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RedditToday I am doing a War Storm book review by Victoria Aveyard. This is the fourth and final book in the Red Queen series. If you have not read the first three books there will likely be spoilers to those books in this review.
As usual I will try to do a spoiler free series review first and then warn you when it’s time to move away in order to avoid spoilers of the first three books. I will not be spoiling War Storm in this post. Instead I will do a full series review with spoilers as a separate post for those who have read the books and want my full on rant or rave review.
Previous Reviews Of Red Queen Series
Let’s dive into the War Storm book review, first starting out with a brief overview of my thoughts.
Trigger Warnings
Since we don’t always get trigger warnings on books I like to give trigger warnings in my reviews. This can help people avoid certain triggers that could hurt their mental well being.
Possible Triggers in this book are:
- Slavery
- Gore
- Murder
- Violence
- Narcissism
For a list of the triggers I look for you can check out this link here.
War Storm Book Review
War Storm picks up right after Mare gets a disappointing revelation. The rebellion is in the middle of a full fledged war and other players are now involved. Mare and the other characters have to sort through their emotions as we reach the ending of the Red Queen series.
I thought this book was an appropriate ending to the series even though it was slow to read through parts.
If you have not read the first three books of this series this is all I can give in a series spoiler free review. From this point on you should not read any further in order to avoid spoilers of the first three books.
Synopsis and Author
In War Storm, Mare is disappointed by a decision Cal makes at the end of the previous book. While she tries to sort out her own feelings on the decision she finds an unlikely ally in preventing another silver reign.
As Mare travels to a neighboring country to round up help for the upcoming war she gets a glimpse into what life could be like when everyone is equal. In War Storm we will finally see what happens to the war torn country of Norta.
Victoria Aveyard is a young adult fantasy author who lives in Los Angeles. She is an expert world builder and her stories are woven in a way that gives the characters what they need.
My Reading Experience
This book had some highs and a lot of lows. I found this book hard to read when dealing with in-depth political and war planning scenes. They just seemed to drag. I did however find that this book was an appropriate ending to the series so I was pleased there.
I was angered more times than not at Mare and her actions. While they absolutely stay true to the character her growth absolutely stagnated in the last two books leaving her the selfish and sometimes cruel person she’s always been. While Mare doesn’t seek a life in politics she’s probably extremely cut out for it.
The different points of views continue in this book and it leaves me absolutely in love with other characters which is probably why I kept reading the book through till the end. There were a couple of times when I was ready to put the book down, make up my own ending for closure, and be done with it.
What I Didn’t Like About War Storm
I did not like how this book just seemed to drag, the only reason why I wanted to finish it was because in some ways I’m a completionist. The political games, war planning, and petty arguments between two characters had me rolling my eyes and barely staying awake.
Again, there were a lot of things in this book that just felt forced and unnatural when it came to our LGBTQ+ and inclusive parts of the story. I might still be reeling from the adding of it in the last book, but it still felt forced.
What I Love About War Storm
The ending was perfect for me. A lot of people hated the ending but to be honest I felt that it was absolutely fitting and exactly what the characters needed.
Some of the action scenes were good and there were a couple of twists that made the story more enjoyable. I really enjoyed that we traveled to a kingdom and the world building there was pretty fantastic.
Victoria did a great job introducing a character who has spent her entire life in one area, only recently seeing the rest of her country, and bringing her into an entirely new world. The character didn’t act like she knew what this secret land looked like because she had zero expectations.
My Favorite Parts of War Storm
The big battle scenes are probably my favorite parts of the book. Mainly because this is where the story picks up and you actually want to read through it. I felt the scenes were well written, executed well, and had some heavy emotional parts to it.
My Ratings For War Storm
As always I rank a few different parts when it comes to my rankings. An overall ranking just doesn’t give enough for people to decide if a book is right for them to read.
World building again gets a 5 out of 5. Victoria Aveyard is a master of making your mind visualize a scene while leaving enough to the imagination that you can fill in the blanks. This makes reading fun for us imaginative people.
Character development 3 out of 5. While some characters saw some development their development and growth absolutely stalled in this book. The endless petty bickering became tired and old in this book because it felt like solutions would never be found, and in some ways they weren’t.
Spice ranking is 0 out of 5. No spice, very little romance, and I think it harmed the book. I believe this could have been improved. I’ll leave that for the series review with spoilers in my next post.
My overall ranking for War Storm is a 3 out of 5. For a book titled War Storm I expected a lot more from this. We got more war and action in Glass Sword than we saw in War Storm. Additionally, it did become a bit too much. Too many places, too many characters, and too much slow movement in the story.
While the ending was acceptable and I’m not going to complain about it I would have liked to see more action and more twists in this story. Sadly, we don’t get that.
Final Thoughts on War Storm
There is a lot to unpack in this series that I can’t do without spoilers so I am doing a final post for the Red Queen series in which I give my full series review with spoilers. If you have read the books and are interested in that opinion feel free to check that out.
War Storm was a fitting ending despite the slowness in the story. To be honest, I’m probably happy with the ending because I really felt that certain characters need time after everything to process and possibly mature.
The series seems to start off strong and then just fizzles out by the end and that’s a bit disappointing. However, not my story to tell, overall I did enjoy reading it because I couldn’t see exactly where the story was going to end up. Predictable stories are often worse than the ones that just disappoint. This story was not at all predictable for me.
Have you read War Storm? What are your spoiler free thoughts? Let me know in the comments below. Follow me on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your favorite book boards.
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