Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: Military violence and war themes, blood, grief and loss depiction, physical assault and injury, death
Score: Five out of ten.
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What a disappointment. Again...

I'm done with Victoria Aveyard. I picked War Storm up to finish the Red Queen tetralogy or quartet, but I headed in with low expectations after being underwhelmed by Glass Sword and King's Cage. Red Queen was enjoyable--how could Aveyard fall this far? The series could've been so much better, but it was dreadful instead.

It starts (more like finishes) with Mare, who needs no introduction, Cal and Maven, all living separate lives. At least there's a map now, but anyway. The novel starts off slow and continues its pace after Cal betrays Mare by joining the Silver side, leaving Mare to fight for the Red side with other characters. War Storm didn't need to be above 650 pages when it could be shrunk to 100 or less, especially considering Glass Sword and King's Cage suffered from the same issue, meaning Aveyard didn't rectify that. The worldbuilding was lacklustre as usual as Aveyard did not answer some questions I had, not to mention the absurd number of unnecessary subplots detracting from War Storm. The characters are hard to connect or relate with, and the plot goes on and on. The climax is ironically anticlimactic as only one character died in the big battle, Maven, finishing War Storm on a low note. ( )

So I was pretty much able to read the first three books of The Red Queen series around the same time, which was fantastic. But then I had to wait for a year to read War Storm. And still, I was able to remember the most important pieces and held on to my excitement for this last installment. First and foremost, I was so happy to see how long this book was since it would be the last. And with a title like War Storm , I felt sure this would be a very climatic ending.

The first big difference I noticed with this book was the pacing. It passed much slower than the previous installments. A big reason it felt this way for me though was because the majority of this book revolves around the nuances of politics. And of course, the series is about politics- Queens, Kings, War, Inequality, Prejudices, Conscription, Titles, Marriages for Alliance, and more. But I felt that this book went headlong into the more dry back and forth of working out new policy and looking more into the characteristics of different types of government and how each might effect the social environment that currently existed in Norta and its surrounding countries. And when it comes to writing about politics, I think there’s a very thin line for me as to what feels more like a distant history lesson and what is still able to fascinate me and connect me to this story and it’s characters. Unfortunately, I felt that most of this book did not leave me feeling that connection. And it’s not that I don’t like politics in literature, but if we are going to go into it, then I’d rather really go into it and not re hash the same topics so repetitively. One of the better examples that comes to mind of very stimulating writing of politics into literature is Isaac Asimov’s The Foundation. I’d rather go into the theory of it than to listen to the people continuously squabbling over control from various view points.

It also doesn’t help that I have never really liked Mare as the main character or really, just in general. Thank goodness for Evangeline because she was the best part about this book for me. I also really enjoyed her parts in the last book and have seen a lot of people who also seemed to connect to her character the most in this book. Evangeline has a quick wit and owns her strengths, but she is also very introspective and knows her weaknesses. Between these last two books she has come to learn new truths about herself and has learned to stand strong for what she wants even in the face of everything she has ever known. Evangeline is wonderfully passionate in all things and this came across so well in her chapters. Mare, on the other hand, continued to annoy me. Though I will admit she has gone through many changes herself and is stronger for them. I admire the fact that her character was now able to choose to stick to her guns and not be as easily swayed as in the past. I still think she is a hot head and reacts too quickly to situations but she has shown a lot more restraint in this one. She still keeps going over all the same thoughts on repeat though, and too many of them for my taste have to do with “Tiberias” Calore.

Now when it comes to Cal, I respect some of the growth and decisions he made towards the end as well, though his change was the slowest burn of them all and one that I feel has really just begun as we leave this story. However, overall, for most of the book he was equally as annoying to me as he was the rest of the series. He is a very slow changer and naively stubborn which makes him very difficult for me to like.

Iris was a new perspective, and seeing as I am not very fond of Mare or Cal, it was a refreshing point of view. But then you throw in Maven’s point of view on top of everyone else’s and I just felt that there were too many point of views in this book. Don’t get me wrong, I like having more than one person’s perspective to connect with, but not really more than 3. And with Maven, though up until this book he had been my favorite character in the series, I really don’t think his chapters did him justice. A huge part of Maven’s character was how much of an enigma he was and particularly how his mind worked. Seeing him through the other characters and the unique impression he made on each of them was much preferable to me than to actually go into his head myself in his chapters. Suddenly it was like looking behind the curtain and seeing a much more deflated character than what had been building up before me. I was very sad with his portrayal in general in War Storm because I was so in love with King’s Cage and between that book and this one I just really feel that Maven went in a different direction.

I did appreciate that after The Scarlet Guard interacted more with Montfort it seemed like they came to more inclusive terms for all citizens of Norta in their plans. They were also able to come together with a firmer stance on what they wanted for their future. As a final note for how Mare’s character continued to annoy me, I don’t really understand why she needed all this space at the end of the book to figure out who she is. I know she has been living in War for a while now and she has had to play several different roles in the politics of the war and creating a new government, but I don’t see how removing herself from one person is going to make some huge difference. She doesn’t remove herself from anyone else, she doesn’t go into seclusion or on a pilgrimage or any such path of mediation or solitude. It seems to me she has done TOO MUCH thinking on this particular person to begin with, but what do I know? I don’t understand her either.

It took me much, much longer to get through this book than I initially thought it would. It never really had me on the edge of my seat, or wanting to stay up later than I very well should or sitting in my car after I arrived at my location just to listen to more of it (I listened to this one on audio). I didn’t dislike it. I didn’t find the ending unsatisfactory outside of Maven’s general character arc really. It was just very slow and very dry for me. It highly contrasted with the rest of the series in its pacing. And at the end of it all, I still never particularly liked the main character. So though this made me glad that there were other points of view, again I think it went a little overboard in this last book with how many people we got chapters for. So this one is 3 stars for me, and I still anticipate any future writing from Victoria Aveyard.
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4.25⭐️/5 ( )

loved the series, hated, HATED the ending....like remove the last chapter please :).

Overall though was a very good read ( )

3.5 this entire series had good bones it just never got there for me. I didn't really feel especially connected to any of the characters and there was no real passion in the romances for me. The fighting and action scenes were good and exciting and kept the book alive for me. I think it could've been a great series but just fell short. It isn't the worst I've read, however. ( )