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"This was the most boring, dumbest fucking shit that I have ever read in my life. It actually made Iron Flame look decent.

Let's start.

Onyx Storm felt like a kid lost in a supermarket trying to find their mother.

This book was so disappointing!! Like, I don’t understand the need to drag this series for 5 books!! Especially when it was supposed to be a trilogy, but apparently after the success of the first book, it suddenly became "a five-book series" in other words, the perfect cash cow. To be honest, I really enjoyed Fourth Wing and it was such a refreshing read. I was frustrated a lot with Iron Flame and had problems, but the enjoyment was still there, and I could see it being a trilogy. This book really proves why it should not be 5 books, because this was honestly a filler novel. 544 pages of filler is too much; there was so much plot filler in this one, and the pacing was so slow. I got a copy early, so I started this book on the 18th and finished it on the 21st, only because I was forcing myself, as I had ARCs to read. But this made it so hard because the writing style was surprisingly boring?? I know Rebecca doesn’t have a perfect writing style, but at least make the book enjoyable, lol. The writing style here felt so foreign to read, it was almost as if she didn’t write it. This book will certainly not help with her AI allegations, and for the love of God, ŷ�� and RY, don’t take this review down. You still have your paid 5-star reviews, so leave mine alone.

It was so bad that it made me feel bad for rating Iron Flame low, because Iron Flame, when it came to the plot, actually somewhat delivered... this, on the other hand, didn’t. Despite the slow pacing, there were some things that were so rushed. At times literally nothing happened, but information was also being dumped at us, and at the same time, I had so many questions that were there from the start, unanswered consistently. Like, Savannah, slow down. The writing not hitting also just made the whole vibe go off. There were so many new plotlines opened without actually closing the previous ones, and instead of doing that, they were dragged along. There was a lot of traveling in this book, and some of the scenes could have been chopped up; there was no substance provided by them. There were scenes that were just wayyyyy too drawn out. There was literally no consistency, and it was so messy to read, not to mention how boring it was. Like, you know when the writing's good, you don’t mind the fillers that much because at least you’re enjoying some stuff, but yeah, that was absent. It would honestly be better if RY took a long break to think through and deliver because it’s going in a downward spiral and she needs to prove us wrong.

The ending... Yes, it’s a massive cliffhanger, but executed poorly. The writing during that was just terrible. I was so confused when I first read that I had to reread it to understand what was actually happening, but honestly, I was so disconnected from the characters that I actually felt nothing at the ending. But I know people who are still attached to the characters may find the ending more likable. I just feel like the execution was so poor, and it’s actually embarrassing because you have potential but end up bottling it by messy writing. A long break is way overdue. Also, for a filler, this book was awfully long. I don’t know if it was because the greater the length = more money or just her drifting off, but when I saw that she was going to take a year off to write this, yeah, a book worse than Iron Flame was definitely not what I expected. Get a new editor, for the love of God!!

In terms of writing, this book was a big miss.

The Characters
(this might get spoilery, only warning!)
(this might get spoilery, only warning!)
(this might get spoilery, only warning!)
(this might get spoilery, only warning!)

Violet, I just don’t like how her character has been going on a downward spiral since the last book. Like, I loved her in the first book, she was amazing, and in Iron Flame, despite trying to understand her actions, I was still annoyed by her a lot. Here, I still felt the same feeling I did when I was reading Iron Flame; her character was giving me war flashbacks to that one traumatizing disastrous conclusion whenever she called Xaden "mine." Like, it’s okay, move on, please. I liked her in that one island scene; that was badass, but besides that, where did her badassery go?? Her monologue got so tiring, and I honestly can’t read her POV only for the next two books. We need multi-POV, PLEASE. I feel she spent most of her time worrying over Xaden in this book and calling him "mine" rather than doing actual stuff. And tbh, the whole island stuff felt so pointless at one point; there was just not enough substance in it for it to be drawn out this much. Like, edit, edit, edit, please, for the love of God, EDIT!! Another thing about Violet is that with this book, every ounce of love that I had for her vanished. I don’t hate her. I dislike her, yes, but it’s because I no longer feel connected to her, and it just made everything revolving around her boring. Also, the Irids created so much hype around her signet, which is apparently dreamwalking... this could be interesting to see.

Also, we finally got to know about Violet's dad and who he was, and tbh, most of the information we got from him didn’t really help them that much, lol. I was expecting it to make things easier for them, but it barely did anything.

Xaden, What was going on with him? I actually liked Xaden in books 1 and 2, and I like the jealousy trope, but him being over-the-top possessive in front of his friends made me roll my eyes so hard. Also, what happened to Xaden in this book?? He just didn’t have the same charm. It felt like Rebecca was trying to recycle the things that he did in the first books here to make him more likable, but it failed :( He was charming though, ngl, but it just didn’t hit right. Also, how is Violet stronger than him when they were fighting on the island? Like, girl was doing everything, and man was doing barely anything. Xaden has a lot of potential, and he sometimes delivers, but other times not so much, and most of those "not so much" moments were in this book. Also, his Venin part at the start was confusing because I thought he turned into a full Venin, so I didn’t think he could control and resist it. I actually liked seeing his restraint, but I wanted more of them finding a cure or at least leading up to it, because Yaros just put a wall everywhere, saying "dead end."

The Romance I have no idea how they are trying to make it work. Like, if it was a trilogy, it would’ve made sense, but Yaros cannot write 5 mega-sized books with them as a couple and not make it boring. They already got boring for me in this one. I loved the romance in the first book, not the part where they... you know... at 80%, because I wanted the slow burn to burn, and them to do it in the next books, but then even in Iron Flame, since it was new, it was fun until it got so messy. I felt so disconnected from the characters here that I just totally lost all my love for the romance. They had a lot of domestic moments in here, but I just didn’t care because the writing was already getting on my nerves, nothing was happening, and everything was being dumped on us at the same time. I couldn’t be bothered to give two fucking shits about the romance, which btw got so annoying because the throne room scene had to be mentioned since it was so iconic, and I just couldn’t with how gross both of them felt and how they were still so horny. I even skipped all the smut scenes, like, come on! I have no idea what she’s going to do with the romance in books 4 and 5, because it’s dragging and repeating.

Side Characters
Aaric �� Deserves more screen time because he had good moments.
Sloane �� Was missing from this book a lot. And her and Dainn?? Um, when and why and how? I don’t understand how suddenly Dainn is so nice. Like, hello?? Didn’t we hate him still, or at least dislike him? Why are we on good terms?
Cat �� Could be a good character, but her storyline was being butchered. I knew Rebecca Yarros wouldn’t kill anyone from the main crew, and it was disappointing because I was building up to that, only for the least interesting people to die. Like, yay, go ahead, girl, take away the only opportunity where I would feel something in this book besides boredom.
Garrick and Ridoc �� Were actually so good. Like, they should have been the main characters! I would at least get enjoyable POVs! Ridoc and his dragon were such cutie patooties; I loved them!!
Bodhi as a Venin?!? Damn, wasn’t expecting that. And Garrick going after them with everyone splitting could serve us a good reunion, but knowing Yarros, I know she would bottle that. We would go in expecting an Aelin/Rowan reunion and would be hit with a mediocre slap.

The New Characters
Halden �� Boring and only used to make Xaden jealous, sooo skip.
Xaden's Mom �� Interesting, tbh. I wouldn’t mind knowing more about her and Xaden's brothers.
Theophaine �� Her character was certainly very strange. I have no clue why she was not in the previous two books but suddenly popped up in this one, and I only say this because she was crazy after Violet. Like, people praise Yarros for foreshadowing, but is the foreshadowing in the room with us?? There was no foreshadowing; she just randomly popped up. There were so many things and opportunities she had which made zero sense, and her character just fell really flat. I think her character could have been way better.
Brennan and Mira �� Brennan was fine; Mira was on my nerves as well. Like, when her throat slit, I didn’t know whether to be worried or relieved!! Putting Imogen here as well because she was barely in it, and I forgot; she made the ending even more trippy by removing Violet’s memory.
Rhiannon �� Oops, I almost forgot about her. I liked her in the previous book, but not so much in this one. I feel like the banter was missing, or that it just didn’t serve up to be as good. But I liked the banter between Ridoc, Sawyer, and Vi.

The plot was the worst part of this book. If things moved well and consistently, this book would have been much stronger, and I would have been much more invested. But when it would move at a snail's pace with boring ass writing and two dimensional characters, I sure as hell won’t have any good words. Like, instead of taking vacations on islands, Rebecca could have shortened it and made the book progress, but oh wait, that way there might be one less book, and one less book would mean less money, and I don’t think without that missing book rent would be affordable. LIKE UGHH. You're getting millions; you could write one more and call it quits. There's no need for 5. If the plot progressed here, we could have gotten something. I have no clue how she does nothing the whole book, writes a cliffhanger that she knows will lure the readers into the next book, and drags it again. Because you're telling me the next book would be Xaden finding the cure and Violet finding Xaden while fighting her amnesia? I already know the length is going to be 600 something, and you can already feel how boring it would be. But if everything wraps up quickly and the cure is found and something of substance happens within the next book, then there is hope for books 4 and 5. Otherwise, book 4 would be on track for the same fate as book 5.

Overall, this book was a disgrace to this series!

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Look who got the book before the release date 😝 I'm either gonna love this or hate this 🤭 let's seee 🤸🏻"