War Storm

Spoiler Free:

War Storm by Victoria Aveyard is the epic conclusion to the Red Queen series. I really enjoyed this book, although there were some aspects that were annoying at times. Overall, I think that most of the characters developed compared to the beginning of the series and they all pretty much got an ending that they deserved. The writing was beautiful and the action scenes were very well done. I also enjoyed the different POVs offered.

Spoilers:

Okay, let's get into this. There's honestly so much I'd like to talk about since so much happened in the book, but I'll keep it to a few main points that I liked, didn't like.

I really did enjoy reading this behemoth of a book. I think that Cal and Mare's relationship was written really well in the beginning, but it personally fell flat in the later chapters. I enjoyed the tension between them, it was really nice reading that, not to mention I kept squealing like a fangirl all their remarks. In the end, though, they didn't end up together... but they kind of did? It just didn't seem right that after four books of trying to get together and proving how much they care for each other that Mare and Cal would go on a "break." I understand Mare's reasoning behind this, but it didn't feel right, especially after reading about Mare's deep feelings toward Cal during the Harbor Bay fight. Personally, I'm not a fan of this kind of ending, I like knowing what happens to the characters long after a series ends, but that's just me

Moving on, the action in this book was really nice. The way Aveyard described the action/war scenes was really nice. I enjoy her writing style, its very descriptive and it really helps you picture the scenes and immerse yourself in the book. I also really enjoyed how you got to see different POVs during the battle scenes and the way they skipped along the timeline of the story worked really well for the story. For example, while Mare, Maven, Farely, and the rest of the Scarlet Guard are underground a train passes by and we see Maven look upset as it rushes by. We later find out that that was Evangeline making her escape. I thought that it was really nice putting the pieces together from the different perspectives.

As I mentioned before, I wasn't a huge fan of the ending. The last five or so chapters seemed rushed and awkward. I thought that the cease-fire came out of nowhere and quite suddenly, especially since the majority of the final Lakelands battle seemed heavily tipped toward Iris and queen Cenra's side. I just thought that they gave up too easily.

Authors have a tendency to repeat phrases and words and Victoria Aveyard to no exception. It was as if during certain sections of the book she chose a word or certain phrase to repeat until she found a new one. Some examples that come to mind include "smarts," "showing quarter," some variation of "saving rats from a sinking ship," and many more. It's easy to overlook nitpicks like these, but once you're aware of them, you can't unsee them.

Another thing that annoyed me was the fact that every single character, without fail, was an expert at reading faces and expressions. It got to the point where Mare could read Cal's thoughts based on a single muscle quiver in his cheek. I'm being serious when I say that Mare or Evangeline could have an entire conversation with each other by only blinking and breathing based on how well they can read people. This was one of the more annoying aspects of the book that made it less enjoyable.

There's so much more I could talk about, but I simply don't have time. Although there are certain things about the book that was annoying, it was a very nice conclusion to the four-book series. Despite its size, it didn't take me nearly as long as I thought it would since I read it hours at a time. It was very captivating and entertaining and it made me not want to put it down. The ending was questionable, but the characters and dialog were hilarious and very enjoyable. All in all, this was a great book and I would recommend the series to anyone interested in a political fantasy story.

oh...
I'm done...
That's it...
That's the end...
...
...
...
i wasnt ready


Okay but in all seriousness, I genuinely really enjoyed this. Aveyard's storytelling and writing was still amazing as ever and I stand by my statement that she just has a way of making you love and care for characters, even if you don't want to...

cough cough MAVEN cough cough

However, there were just a couple things which I wish were written a little differently.

I wish that there was a little bit more trepidation on Queen Cenra's part before just turning around and retreating. I get that we were in Iris's perspective and that getting Cenra's also would've just been over the top, but I think Iris would've been able to read her pretty well, at least well enough to understand her hesitation and convey that to the reader. Sort of watching her go back and forth between deciding whether to stay and fight or to retreat and get home safely.

Also, I do sort of wish that Kilorn was with Mare just a little bit more throughout this book. Considering that he's her best friend, I think that her feelings towards him should've been stronger. Ya know, a platonic love, platonic soul-mates. I think that the scenes he was in were sort of brushed over and he didn't matter a ton.

Another thing was that parts of the final battle did feel a little underwhelming. I don't mean between Maven and Mare, that was wild. I mean the BIG battle. I feel like a lot of the scenes were a bit slowed down and could've been written w a bit of a faster pacing. I also think that the writing was focusing on the small parts of the battle as opposed to the mass destruction that was happening around them.

But those didn't really take away my enjoyment, though.

Also, I was thrown for a loop w the amount of people that died in this book. And I don't mean that so many characters that I loved died, I mean almost no one died. I was seriously expecting a massacre of all the characters I loved.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this and I liked this as a conclusion to the series but it fell just a little flat for me, especially the last ~100 pages of the book.

But the first ~500 were still phenomenal, right on par with the rest of the series.

Wow. This was disappointing. I think VA lost her way by the time she got to this book. The narration that began to get excessive in book 3 just got worse in this book with more repetitive sentiments, repetition of the plot line through 4 different POVs, lots and lots of talk with flowery metaphors, 2-3 scenes that were actually important enough to move the plot in 700 pages. 700 pages... it did not need to be this long. I rarely say that with fantasy because usually it fits, but no. I had to tandem between audio and physical to finish. I was so bored I started zoning out during the audiobook and didn't miss anything. I'm giving this 3 stars because VA is a good writer, you can tell she cares about this series and the characters, I think the underlying themes are important. I'm looking forward to reading her other series with hopes that she grew enough as writer to hone in on the repetitive writing and excessive 1st person narration. I gave Red Queen and Glass Sword 5 stars, King's Cage 4 stars... so yeah.. this didn't end how I was hoping it would. :(