Review by sol_journal - Heir of Storms

sol_journal 's review for:

Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray

2.0

**Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Posted to: NetGalley and The StoryGraph

Posted on: 11 June 2025

2 out of 5 stars.

(Okay I know I’m mildly late posting this, I’m sorry. Life happens and then illness happens, sometimes all at once. Anyways, here is my belated review.)

I’m not gonna lie, I struggled to rate this. I had lots of issues with this and upon finishing it, I looked at other reviews and saw others noticed similar things. I wanted to enjoy this though, because lots of others did too! There was just so much I couldn’t overlook when reading it. I’m honestly surprised I didn’t DNF it, which is probably the only reason it gets 2 stars over 1. It has potential, but it could’ve gone further if certain things were addressed better or even just left out? I really just think it could’ve used more eyes on it to not make it seem so… out of touch.

Immediately, I knew I would like the writing. Not one of my favorites, however, but it was still enjoyable. There’s a few choice quotes that do stick and a very powerful opening that hooked me almost immediately. I enjoy a good magic system and I think ‘Heir of Storms’ had one-albeit a bit familiar, but as I’ve said before in other reviews, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Sometimes familiar tropes scratch a nice itch in the brain. However, I also feel like some of these tropes were just that to characters. The love interests are literally just good boy with a secret/bad boy with a secret and I feel like that’s all that’s lent to them sometimes. Or some characters were mean to be mean or nice to be a voice of reason- very singularly built ya know?

To slowly stray from the positives, I want to talk about the character portrayals throughout the novel. I feel like I’ll never be able to eloquently describe my feelings like some people do, so stay with me as I try to explain my thoughts.

One of the love interests is Prince Haldyn Castellion whom is described with pale skin and dark eyes. The other love interest is Fox Calloway Castellion, who is described with golden skin and green eyes. I’m gonna let you guess who is the bad boy and who is the good boy…. Got your guesses? The painted out good guy is the pale love interest while the world renowned bad boy is the love interest with golden skin…. I dunno, just doesn’t sit right with me? Not to mention that Fox is also depicted as dressing with more revealing clothes in that he has low-cut tops/tunics or low rise bottoms that show more stomach/hip… like okay, let the more POC-coded character be the promiscuously dressed one…

Banking off that idea of promiscuousness, while he isn’t specifically stated as being bisexual, there is another character who is queer coded (having been, in-text, stated to be romantic somehow with both male and female guests at the galas) and is given a very stereotypical party-goer, flirty, and multiple flings sort of presence. He’s often seen at these parties just having a good time, unbothered by the coming events of trials and such, and making out with one person and another while having his own potential romantic love interest. Polyamorous people exist, yes, and I don’t mean to speak over them when I say this, but it feels almost… like a harmful and/or stereotypical depiction of the lgbt+ community because you have this queer boy (they’re like- 17 iirc) who is just an amalgamation of ideals that people have spoken up about before? There’s another character who almost fits this similar image and she is this character’s love interest too! Oh- she’s also another dark skinned character.. Like I dunno, just very stereotypical? This second character isn’t as flirty with many people though, just the love interest she has iirc, but I still just find a lot of themes involved here… wrong?

There’s also the topic of slaves brought up quite a few times in the book that overall felt gross for the fact that literally nobody else seems to have an issue with slaves (sorry, ‘serfs’ as they’re known here) being used as attendants despite actual attendants being around (as in- there’s people forced here as some crude form of ‘freedom’ from the war their ancestors lost years and years ago vs people who get paid at least with a few coins here and there or a roof over their heads…). Nobody but the main character seems to care. The MC also is one of the only ones who treats her own assigned serf ‘kindly’ and tries to befriend her in some very loose feeling white savior-esque energy scenes… I dunno, maybe I just read too much into it. I feel like you can’t look at this enslaved girl and feel bad for her, but also suddenly think that she’s a good well of information about the Otherlands though (because, I dunno, the library filled with books couldn’t tell you more without prying into this poor girl’s life who could get in serious trouble if she’s found out to be talking about her home with you?) Like… wow, go off girl, pretend to care about the serfs until their presence suits your needs??

Two more things I didn’t enjoy and I’m done, I swear. I’m a professional hater though, what can I say. Anyways, the first is the usage of the term ‘savages’ and how it’s describing more indigenous seeming people… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s not my place at all to say yay or nay to this term considering I am not Native American, but I have seen Native Americans disagree with the usage of this word and how its harmful stereotype and term towards them. Seeing it in 2025 still is jarring to me (yet it’s not the first 2025 book I’ve seen it in) and it’s just… tiring that people have said before to please stop using this word yet its so causally tossed in here when talking about very Indigenous-esque peoples of the Otherlands.

There’s also a scene towards the end where a character receives an injury that impairs their vision. The MC, when monologuing about it, calls this person ‘damaged’ and like… how did that terminology slip by editors?? I really wanna ask if there were any sensitivity readers used for this. I feel like it’s such a minor mention too, but it just made me feel icky reading the way this disabled character is described? That’s such a harmful view of disability and people with disabilities, the act of calling them ‘damaged’ as if they are suddenly flawed and broken? I dunno, I didn’t enjoy any of it at all. Even if the MC is supposed to be naive to the world, I feel like she shouldn’t look at this injured person and think about how she is ‘horrified’ and ‘unsettled’ to see this other person ‘damaged’…

I think this about sums up a lot of what I felt about the book. I really wanted to love it, but there were multiple times where I wanted to drop it. I was hoping for character development somehow too, though. Maybe that’s why I ended up finishing it. I wanted, so badly, to believe that it would get better but alas… I’ve seen other people compare it to 2010s YA novels and… yeah, I see it. I just think that a lot of these issues could’ve been avoided somehow? I dunno. I was left disappointed. So many people were hyping this read up, yet I feel like it fell short. Either I thought too much into this or y’all are lying to yourselves about enjoying it (or you’re glossing over issues with the narrative). But anyways, to each their own, I suppose. I was just left wanting and wondering.

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Past war mention, slavery, enslavement, blood, fighting, injury, derogatory words towards characters (namely ‘bitch’ used multiple times), bullying, death of a parent, death, strangling (done so by vines down the throat, described on page but not overly detailed), vomit, alcohol, inebriation, violence due to inebriation, fire, fire injury, near-drowning, death of a child by asphyxiation (not really detailed, more-so mentioned on page and alluded to)

Content Warnings