Reading Time: 4 minutes

This Review Contains Mild Spoilers*

Listen, I loved Fourth Wing. I gave it five stars (I even went to a midnight release for the sequel). I didn’t really like Iron Flame, but I was willing to work with it somewhat in the hopes it was just a sophomore slump. But I barely made it to the end of Onyx Storm, and now I’m not sure I even want to continue the series.

*I usually do spoiler-free reviews, but in this case many of my critiques are based around specific plot or character elements, and I needed to speak my truth (but I tried to avoid the really big spoilers).

For my reviews of the first two books, click below:

• Book 1: Fourth Wing
• Book 2: Iron Flame

What’s Onyx Storm about?

Beats me. JK.

Violet is back at Basgiath to finish her second year, and the search for Andarna’s kind kicks off. Meanwhile, Xaden is holding onto his sanity by his fingernails (and Violet is digging her fingernails into his back, ahyuck).

It fell short for me pretty much across the board.

I almost didn’t finish it, but I really wanted to leave a review, so I checked out the audiobook from my library and pushed through. I had to break this down into parts to get it all off my chest.

Violet

For the first 70%:

I was frustrated with the fact that I didn’t have to wonder if Violet would succeed through the small skirmishes. This doesn’t bother me in every book, particularly when I’m not sure how the character will win and want to see what they do. A little ingenuity and quick thinking can go a long way here.

(Violet winning because she resorted to poison? Nice. Violet passing the obstacle course by giving herself a boost via a knife lodged in the ramp as a stepping stone? Sick. Violet bonding two dragons because she stepped in to defend a weak one during threshing? Well done. Violet winning because…she’s just that good? BORING.)

Violet would “palm her dagger” and fight it out and just…win. Every time. Even against a queen.

For the last 30%:

Things improved for me drastically once Ridoc finally called her out for her BS and gave her an earful. After that, when Violet was finally struggling with failure, I was way more invested.

Xaden

I used to love Xaden, but I just find him uninteresting now. Book 1, his main focus was protecting the other marked kids. Book 3, all he cares about is calling Violet, “Mine” and brooding.

The Plot

The entire plot for this story is about the search for Andarna’s specific race of dragons, and honestly, it strikes me as a weak premise on which to build a third book in a series. There’s a lot of to-and-fro-ing, but rarely does it feel like it’s progressing.

I was bored with it, and felt like I really wasn’t given a good reason to care whether they succeeded.

Everything else followed formulaic plot beats. They group goes to an isle, they encounter antagonist forces there, they fight it out, they win, they leave. Rinse and repeat several times over.

Beyond that, everything else that received even a little focus in this book never got closure, or could have even been deleted with no consequence, hence the feeling that it was a filler episode.

An Unwieldy Cast

Not only did I struggle to remember who’s who, but it seemed we spent a lot of page time “positioning” people around each new scene. Like a director nudging each person into their designated spots.

The result was lots and lots of name mentions, and very little context reminders for: 1) why their character is important to this scene, and 2) why I even need to know what they’re doing right now.

Like, why did I need to know what Maren was doing at any point in this story? I certainly didn’t remember her character, and if she was never mentioned once this whole book, I wouldn’t have noticed.

The End

I won’t spoil the plot twist. But I will say that, based on how these two sequels have gone, I don’t actually trust Yarros to make something worthwhile of these twists. Every book, we end on a big reveal that could change everything, only for the immediate fallout in the next book to be less dramatic than expected – everything just sort of…levels off. Immediately.

Bonus Rant: Prince Halden

The prince and his part in the story feel like wasted potential. It gave me narrative blue balls.

When Prince Halden first came on the scene, I was excited. I wanted to see what kind of wrench he was going to throw into Violet’s relationship with Xaden. Except, that energy only lasted for the one scene when he was introduced, and that was it.

Instead, he immediately turned into a little wimp, and it aggravated me. I felt that the story set me up for steak, only to turn around and give me a limp fish.

Prince Halden is the kind of character who should be dangerous because he’s charming, and uses that charm to manipulate. Instead, you’re telling me that the crown prince is not PR trained? That he immediately and thoughtlessly ruins one of his first real international jobs here? I really expected him to contribute much more fun to this story than he did, and for him to be more important to the plot.

Actually, if he were removed entirely, this story would be the same. He was honestly barely in it. All that hoopla for nothing.

Also, the fact that he had to be flown around in a little basket gave me the ick.

Should you read Onyx Storm?

No. Maybe? I don’t know, man. A lot of people seemed to like this one. I would say if you didn’t like Iron Flame, you probably won’t like this one either. If you did like Iron Flame, or at least didn’t mind it so much, then you may enjoy this one.

If you’re prone to strong opinions like I am, maybe just save yourself the effort.