.
The side characters are boring. Ridoc and Sawyer get some time to shine, which was honestly a plus. They did get some characterization, which is a crazy surprise. However, everyone else literally did not matter. They were story fodder, and I never knew who was what, who had what powers, whose dragons were whose. Violet doesn't engage with these people she claims to care so much about and it really makes the world seem so small despite all the efforts to create this fantasy realm.I did not care when people died, to the point where even the author realized we needed character POVs to make me feel something when someone did die. If she did varied POVs more regularly, maybe I would care more about these other people, but at the same time the POVs read so similarly to each other and to Violet, I'm not convinced it would make anything better. RY is a very tell-don't-show writer and it makes the characters terrible plot conveniences alone.
I guess the plot is compelling enough for me to keep reading? Despite my qualms with the series, I will admit that I do get through them just to see what happens next, how things are resolved. But I have also always thought that if I dropped the books, it wouldn't be something I would regret anyway. As usual the main dragons are great and interesting, but we don't see enough of them or any other dragons in my opinion. I do think RY has more potential, if she just took the time to put everything together instead of just rushing out repetitive junk.
The writing is poor. There is so much repetition with phrases and descriptors and it makes the book feel rushed. The corners of mouths quirk upward or are tugged almost twice as much as in previous books. The internal bond was described as "onyx" for the first time in the series this book, and also 50 times after, which I am convinced is because of the name of this book. (Onyx can be black, but is really more known for being striped? I had to google it because I was convinced she was trying to go for "obsidian"). Everyone speaks in a stupid quippy way that doesn't really fit the fantasy realm, but I guess that's fine because some people enjoy how that makes characters feel relatable (e.g. "Challenge accepted," "Same"). Violet and Xaden also definitely don't talk like normal people do, but I can understand that some people enjoy flowery, excessively poetic romanticism in love so I will give that a pass.
The pacing is bad. So much of the book was repetitive and I understand that they couldn't accomplish their goals immediately because it would be boring and too convenient, but also the journey was not worth the destination. It definitely does feel like it was written with an episodic TV show in mind, which is totally fine if that's some people's cup of tea, but it was definitely not mine. If anything, I would have loved to see the journey be MORE inconvenient just to prove that each point wasn't a special episode on the journey.
The world building is confusing. The author kept Proper Nouning all these names and places and I had no idea who these people were, where the places are, the lore, etc. It was confusing to keep up with everything since it was probably introduced through some text dump in a past book instead of a proper build up.
The main characters are exhausting. They have always been toxic, this is even explicitly stated once in the book by one of them. I am not convinced of their chemistry. They say "I love you" all the time but I am constantly asking, "but why?" I was never sold on the reasons they like each other and Violet is way too horny for these serious situations. Violet is overly special and way too good at everything and her only flaw is that her boyfriend won't communicate with her because she is always talented and correct. And her disability only kicks in when it's convenient? Xaden is just boring now. His inner turmoil revolves around Violet per usual and he doesn't have any qualities that make him interesting. He is also just extremely talented and quippy and that's so one-note.
The side characters are boring. Ridoc and Sawyer get some time to shine, which was honestly a plus. They did get some characterization, which is a crazy surprise. However, everyone else literally did not matter. They were story fodder, and I never knew who was what, who had what powers, whose dragons were whose. Violet doesn't engage with these people she claims to care so much about and it really makes the world seem so small despite all the efforts to create this fantasy realm.
I guess the plot is compelling enough for me to keep reading? Despite my qualms with the series, I will admit that I do get through them just to see what happens next, how things are resolved. But I have also always thought that if I dropped the books, it wouldn't be something I would regret anyway. As usual the main dragons are great and interesting, but we don't see enough of them or any other dragons in my opinion. I do think RY has more potential, if she just took the time to put everything together instead of just rushing out repetitive junk.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail