a review: war storm by victoria aveyard

Wow, okay. I'm having major mixed feelings about the final book in the Red Queen series (along with some serious PSD (post-series depression)). Let's get into it.

First, a brief synopsis of the series (spoiler-free):

Red Queen takes place in a world where people are divided by the color of their blood—red or silver. Silvers are the ruling class, with special abilities that make them akin to gods. Reds, on the other hand, are left to live in squalor, either serving Silvers or being sent off to war through conscription. Reds are suppressed for simply being average—except for Mare Barrow.

Mare is a Red with special abilities of her own and, once they're discovered, finds herself thrust into the world of Silver royalty. In this new realm she encounters the princes Cal and Maven, loyal to their father and the throne—or so she thinks. Through her interactions at court and in the greater kingdom of Norta, her journey becomes fraught with political turmoil and the clashes between Red and Silver. Yet, through everything, Mare holds firm in her fight for Red equality and the end of the Silver reign.

A review of the final book, War Storm:

*Warning: This is a spoiler-free review, but you may not want to read if you haven't finished the first three books in the series.* 

Alright, I was giddy when I bought War Storm and saw it was 657 pages long...until I really started reading. As a whole, this is a really good book, but somuch could have been condensed or simply cut out. I'm a huge fan of long stories, but not so much when they don't seem to have a purpose, and the beginning of this one, in particular, seemed to drag on and on.

Also, the ending. I understand now why there are so many people who dislike it—and I'm one of them. I can say, I appreciate that it didn't wrap up all sunshine and rainbows—Aveyard kept things realistic. But after such a hugebuild-up, it felt like the story just fizzled out. However, that's not to say I didn't have quite a few pros, as well:

Pros:

We get 5 POVs.This was awesome. Aveyard really expanded her world by allowing us to get a look into the minds of characters spread far and wide. The characters were chosen perfectly (unlike in Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, but that's a rant for another day). I won't say which POVs are included in case you want to be surprised, but I had a definite favorite (and it's probably not who you'd expect).

Romance is an element, but doesn't guide the story. I really appreciated how, throughout the entire series, Mare and Cal stay true to who they were raised to be and make decisions for themselves as individuals first. It would have been an eye-roll moment had either one strayed from their paths solely to follow love (or what seems at times to simply be infatuation).

Surprisingly, Maven turns out to be the most interesting character. Aveyard let's us learn a lot more about Maven and why he is, well, the way he is. He is the primary villain of the story, and we've grown to hate him along with Mare, but I found myself really feeling sorry for him in War Storm. Plus, I love that there was a greater focus on Maven and Cal's relationship as brothers than there has been before; it's nice to see what they really mean to each other.

Depth of the characters.This is something Aveyard does really well. She writes a diverse variety of characters, all of which have interesting backstories that support who they are in this series. They all have reasons for their motives and, after reading four books about them, we feel we really know and connect with them. They seem like real people.

The world of Norta and its surrounding nations.This was, quite honestly, one of my favorite things about this series. Somehow Aveyard kept all the different nations (Norta, the Lakelands, the Rift, Piedmont, Montford...) from getting confusing and really built out the world with fantastic detail. I loved getting to experience each one separately and understand the political strife between them on a deeper level.

Cons:

Romance isn't the guiding force of the story, but it gets a bit sappy.I know, this is a YA novel, so this issue isn't uncommon for the genre (plus, I'm a full fangirl so part of me really loved these moments ;) ). But Cal and Mare's  infatuation with each other got annoying at times. They're in the midst of a war and all they can seem to focus on is bickering with one another and throwing out ultimatums.

Length.I hate listing this as a con because the bigger the book the better, in my opinion, but not in this case. There were many longscenes that simply didn't further the story in any way and felt like they were solely placed there for filler (i.e. a particular sparring match between Evangeline and Mare).

THE ENDING THO. Ugh, again, I hate that I'm disappointed. I really did love the first three books in the series, but expected more from War Storm. SO many things upset me at the end of this book—how the climax is frankly, well, anticlimactic, character decisions, and the outlook for where the story would continue. It just left me with a "meh" feeling.

Overall, I would definitely still recommend this series. Even though I found the ending disappointing, the story is worth reading, and you'll definitely enjoy it if you like The Mortal Instruments or Divergent series.

Ratings:  War Storm: 3.75/5 Red Queen Series: 4.5/5