The Dragon Rider Smut Book Club Is Now In Session. This Month's Topic: Onyx Storm

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!

I have begun annoying/entertaining my family by inserting Fourth Wing taglines into every scenario.

Case in point before Family Movie Night the other night:

A fighter plane without its pilot is a tragedy.

A fighter pilot without their plane is dead.

Welcome to Top Gun.

Catchy, right? And it works in a surprising number of scenarios!

Anyway, for my crimes I spent much of my free time over the Spring semester listening to Onyx Storm while walking my 10,000 steps a day, cleaning house (how are two empty nesters still making this much mess?!?), and sewing, the latter of which led to an interesting moment in which I'd forgotten that my partner was working from home and I was absolutely BLASTING my audiobook, the better to hear it over the noise of my sewing machine. He walked through the room on his way to make himself a sandwich, and was all, "Um, are you listening to porn?"

And then had to repeat himself three times because not only was I indeed listening to porn, but I was listening to it LOUDLY.

I told you after I read the last book that Xaden was going to eventually figure out some more uses for his shadow manifesting signet!

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I'm pretty sure it was Chapter 49...

Fair Warning: the following meeting of the Dragon Rider Smut Book Club is members-only, because there will be all the spoilers for all the books!

Here's my review of Fourth Wing.

Here's my review of Iron Flame.

And here's my review of Onyx Storm!

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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.

Feel free to use my ideas, Yarros! In payment, just have Violet poison someone!

P.S. View all my reviews.

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Dragon Rider Smut Book Report: Iron Flame is Stupid But I Read It Anyway

 

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Welcome to the second meeting of the Dragon Rider Smut Book Club! Here's what happened in the first book. 

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In the second book, Violet and Xaden are still having the same fight over and over again.

Awesome.

@romantasysociety 🤦‍♀️ Did you prefer Vi in Book 1 or Book 2? Im seriously looking forward to who she’ll be in Book 3!🤷‍♀️ 🎥 @Tiaslibrary 🥰 📚 @Rebecca Yarros ’s Empyrean Series 🥳 __________________________ #ironflame #ironflamebook #ironflametheories #ironflametheory #ironflamebooktok #ironflamememe #ironflamemerch #ironflamespoilers #rebeccayarrosironflame #ironflame🔥 ♬ original sound - Fourth Wing

Sometimes in a book, a character will make me feel like a literal space alien thanks to relational choices that they make that are so normalized within the book. Like, am *I* the crazy one for thinking that You Must Tell Me Everything is a crazy rule to set for your partner, AND that You Must Ask Me Anything You Want to Know And I’ll Only Tell You Something If You Ask Me is a crazy boundary? This is such a stupid fight to have for most of two books, because these are such stupid relationship rules!

Or am I actually literally a space alien?

I also think Violet doesn’t need to keep the secrets that she’s keeping from her friends, but Fucking Malek, Rhiannon, you are as bad as Violet with wanting to know everything going on inside people’s heads! Can you not give Violet a little space, please? Am I a literal space alien for thinking that it’s crazy for friends who are older than twelve to be this wrapped up in OMG I can tell something’s wrong what is it, um I’m good nothing’s wrong, no seriously tell me I know something’s wrong, etc. etc. ad infinitum.

@emfunnsbooks now you can be all caught up for the emotional devastation that will be onyx storm!!! xoxoxo — #booktokfyp #booksoftiktok #onyxstorm #fourthwingrebeccayarros #ironflamespoilers ♬ original sound - em :)📖💭

Violet really started to also get on my nerves with how often she’s got a tummy ache in this book. Every time someone says something emotionally charged, or she can’t tell her bestie a secret, or there’s a lick of tension in the air her stomach hurts, or it drops, or it squeezes, or sometimes for a change of pace her throat might tighten or she might feel nauseated. I’d have to go back and check, which I really don’t want to do, to see if this is true, but it would be marginally cool and an interesting-ish authorial move if this only started to happen after Varrish tortures her. Like, Yarros has always made a point about how Violet lives in her body, with her constant pain and joint issues (she learned the word “subluxate” for this book, so that’s fun), but it would be interesting if the experience being tortured for several days has caused her to hold that trauma in her body and express it through the one place Varrish couldn’t physically hurt, her tum-tum. It’s very possible that I’m wrong, though, and her tummy hurt throughout the entire book and I only noticed it in the latter half when it started getting on my nerves.

Side note, but I’m glad that we’re not raping people here, even during torture. Yarros gets a bonus star from me for that. Also the torture scene was genuinely good! I mean, it's so sad that Violet was tortured, I guess, but it's amazing how the quality of the book jumps up when she's genuinely in peril and not overpowered and also continually pandered to.

@myproseandcons Be a good friend. Save this to send to your bestie after she’s done with her Iron Flame read through 👯‍♀️ #IronFlame #Booktok ♬ Originalton - 🥀 verenarenafee 🥀

The book’s big climactic battle is stupid, but I’m also giving Yarros a bonus star because it was so stupid but simultaneously fast-paced that I was able to relate it beat by beat to my entire family, who have not read this series, with much hilarity. It was a lot of “okay, so in the first book Violet had this enemy and she killed him, but then the administration secretly brought him back to life and he’d totally changed and was a super good guy, so you’re not going to BELIEVE what happened when they went to check on the ward stone,” and “okay remember how Andarna is the most special because she’s a baby, well it turns out that she’s actually the MOST most special,” and “so then Xaden couldn’t hold out and he was about to die and that means that Violet was going to die and THAT means that everyone in Basgiath was going to die before they could repair the ward stone and THAT means that everyone in Navarre was going to die so you are not going to BELIEVE what he did!” My audience was rolling with laughter. It was awesome.

And after all that the only super important character who died was Violet’s mother, who was underutilized anyway so whatever. I did not buy her redemption arc that she was only being the world’s worst parent so she could secretly be the world’s best parent blech. I wish Yarros had really leaned in and made her some kind of secret venin or venin collaborator--I am so sad to give up my headcanon that she murdered Violet’s father to keep the venin secret, but I guess I can still keep my theory that *something* suss happened regarding his death.

@the.booktok.girls The best hype dragon in the whole book. #booktok #bookish #fantasy #fantasybooks #fantasybooktok #fourthwingrebeccayarros #fourthwingbook #violetsorrengail #tairn #andarna #bookmeme #ironflame #ironflamebook #Meme #MemeCut ♬ original sound - Iowa_wendy

Onyx Storm predictions:

• Violet and Xaden are going to endlessly fight about Xaden’s venin status. They will fight the same fight every time they’re alone, they will say the same things every time they fight, and it will be boring.
• Violet’s father will turn out to have secretly been… something. A rebel working against her mother? Also a venin but he also never used it so he can be a model for Xaden? I dunno, but Yarros is obsessed with Violet’s entire family so there’s definitely more to the father’s story.
• I still think there’s going to be something weird about Violet’s ancestry. Maybe she was adopted or stolen from venin parents or she was a baby venin but forgot or her parents did experiments on her.

Final thought: the infantry was my favorite, and I don’t understand why they only had one scene together and then fell off the face of the Earth. I hope Onyx Storm has more infantry!

P.S. View all my reviews.

P.P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Do You Want to be in the Dragon Rider Smut Book Club with Me? We're Reading Fourth Wing!

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So, based on how partly enjoyable but mostly cringe I’ve found the much-hyped ACOTAR series so far, I’d expected that I’d also snark read my way through dragon rider smut the same way I’m snark reading my way through fairy smut.

But slap my face, because I’m actually genuinely enjoying the Fourth Wing series?

Mind you, it’s still VERY snarkable, but whereas ACOTAR was over-the-top cringe and was done no favors by its writing (HOW many times are you going to say the words “high lord,” FEYRE?!?!?), Fourth Wing has dialed the world-building down juuuuuust enough that it comes out on the right side of cartoonish, and though most of its twists and climactic plot beats are obvious, a couple are, happily, genuine surprises!

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Speaking of obvious plot beats… Basgiath War College’s rules are super draconian, which is how you know that Violet lives in the Evil Empire. You also know pretty much the second Violet whips out her family book of folk tales and starts reciting stories about the evil venin and their wyvern familiars that we’re definitely going to see evil venin and their wyvern familiars at some point, as well as probably all the other stuff in that story that I’m too lazy to look back up right now. Other corny tropes: gosh, y’all aren’t going to believe this, but it turns out that even though Violet is SO SMOL and SO WEAK, she is also the MOST SPECIAL dragon rider, because she gets TWO dragons, including the BEST dragon--gaspeth! Also, she’s got a boy best friend who loves her but is smotheringly too overprotective of her, and y’all. There is a guy who Hates her for Reasons, but also he’s hot. But he’s Troubled, and he’s got a History, so gosh, Violet probably better stay away from him!

But I dunno. Whereas Feyre and Tamlin annoyed the snot out of me, like, immediately, I actually like Violet and Xaden a lot. I’m terrified that they’re going to have this same stupid fight that they keep having over and over and over again for the entire series (Why won’t Xaden tell you every single thing in his mind and heart and all his rebellion plans immediately without you even having to ask? Because that’s stupid! And impossible!), and they have the cheeziest sex scenes, but hey. They also have no chemistry, so they’re working with the tools on hand.

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ANYWAY, other than some cornball elements and obvious plot beats, this is a solid fantasy creation. I love the world-building, clunky as it is, with all its nichey little rules about magic and how to act around dragons, etc. I love the over-the-top deadly boarding school vibe--it’s giving Scholomance, which I also love. I love a crafty heroine who goes morally grey to solve her problems. And although I liked Xaden more when he low-key acted like he hated Violet, he’s still overall an interesting character, and I dig that he’s got “secrets” yet to be revealed.

And yes, fine. I LOVE it when there’s a good tag line, and Fourth Wing has the best tag line I’ve read in a looooong time. I want that shit cross-stitched on a pillow. I want to DIY a Xaden Riorsen flight jacket and stick a homemade Iron Squad patch on it.

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Okay, my predictions for the future books, because I am DEFINITELY going to continue this series:

1. At some point, Xaden will penetrate Violet with his shadow thingies. I’m sure that’s the main tag in a billion fanfics already, so Yarros might as well just lean into it.
2. There has got to be some more shit going down with Violet’s family. Is maybe her mom going to turn out to be a venin? Or… her mom sacrificed her dad to them as part of an alliance? Or maybe her mom had an affair with a venin and Violet is actually a venin’s child and her mom murdered her dad when he found out?
3. Something about Andarna, but I really do not know what because other than stopping time twice she’s pretty useless.

P.S. View all my reviews.

P.P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!