The writing project I mentioned back in my Goals for 2025 post has been eating up a lot of reading time recently and 527 pages — despite being gripping reading — has become something of a marathon for me when in my previous eras it might have been a week’s light reading. Which makes it feel like this review has taken forever to finally get to, however, I’ve finally finished Onyx Storm, and the following simple cliche feels appropriate:

Rebecca Yarros has done it again!

Or perhaps, given the book’s focus around a particularly electric protagonist, perhaps I should say that Yarros has managed to make lighting strike a third time.

However you wanna put it, the gist is, Onyx Storm is another exciting entry into an already excellent series. Much the same as I felt about Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, not every choice Yarros made was my favorite, but overall I felt the book was quite good and even has its own kind of “Sanderlanche” — in which you hit a point near the climax of the book where it doesn’t matter how late at night it is, you’re staying up and reading until the end — only instead of going to bed late, I woke up really early so I could finish the book before work.

A Yarrolanche, I guess.

Mostly I enjoyed the expansion of the world beyond The Continent, hopping around islands and getting to see different societies outside of Navarre.

Side note: I half wonder if Yarros was dreaming of a vacation while writing these scenes, or had just come back from a particularly fulfilling one, because for me, they stood out as especially enticing, and I honestly wished more of the book could have taken place in those environs. Perhaps I’m the one in need of a vacation.

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say we learn more about Adarna’s kind (the Irid) in this book, and of course I enjoyed that as well. It’s still a bit mysterious at this juncture what their overall roll will be, but it’s a mystery I’m intrigued by.

Another element of this novel which I thought interesting was an increasing relevance of gods and goddesses within the world. Up until now, there has really only been mentions of the different members of this world’s pantheon, and the religious practices undertaken in their worship. Onyx Storm broadens this view quite a bit with much more focus on various rites and a general sense that these gods are real and have tangible, measurable effects on the world.

I wouldn’t say we’re going full godpunk, however, Onyx Storm seems to take a big step in that direction.

But probably my main response after finishing this book was of course the thing that this series does best, which is leave me wondering what-the-F-just-happened in the saddest and most emotional way, which is indeed the very reason why we read it. For that shock; for that devastation (ok I’m being a bit dramatic).

In terms of endings — no worries, I won’t spoil — I don’t think I was as gutted as I felt after finishing Iron Flame, but the amount of questions I had at the end of Onyx Storm was WAY higher. My need to read the next one is roughly parallel to the amount of said questions. I want to know the answers! (sorry getting a bit dramatic again)

While everything I’ve written previously is undoubtedly good press for Onyx Storm, not every bit was so awe inspiring. Onyx Storm is undoubtedly the most ambitious part of the series to date, with the most characters, the most plot lines, the most places and the most things to do and keep track of (for both author and reader). And in order to accommodate that, I think we see the most risks being taken in the story’s structure, and the most conventional wisdom being discarded (whether on purpose or not) in its craft.

An example that comes quickly to mind is towards the end when a lot of head hopping starts taking place to give us different perspectives of the final battle, and probably also to allow some of the cliffhangers more space to do their work. With one exception (Xaden’s brief POV in Iron Flame), we have not been in the POV of these characters at any time previously that I can remember (though my memory is pretty bad) and so it’s a bit jarring to suddenly get these perspectives in the final chapters of the story.

Xaden’s POV specifically feels a bit more “OK” (earned) since we’ve seen it at least once before and is actually pretty important for main character development reasons; however, I didn’t feel the others were as necessary and really felt like moves by the author to make the previous chapter’s cliffhanger have greater weight.

During one of these tangents I was basically crying the scene was so sad, but the scene hardly seemed to effect anything in the larger plot so it felt a bit like a move, placed there just to get a few tears flowing before the big finale. Perhaps (I hope) I’m wrong, and the larger ramifications of the scene will become apparent in the next book, but for now, I can’t see the connections (perhaps there are too many rebellion relics clouding things lol)

I don’t have a link, but I think another piece of conventional wisdom states that it’s generally ill advised to start a book or chapter with a character waking up, as generally this is the least interesting thing they will do during the day.

New conventional wisdom I have after reading Onyx Storm is that waking up is only the least interesting thing the character will do during the day if they’re not imminently about to have sexy time. Then I guess the reader WILL be interested haaha.

But the fact of the matter is, the sum of all of these “mistakes” was still a desperately compelling book so perhaps “the rules” have changed. Or perhaps we make our own rules. That seems like a sentiment both Violet and Xaden could get behind.

Give Onyx Storm A Read?

Yup! Yarros has already produced two excellent dragon-packed adventures, and Onyx Storm is no different. Personally I enjoyed getting some time away from The Continent and seeing the wider world our beloved heroes inhabit. And while there are a few things I didn’t love — head hopping towards the finale etc. — the book was ultimately a great read.

Also, could we get a spin-off series of just Ridoc and Aotrom pranking each other and going on adventures? I would read that just as quick!

That’s all I have for you this week. Has anyone read this one yet? Thoughts? What theories are you most curious about? Which do you want proven right? Which do you hope are proven wrong? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Until next time!