Overall I think Onyx Storm was a step up from Iron Flame, but didn’t quite reach the heights of Fourth Wing. I felt the first part of the book dragged quite a bit. And as someone who has a high tolerance for large casts of characters with many names, even I was confused at points in this book. If characters are going to have multiple names (addressed by varying combinations of first names, last names, and nicknames) then more time needs to be spent repeating those, embedding the name differences in character moments, all to help the reader keep the big cast in their head. It can be done very well, but I don’t think it is here.

But that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the book. The journey across the islands to discover the iridescent dragons was cool. The connections to Violet’s heritage, the mystery left by her father, the peoples of the various islands, the way magic did and didn’t expand to certain areas. That was all very cool, and the departure to this journey is where I think the book really ramped up and started to get back on track.

Villain wise, Theophanie did a great job of being menacing and delectably evil. Her connection to Violet’s past and the way they pull together a way to kill her without simply overpowering her was well executed (ha). But she also didn’t have enougn impact - the primary cast largely escapes with their lives, despite the danger. And the big deaths like Trager and Quinn didn’t feel like those characters had enough heft to warrant the momentous sendoffs they got on the page.

Romance wise, it was refreshing that Violet and Xaden didn’t ever truly feel like they were drifting away from each other. Their relationship had a series of difficult obstacles, but they were external, and their own intention to be together remained consistent. Xaden’s venin-ism remained quite static throughout the book, despite the ongoing threat of it, which meant his character felt very frozen in time. It was only right at the end that his arc started to really move again.

Andarna’s arc in this book was also a highlight. Her finding her people and leaving was a big moment, and one that I expect to pay off in future books. It also gave an interesting conclusion to the search arc, rather than simply “we found the thing we needed”! (And still let them get part of what they needed, but only at the last second, with dramatic effect.)

All in all, I’ll read the next one! It’s still steamy, Tairn has some great dialogue, we learn a lot more about how dragons work (and the book continues to deliver on the draconic power fantasy), and we’re set up for I-don’t-know-what in the next one.

Onyx Storm

By Rebecca Yarros

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20

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16

Reference links: Why I like Storygraph, My concerns with Goodreads, How my scoring system works