A review by alexlong
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I enjoyed this book but struggled with several aspects of it. First of all, I understand the importance of big reveals and dropping hints and skillfully crafting a story without giving us all the information up front. However, if you’re so cryptic all the time that barely any of the hints are detectable, it loses its power. How can any reader possibly keep track of this many tiny clues? And so many different plot lines simultaneously? Props to all the folks on Tumblr and TikTok etc doing recaps and summaries because without you I’d be lost. Second of all, some of the writing feels excessively long-winded and unnecessary. This is worsened by the audiobook narrator who, while definitely skillful in her pacing and ability to pronounce all this wacky stuff, overly emphasizes parts of the sentence that don’t seem important. And she does it over and over again, so the emphasis is overused and nothing ends up standing out. It’s too much. What I DID love about this book was the direction RY took with the Xaden-Violet relationship. It’s much healthier overall, and we finally stopped with the obnoxious back-and-forth of their repetitive arguments. Shoutout to Ridoc and Rhiannon and all the side characters who are honestly some of the best parts of the book. Not enough Rhi in this book, imo. Ultimately, I ended the book with a giant “WTF just happened?!” But I suspect I’m not alone there. RY has me hooked on the world she’s built for these folks, so I’ll definitely still read the rest of the series. 
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