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Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros is the third book in the (for the time being) incomplete five book series, Fourth Wing series. In a world where humans and dragons can—somewhat—coexist, Violet Sorrengail’s focus does not need to be on partaking in lessons at Basgiath War College, as an actual war is mere moments from breaking out.
This book left me absolutely broken after reading it. It was one of those books where you have to sit for a solid hour in relative silence just so you can process what you just read.
My absolute favorite part of this book was the banter in this book. I enjoyed that some characters that did not get as much page time in the previous books got more in this book. I liked getting to see the back story of some of the side characters, it gave more context to smaller details of the storyline. I enjoyed getting to see the quirks and actions of other characters; like the fact that one of the characters has an ongoing prank war with his dragon, which normally would not be seen as the dragons are considered superior beings compared to humans.
One of the things that a lot of Yarros’ readers forget is that she is not a “romantasy” (romantic fantasy) author, and Fourth Wing is not a romantasy book, it is a high fantasy combat themed book. Yarros is not really a fantasy writer in general. This series is just her attempt at something not contemporary.
On that note, I believe that one of Yarros’ biggest strong suits is her ability to write combat scenes. When I was reading them, I felt like I was right there, watching it happen. It was obvious a lot of research went into this for the accuracy of them.
Another one of my favorite parts of this book is the inclusivity that is incorporated into the storyline. Violet, the main character of this book, canonically has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a combination of disorders that affect the connective tissue in the body, shows how she finds ways to work around this disability in order to complete her goals.
My least favorite thing about this book is the fact that I was left with more questions than answers. One thing that Yarros tends to do in this series is cliffhangers, and this book is no different. A lot of things happened at the end of the previous book with only about half of the questions left there were answered. On top of that, more things happened in this book that created more questions and theories and connections. While making your own theories about a series can be fun, I just hope that it all gets wrapped up accordingly by the end of the series.
I definitely had a great time reading this book. From the way the characters interacted, to the way combat was choreographed, to the way problem solving was portrayed throughout the book. While I genuinely enjoy this series, I think that there are some flaws that do not quite make it my favorite, and for this reason, I give it a 4/5. I look forward to the release of the next book.