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A review by hollyplebeau
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
1.5
"I want a patch for this shit, Violet [Rebecca]. A quest squad patch. Understand?"
I feel like I need something to show for the fact I made it through this book alive. Why did I struggle so much. I think I read more of my college textbooks than I did this book. A 500 page book does not take me 3 weeks to finish. I finished and was invested in many other fantasy/romantasy books than this.
I went into this book with an open mind and zero expectations and it was just....bad. I stopped taking notes of my thoughts because I kept getting frustrated with the book. It was incredibly repetitive. The chapters followed a pattern of battle talk one chapter, Xaden and Violet drama or love scene next chapter, random attack next chapter, repeat after the other. Everything felt incomplete and underwhelming. Something would happen, and I would get excited, and then it would be resolved a page later. The pacing was hard to endure. Things started to pick up around 300 pages? But it should not take 300 pages/35 chapters for me to get interested finally in the plot.
So many people did rereads to remember what happened and to get familiar with characters and places. Many created guides. A good book should not require a study guide to get through. There was way too much being thrown at you. I felt like there was also a lot of information, details, people, thrown in as useless tidbits or for shock value but it didn't amount to anything.
Speaking of characters.... I feel like the dragons lost their personalities. I felt like many of the main characters lost their personalities and were all casted as background. There was too much going on to get actual character development or story with any of them - including Xaden and Violet. But I will say, Ridoc and Mira stayed loveable characters for me.
This book really should have been a third person multiple pov, in my opinion. Especially since she did a multiple pov switch at the end, I think the book would have felt more well rounded and information to the plot (whatever it was) could have been easily followed. OR this book would have made a great trilogy. 5 books seems like too much for whatever is happening.
The cliff hangers at the end of the book don't even get me excited or angry, I'm just overall annoyed with this book and don't see myself in a hurry to continue the series. Huge disappoinment.
~~
"Pain isn't always a competition," I assure him. "There's always enough to go around."
"You look tired."
"Just what every man wants to hear from the person he loves."
"I mean it. Whiners don't wear black,"
"In a life without magic, he best medicine is time,"
"Oh, and just so we're clear, that strike up there wasn't" - Ridoc gestures between us - "you know. Us." He flinches.
"Well aware," Xaden replies. "First because I trust Violet, and second" - he glances at Ridoc in a dismissive once-over- "it wasn't a big enough strike."
I feel like I need something to show for the fact I made it through this book alive. Why did I struggle so much. I think I read more of my college textbooks than I did this book. A 500 page book does not take me 3 weeks to finish. I finished and was invested in many other fantasy/romantasy books than this.
I went into this book with an open mind and zero expectations and it was just....bad. I stopped taking notes of my thoughts because I kept getting frustrated with the book. It was incredibly repetitive. The chapters followed a pattern of battle talk one chapter, Xaden and Violet drama or love scene next chapter, random attack next chapter, repeat after the other. Everything felt incomplete and underwhelming. Something would happen, and I would get excited, and then it would be resolved a page later. The pacing was hard to endure. Things started to pick up around 300 pages? But it should not take 300 pages/35 chapters for me to get interested finally in the plot.
So many people did rereads to remember what happened and to get familiar with characters and places. Many created guides. A good book should not require a study guide to get through. There was way too much being thrown at you. I felt like there was also a lot of information, details, people, thrown in as useless tidbits or for shock value but it didn't amount to anything.
Speaking of characters.... I feel like the dragons lost their personalities. I felt like many of the main characters lost their personalities and were all casted as background. There was too much going on to get actual character development or story with any of them - including Xaden and Violet. But I will say, Ridoc and Mira stayed loveable characters for me.
This book really should have been a third person multiple pov, in my opinion. Especially since she did a multiple pov switch at the end, I think the book would have felt more well rounded and information to the plot (whatever it was) could have been easily followed. OR this book would have made a great trilogy. 5 books seems like too much for whatever is happening.
The cliff hangers at the end of the book don't even get me excited or angry, I'm just overall annoyed with this book and don't see myself in a hurry to continue the series. Huge disappoinment.
~~
"Pain isn't always a competition," I assure him. "There's always enough to go around."
"You look tired."
"Just what every man wants to hear from the person he loves."
"I mean it. Whiners don't wear black,"
"In a life without magic, he best medicine is time,"
"Oh, and just so we're clear, that strike up there wasn't" - Ridoc gestures between us - "you know. Us." He flinches.
"Well aware," Xaden replies. "First because I trust Violet, and second" - he glances at Ridoc in a dismissive once-over- "it wasn't a big enough strike."