penwalla

ch. 28
violet hasn't been sleeping well because she is worried about her sister
xylon and violet are making conversation. xylon is opening up to violet here--he tells her he hasn't slept well since his father left to declare their province was seceding, and that he's made it his business to know everything about violet so that he could ruin her. of course violet's response to this is to demand he explain his current intentions.
it is striking to me how little empathy our kind, compassionate protag has for xylon. this could be a revelatory moment in another book, but xylon's been so obviously a non-threat that it's got no teeth to it. violet just looks belligerent and silly for not being able to work out what the reader worked out ages ago, and instead of this being a moment where she accepts or reciprocates his vulnerability and therefore advancing the romance...
it becomes a horny moment.
i'm sighing. you can't see me but i'm sighing.
violet finally figures out how to communicate with xylon telepathically, and then ofc dain interrupts. there are a lot of convenient interruptions and eavesdropped convos in this book. this could pay off later if we find out dain is using his mind-reading to make this happen.
a professor then appears, and after some pleading from violet tells them no riders were killed at the outpost, meaning mira is alive. violet is relieved, but doesn't want to show weakness (oh, that character trait is back now?) so she flees to her dragons to cry.
this is actually a good emotional beat but i wish there was more to it. for one, it would have been nice to see violet miss mira more during the story. did she not worry about before becoming a rider herself and the anxiety is heightened now that she knows how dangerous it is? is she more worried now because she saw the battle with her own eyes? like there's lots of ways to dig into this and yarros just doesn't.
scene change. xylon and violet are on the mat; she's decided to get to know him because it's unfair he knows more about her than vice versa.
instead of being normal about it, she's just dropping random questions on him, some of them personal, and then getting offended when xylon declines to bear his tragic backstory to her.
this scene is less than a page long--and i'm reading this book on calibre--and then we fastforward again to the first day of the War Games.
side note: i've been thinking about the style of this book, and its flaws, and i think it's that it feels like a movie. it's full of quick cuts and expository dialogue. the prose is straightforward and written like it's an urban fantasy. the prose is readable, but it's never exciting the way good writing is exciting because the author is making use of language in an interesting way. and despite this being a first person novel, it feels like we're not in violet's head enough, because the author declines to spend a lot of time ruminating on her interiority and when she does it is very shallow and repetitive. it's amazing to me that this book is as long as it is, and contains so many time skips, and yet there's so little! every scene is advancing the plot, beat by beat, with no room to breath.
ok so the War Games are the last thing the first years have to do before graduation. but violet is anxious about a whole list of things, all of which feel like they warranted mention at some point before now. dain and xylon have both been acting weird, so has Big T, and the redaction of battle briefs has continued.
you know, violet has been worried about these redactions for a while now. we know she takes archive duty and has a high ranking sister and parent. it would be interesting to see her actually do something about it--steal some reports, or try to get info out of her mom, or something. she's such a reactive character!
we were in a scene with xylon on the last page. why not extend that scene more than a single page and actually show us xylon and dain acting weird?
they're standing outside, and it's hot, and violet's knee hurts. apparently "anything goes" during the war games and jack still has it out for violet. imagine investing a whole year into training dragon riders and then just letting them kill each other during a training exercise, at a time when you're so starved for bodies that you're calling up riders to serve before graduation. NO I WILL NOT STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS.
violet telepathically flirts with xylon to get him to reveal their assignment for the war games.
their mission: steal a crystal egg and defend a flag at the same time
as they hypoe each other up and get ready to fly out, the dragons appear. and Big T has a saddle on!
apparently this is against the rules. guys, this setting is so stupid. did no one edit this? hello? please? god are you listening?
Big T squashes violet's complaints and says if that if she needs the saddle, she deserves it and she's not less because of her disability. which is actually cool! i like it! and xylon had the saddle made and assembled it himself, because of course he did. this man is simping for violet like he's the hero of an ali hazelwood novel.
I SAID WHAT I SAID.
xylon and violet have a telepathic Moment. it is in fact romantic. i'm sad it's trapped in this book.
golden dragon arrives, and violet has her roll in the mud to obscure her shiny scales so she won't be a beacon during the fight. they take off! violet is on the flag-defending squad, so she and dain and some others are flying around, trading the flag back and forth, since part of the assignment is that they haven't been given a location to defend their flag in.
and then violet's power starts acting up. she starts panicking, worried she's going to have a backlash and explode, but she has no time because at that moment three dragons from an opposing team roll up and attack them. as they fight, violet realizes the egg they're seeking is nearby, and telepathically directs xylon there before urging Big T to help Liam, who is locked in combat with Jack.
Liam gets thrown off his dragon and violet is forced to stop time to get to him in...well, time. violet saves him, then gets pissed and decides she's going to handle jack once and for all. her power starts burning up inside her and she finally manifests her signet: lightning.
lightning...and shadow....lmao. i mean it's not a terrible choice but it is a bit pat.
jack's dead now.
this is actually a fun scene to read and violet has an actual reaction to having killed, she is distressed. i enjoyed it.
ch. 29
violet is still freaking out about having finally killed someone. this is actually good characterization! we did it!
side note: do violet's instructors know she's been avoiding killing people? does that give them pause considering she's *checks notes* in the military during active wartime?
i'll stop complaining. violet is getting super lighheaded. she starts throwing up and crying; Big T shields her from the others while she tries to compose herself. to violet's credit, she's trying to focus on other things--she thanks golden dragon, tries to get Big T out of his saddle--but keeps spiraling. she thinks about her mom and starts retching again.
this is probably the most emotionally impactful writing in the entire book so far.
dain comes over and tries to comfort her, but xylon butts in. dain is trying to soothe violet by saying she can not use her powers, but xylon tells him to fuck off--of course violet will have to use her powers, she's in the fucking military. but he also genuinely tries to reassure violet, pointing out that jack was fully evil and a homicidal maniac. and she saved liam's life.
xylon confronts violet with the reality of war, framing it as an ugly necessity, violence that serves the greater good. he tells her that with her power, she'll be able to kill the opposing army before they can harm innocent civilians.
none of this is bad, and it's actually a reasonable tack for xylon to take--he's in the military and grew up in a military family, i wouldn't expect him to be anti-war in his leanings. and even if he has misgivings about the army he's in now is not the time. again, my complaint is that violet also grew up in a military family and has always planned to join the military, albeit in a noncombat position. it's fine if she's against killing, but the book should have dug into that a little bit and told us why and how she developed that sensibility.
rhiannon escorts violet off the field, teasing her about xylon as they go.
scene change. violet's practicing her dagger throwing, aiming for lethal targets instead of the shoulder. xylon comes in.
violet is, understandably in a bad mood. she's also in a tiny nightgown and nothing else. does the military not issue them standard sleepwear? anyway, the dialogue on this page is actually good, but it's sandwiched between violet lusting after xylon again, and it feels really out of place. like this isn't a bad set up for a sex scene--she's emotionally volatile, he comforts her, etc--but it's not working for me.
violet actually explains her motivations, and we finally get some meaningful insight into her: her dad told her she was different to her sister and mom, and she secretly hoped she would be a mender like brennan, and instead she has this destructive power that represents something about herself she doesn't like.
again, this is a good monologue! but it's like a pretty roof without any supporting beams. where the hell was all this in the first 74% of the book?
xylon tells her she's not like the others because she didn't want to be here, and violet points out he didn't, either. xylon comforts her. and then they kiss. chapter end!
these last two chapters are the most successful in the book, bar none. no infodumping, minimal stupid worldbuilding, xylon and violet have actual dialogue that feels like it's a developing romantic relationship built on more than mystery and lust, and we get some insight into violet that makes her much more real as a character.
prayer circle that i won't be disappointed in ch. 30.