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| I do NOT want to talk about that hockey score pop-up in the frame. I am so disappointed in the playoff results so far! Nevermind that my most beloved Stars lost to the Oilers, because the Oilers are fine and I'd be satisfied to have them win the Cup, but the Panthers are also in the final?!? The Panthers represent the absolute worst of the NHL, everything that I find most toxic about men's professional hockey. Not the players, because they mostly can't help where they play, but the awful management. Okay, I guess I *did* want to talk about that hockey pop-up, but now my mouth is closed about hockey until October! |
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m pretty sure that Tiktok has damaged my ability to process information, because I genuinely really liked this book?
I mean, quite a lot of it was stupid, and there are too many characters and I refuse to be expected to have memorized the name of everyone’s dragon, and I am SO bored with Violet as the #bestest #specialest #mostdragonriderwhoeverdragonridedest, but I dunno. I drank the Kool-aid. I bonded with my captors. I collaborated with the fascist regime, and I enjoyed my time in Basgiath.
I was still annoyed on every page, though!
The most annoying thing about Violet, even more than her absolute bestestness/most specialness, is how she seems to just really feel all her feelings in her body. Every time Violet hears bad news or thinks a scary thought, we have to hear how her body responds. Are venin on the prowl? Well, then Violet’s throat is going to tighten in response. Does she have to keep yet another boring secret from Rhiannon? That’s sure going to put a pit in her stomach! Poor girl really needs several rounds of EMDR and a consultation with a gastroenterologist.
The thing that I really like about Violet, however, is her moral greyness. She’s actually not that great of a person, and I’m so into it! That BRILLIANT shit she pulls at Faris’ court is legitimately my favorite scene in this entire series, and I'm not sure why every problem is not being solved by permitting Violet to serial killer her way to success.
The other best scene in the book is when the gang is on the luck island and fortune determines that Trager is shot right in front of their faces, and they just have to stand there and be all, "Ah, fortune... Cool, cool." These scenes have in common the idea that morality is inherently objectively grey in this world, variable according to who wields it, and if Yarros would just lean into that as her overarching premise instead of just a cool bit that she uses every now and then, the series as a whole would be so much stronger, more interesting, and more meaningful. Don't you feel like society as a whole, right at this moment, really needs to sit down and have a discussion about who determines what's right and what's wrong and where that puts those who don't agree with that determination?
Other than the fact that dragons are great and we should all ride them, I have to confess that I’m not actually sure why channeling from the ground is so bad? Yes, venin are assholes, but that seems to be about the venin, not the channeling, because Xaden channels and all it did was make him a sad, wet dishcloth of a man, not an asshole. And yes, depriving the ground and the people on it of their life force to the extent that they die is VERY bad, but Xaden can also channel from Violet’s conduit, we learn, so why can’t they all do that instead?
What I would prefer, and what would make me genuinely interested in Violet/Xaden, would be if channeling from the ground did make you absolutely 100% genuinely EVIL. Like, you can choose from Lawful Evil or Chaotic Evil or Neutral Evil, I don’t care, as long as that second part is EVIL. And Xaden can still be obsessed with Violet, even, after he’s evil--actually, I’d prefer it if he was, because that would be interesting! Just imagine him bopping along with the Scooby Gang, helping solve all their mysteries, trying to hide the whole time that he’s evil. It would be so good!
Since I don’t actually care about Violet/Xaden, I also don’t really care about the cliffhanger ending. But I DO hope Violet poisons someone about it, because that would be hilarious.
Also? The Irids are right.
Also also? Now there is a cat, and that is my favorite part.
Very last also: The Basgiath cadets are thirstier for patches than Girl Scouts, lol. I hope they DO pause their war long enough to commission themselves a Quest Squad patch!
Predictions for the next book:
- Violet is also somehow genetically venin and that’s why her parents offered her up to that death cult or whatever when she was a baby--it was to mask that part of her. But somehow she’ll figure out how to reveal it and then integrate it or whatever, and then she can teach Xaden.
- The venin aren’t actually bad. Maybe they’re just enslaved or something to a couple of bad leaders, so Violet and the gang will solve that problem and then everyone, everywhere, will be able to channel allllll the magic.
- I know this contradicts what I just said in the previous point, but my other idea is that Violet will somehow turn out to be inherently Good--I mean, isn't that what the best of the bestiness is all leading to?--and her union with Xaden, now objectively Bad because he's a venin, will work to unite the two sides of The Force to bring harmony to their world. And maybe then even all dragon riders will bond two dragons, a regular war dragon like always and a peaceful Irid that's always going to be talking hippie peace and love into their other ear.
P.S. View all my reviews.
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