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A review by capriqueen
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.0
What an exhausting read
It’s seriously so fucking long. The first third was good, but the island journey was so prolonged with not much happening that I really lost steam for the last third
This really could’ve used a trim. Everything felt so stretched out. And the constant repeated words and phrases didn’t help (dragons moving their head in a serpentine motion, desiccated, etc). And when every other line is clearly mean to have a girlboss, holy shit badass weight to it, it stops being badass and starts being cringey and tiring
The island journey was probably the most frustrating thing. The point kept being made that they couldn’t attack/kill anybody because that’s not good for international relations, and yet each island wanted to attack and kill them. Sure, makes sense. So much of this portion could’ve been summarized or skipped over
I think Yarros has a pacing problem ever since the structure of school/classes was ditched halfway through Iron Flame. It’s like in order to keep us interested she feels a need to endanger the characters every other scene, which just gets so tiring. There’s hardly any time for character development when you’re just constantly in battle
Which brings me to the romance. I just am not invested in Xaden and Violet. Their whole “we’d sacrifice anything for each other bc we love each other so much” just feels unearned. With other fantasy romances like that (Jace and Clary from TMI come to mind), they usually have whole books dedicated to falling for each other and getting to know each other. But Xaden and Violet fell into lust and then love in less than a year, and ever since then there’s zero development in their relationship. They spent all of Iron Flame fighting over the same shit and in this book they’re just pigheaded about each other and so lust-filled it makes me wonder if they actually know anything about the other person
As a result I just don’t care about Xaden turning. His morose moodiness the whole time was grating, especially the whole “on the ice” metaphor which was repeated so often it lost its impact
The worldbuilding is particularly weak in this book. The islands are so flat and one dimensional (this island likes the wisdom god, so they’re all wise; this island likes the war god, so they’re all violent, etc.). Things that were revealed didn’t feel properly set up/foreshadowed
Honestly Ridoc was the best part. I feel like he’s honestly used as the butt of the joke 90% of the time, but the scene of Violet spilling the beans to him and his reaction about all of it was a really good character moment
I’m resigned to the fact that I’m probably going to read the fourth one, but I’m already tired thinking about it
It’s seriously so fucking long. The first third was good, but the island journey was so prolonged with not much happening that I really lost steam for the last third
This really could’ve used a trim. Everything felt so stretched out. And the constant repeated words and phrases didn’t help (dragons moving their head in a serpentine motion, desiccated, etc). And when every other line is clearly mean to have a girlboss, holy shit badass weight to it, it stops being badass and starts being cringey and tiring
The island journey was probably the most frustrating thing. The point kept being made that they couldn’t attack/kill anybody because that’s not good for international relations, and yet each island wanted to attack and kill them. Sure, makes sense. So much of this portion could’ve been summarized or skipped over
I think Yarros has a pacing problem ever since the structure of school/classes was ditched halfway through Iron Flame. It’s like in order to keep us interested she feels a need to endanger the characters every other scene, which just gets so tiring. There’s hardly any time for character development when you’re just constantly in battle
Which brings me to the romance. I just am not invested in Xaden and Violet. Their whole “we’d sacrifice anything for each other bc we love each other so much” just feels unearned. With other fantasy romances like that (Jace and Clary from TMI come to mind), they usually have whole books dedicated to falling for each other and getting to know each other. But Xaden and Violet fell into lust and then love in less than a year, and ever since then there’s zero development in their relationship. They spent all of Iron Flame fighting over the same shit and in this book they’re just pigheaded about each other and so lust-filled it makes me wonder if they actually know anything about the other person
As a result I just don’t care about Xaden turning. His morose moodiness the whole time was grating, especially the whole “on the ice” metaphor which was repeated so often it lost its impact
The worldbuilding is particularly weak in this book. The islands are so flat and one dimensional (this island likes the wisdom god, so they’re all wise; this island likes the war god, so they’re all violent, etc.). Things that were revealed didn’t feel properly set up/foreshadowed
Honestly Ridoc was the best part. I feel like he’s honestly used as the butt of the joke 90% of the time, but the scene of Violet spilling the beans to him and his reaction about all of it was a really good character moment
I’m resigned to the fact that I’m probably going to read the fourth one, but I’m already tired thinking about it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Grief
Minor: Death of parent