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Onyx Storm: Chapter 18
Chapter start. Violet rushes to Halden's aid and is relieved to see Xaden hasn't skewered the crown prince of Navarre for touching her hair.
Okay, props to Violet to responding in a reasonable way to Xaden's insane behavior. This is part of what makes the worldbuilding of this book bad, as I have said before. Yarros wants this book to have serious, complex politics and real stakes, but she also has to include all the same beats every shadow daddy romantasy has, complete with the overprotective, violent love interest. So Xaden is both a man so devoted to the cause that he let Violet's mom carve up his back and an unhinged lover who would let the world burn for Violet, rebellion or not. But he can't be both those things at once, and more importantly, those guys belong in different books. There's nothing inherently wrong with the fantasy of the love interest who is unhinged and possessive, that's a romance staple, but that guy has to have a book shaped around that fantasy that makes it palatable for the reader. Again, I'm not arguing that including that element in the romance is morally wrong. It's fine, if that's the kind of romance you are writing. But if you want the readers to take the politics of your five book epic fantasy trilogy seriously, you, the writer, have to also take them seriously. And when Xaden doesn't take the consequences of his actions seriously, when the book doesn't take them seriously, then I, the reader, don't either. And the whole thing falls apart.
That was a long rant, let's move along. Violet's trying to decide whether to input the name AIMSIR into her dad's lock while she and Rhiannon talk about her relationship with Halden. Aimsir is her mother's dragon, and therefore her mother's first love, is my understanding. It's written kind of confusing, but I think it's an elegant enough solution to the riddle. Rhiannon is there to try and salvage the book using her powers if Violet is wrong.
And Violet isn't wrong.
That's sweet. It would be sweeter if Violet's dad had been mentioned more often so we actually felt like she missed him, but Violet is a goldfish about people when they aren't around unless their name is Xaden.
Violet's dad has left her some kind of mission: she's to seek a merchant named Narelle Anselm in Deverilli, a neighboring island nation, to seek a weapon. The letter is vague about the details, though it mentions the feathertails and their connection to a previous uprising which is documented in the manuscript he's left her.
Again, this is fine in a vacuum, but we know Violet's dad left her a book about venin from book 1. Because she read it, discovered it was a forbidden book that no one had records of, and yet she still didn't put together the truth about the venin until she literally ran into one at the end of the book. Why hasn't she ever thought about her father and what he was up to since then? She spent a good chunk of Iron Flame doing research, yet I don't think Violet ever thought about her dad's work during that time period.
Violet's time with her dad's journal is interrupted by a crazed Xaden, who is extremely jealous and demands Violet tell him if she ever loved Halden. They make out a bit and then Xaden stops. Violet thought like a page earlier that being a venin was affecting Xaden's temper, and yet she doesn't try to calm him down here or express any actual anger with him, just reassures him and kisses him and whatnot. Look, if she decided that was what she wanted to do because she wasn't holding his venin-ness against him, I think we should at least get that perspective from her. Right now it just looks like they've both forgotten all their previous conversations about the subject.
Like, is Xaden spiralling out of control here? It kind of feels like it is, but Yarros hates continuity so I can't tell if that's deliberate or not.
Xaden agrees with Violet's plan to go to Deverelli. Chapter end.
I wish we could spend more time on Violet's relationship with her dad and less time having her kiss Xaden. This book is too fucking long.
I arch an eyebrow and slowly look over my shoulder at him. “Seriously?”
“He was going to touch you.” The glacial rage in his eyes has mine widening.
“Right, because that’s the mature response.”
Halden sucks in a breath, then another. “Quite. All. Right.”
“It wasn’t a response, it was… It simply was.” Xaden crouches behind me as Halden pushes himself to sit upright. “Let’s get three things straight, Your Highness. First, I have remarkable hearing thanks to the shadows at your very feet. Second, I don’t control Violet. Never have. Never will. But third, and most importantly—” He lowers his voice. “She really, honestly hasn’t thought about you. At least not since the second she set eyes on me.”
I’m going to fucking kill him.
Okay, props to Violet to responding in a reasonable way to Xaden's insane behavior. This is part of what makes the worldbuilding of this book bad, as I have said before. Yarros wants this book to have serious, complex politics and real stakes, but she also has to include all the same beats every shadow daddy romantasy has, complete with the overprotective, violent love interest. So Xaden is both a man so devoted to the cause that he let Violet's mom carve up his back and an unhinged lover who would let the world burn for Violet, rebellion or not. But he can't be both those things at once, and more importantly, those guys belong in different books. There's nothing inherently wrong with the fantasy of the love interest who is unhinged and possessive, that's a romance staple, but that guy has to have a book shaped around that fantasy that makes it palatable for the reader. Again, I'm not arguing that including that element in the romance is morally wrong. It's fine, if that's the kind of romance you are writing. But if you want the readers to take the politics of your five book epic fantasy trilogy seriously, you, the writer, have to also take them seriously. And when Xaden doesn't take the consequences of his actions seriously, when the book doesn't take them seriously, then I, the reader, don't either. And the whole thing falls apart.
That was a long rant, let's move along. Violet's trying to decide whether to input the name AIMSIR into her dad's lock while she and Rhiannon talk about her relationship with Halden. Aimsir is her mother's dragon, and therefore her mother's first love, is my understanding. It's written kind of confusing, but I think it's an elegant enough solution to the riddle. Rhiannon is there to try and salvage the book using her powers if Violet is wrong.
And Violet isn't wrong.
I want to read it all instantly, yet simultaneously limit myself to a single line so I can save another for tomorrow and then the day after, like I have with my mother’s journals. I could make it last, keep him with me as long as possible.
That's sweet. It would be sweeter if Violet's dad had been mentioned more often so we actually felt like she missed him, but Violet is a goldfish about people when they aren't around unless their name is Xaden.
Violet's dad has left her some kind of mission: she's to seek a merchant named Narelle Anselm in Deverilli, a neighboring island nation, to seek a weapon. The letter is vague about the details, though it mentions the feathertails and their connection to a previous uprising which is documented in the manuscript he's left her.
How would he have known a merchant in Deverelli? Seek the weapon… Did he know about Andarna? About the rest of her kind? For the first time in my life, it dawns on me that maybe I didn’t know my father as well as I thought I did.
Again, this is fine in a vacuum, but we know Violet's dad left her a book about venin from book 1. Because she read it, discovered it was a forbidden book that no one had records of, and yet she still didn't put together the truth about the venin until she literally ran into one at the end of the book. Why hasn't she ever thought about her father and what he was up to since then? She spent a good chunk of Iron Flame doing research, yet I don't think Violet ever thought about her dad's work during that time period.
Violet's time with her dad's journal is interrupted by a crazed Xaden, who is extremely jealous and demands Violet tell him if she ever loved Halden. They make out a bit and then Xaden stops. Violet thought like a page earlier that being a venin was affecting Xaden's temper, and yet she doesn't try to calm him down here or express any actual anger with him, just reassures him and kisses him and whatnot. Look, if she decided that was what she wanted to do because she wasn't holding his venin-ness against him, I think we should at least get that perspective from her. Right now it just looks like they've both forgotten all their previous conversations about the subject.
Like, is Xaden spiralling out of control here? It kind of feels like it is, but Yarros hates continuity so I can't tell if that's deliberate or not.
Xaden agrees with Violet's plan to go to Deverelli. Chapter end.
I wish we could spend more time on Violet's relationship with her dad and less time having her kiss Xaden. This book is too fucking long.