A review by lawbooks600
War Storm by Victoria Aveyard

dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Representation: N/A
Score: Five out of ten.

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.
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