Victory comes at a price.Mare Barrow learned this all too well when Cal’s betrayal nearly destroyed her. Now determined to protect her heart—and secure freedom for Reds and newbloods like her—Mare resolves to overthrow the kingdom of Norta once and for all… starting with the crown on Maven’s head.
But no battle is won alone, and before the Reds may rise as one, Mare must side with the boy who broke her heart in order to defeat the boy who almost broke her. Cal’s powerful Silver allies, alongside Mare and the Scarlet Guard, prove a formidable force. But Maven is driven by an obsession so deep, he will stop at nothing to have Mare as his own again, even if it means demolishing everything—and everyone—in his path.War is coming, and all Mare has fought for hangs in the balance. Will victory be enough to topple the Silver kingdoms? Or will the little lightning girl be forever silenced?In the epic conclusion to Victoria Aveyard’s stunning series, Mare must embrace her fate and summon all her power… for all will be tested, but not all will survive.
I wrote review for this one a week ago, but Goodreads deleted it so I rewrote it just now and I am sorry if it's messy.
“Change can be quick, or it can be slow. But the movement should always be forward”
Finished this book couple of hours ago and I still don't know how to feel about it. Part of me is relieved with the fact that I finally finished these series, but still there is that known emptiness I experience after a long journey. Although I expected War Storm to be tiresome since it is more than 600 pages long (and to be honest last two books weren't the most interesting to read), but I guess I got caught up in Aveyard's books eventually.
Book wasn't as dull as I expected it to be, but still it wasn't much of fun either. As always there is a lot of politics and war strategy, which I wouldn't mind at all if it wasn't for author's writing style. It is just full of monologues and repeating same things over and over.
The plot itself was disappointing. I would expect much more action and twists in the fourth book of such a large series. There were two big battles and both of them were predictable. I don't know if it's just me, but I couldn't sense any actual danger surrounding characters. The whole plot was rushed and a bit forced. I expected more resistance from Maven and his armies, spoiler:
*Minor spoiler* Something that left me really angry and disappointed, was the fact that there was no revelation about the origin of newbloods. That is the biggest mistake author could have possibly made. There is even a mention of it and that it should be revealed (Mare and Julian talked about discovering their origin in King's Cage). There was so many things author could have done with the whole story of newbloods and their fight for the better world, but instead that was excluded from the story or something. There wasn’t even some deeper explanation about the origin of Silvers. I still can’t get over this because it could have made story much better and even add some sort of foreshadowing that these books miss. *spoiler free from now on*
New perspectives that were introduced contributed with adding some dynamics to the story and rounding it up. In the end there was a whole lot of different sides fighting for different reasons. Adding new perspectives made it interesting to follow political interactions and different perspectives in war, but from the other side it was overwhelming from time to time. Every single person had its own scheme and plan (it reminded me of a weaker version of War of the five kings from ASOIAF).
*minor spoilers about characters' interactions*
My opinion on characters remained pretty much the same.
Mare is still annoying, although less than before. Her narrative is still dull and full of monologues about Maven and Cal that go on for pages. Cal remained weak and plain and I still don’t see a point in his character. There couldn’t have been worse ending than Mare and him being endgame, but I was wrong. This will-they-won’t-they drama stretched for three books and ended in some kind of unfinished annoying ‘tension’ author tried to create. Honestly there wasn’t much to do with their love story and tbh I never shipped them since there is so little chemistry between them, I could rather picture Mare with Kilorn or Maven even.
Other perspectives like Maven’s and Evangeline’s were refreshing and fun to read. Evangeline ended up being my favourite character, although I was hoping she would be there for the final battle. She at least had some sort of development and process of slowly resisting her father’s influence in her life. I wish other relationships like Kilorn and Cameron could get more attention rather than just being mentioned and it feels a lot like Cameron was sided (probably because she was the only one to openly defy Mare).
*spoiler free*
Anyway, I have nothing left to say about this book or the whole series for that matter. I would recommend you reading first book and then stopping, because the rest is quite disappointing. I found somewhere this was supposed to be trilogy and I must say it would have been so much better if Aveyard put Glass Sword in 50 pages of second book and shortened everything by 30%.
Anyway, I have nothing left to say about this book or the whole series for that matter. I would recommend you reading first book and then stopping, because the rest is quite disappointing. I found somewhere this was supposed to be trilogy and I must say it would have been so much better if Aveyard put Glass Sword in 50 pages of second book and shortened everything by 30%.
Lina｜★★½☆☆☆
“This is a chore and a bore.”
^Evangeline Samos helping me describe how finishing this series felt like.All jokes aside, I have to be fair and admit that this book wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It was way too long, of course, but also pretty fast paced and dynamic enough to keep me interested for most of the time.
The plot itself is divided into two parts, each building into a climax of its own. Although I found it pretty obvious how both big conflicts were going to end, I have to admit there were a few twists that I didn’t really see coming and that mostly pleasently surprised me. All in all, it seemed much more developed and thought through than in previous installments of this series.
Like in King’s Cage, the story was narrated from various points of view, this time Iris’s, Evangeline’s (again) and (briefly) Cal’s and Maven’s, along with Mare’s, of course. I actually have to commend Victoria Aveyard for giving each character a separate voice and managing not to make them all sound the same. The regular switching between Mare, Iris and Evangeline made the story much more dynamic, giving us view of different sides of the conflict, and proved to be especially interesting during the battle. Both Iris and Evangeline were strong female characters, similar in some aspects and completely different in others, but Evangeline was without doubt my favourite, her actions managing to surprise me time and time again. I also enjoyed finally seeing Maven’s point of view, and I’m sorry he wasn’t introduced as a regular narrator earlier in the series because I’m sure it would have made both Glass Sword and King’s Cage much more intriguing.
The main thing I disliked about this book was, yet again, the romance. True, there were some ships I did like—Kilorn and Cameron, Julian and Sara, Evangeline and Elane—but they were only mentioned in passing and there wasn’t really any relationship development. Poor Cameron kind of disappears around the middle of the book, like Aveyard simply got bored of her or something and decided that she was not going to be a main character any longer. Lol.
But the main spotlight was, of course, fixed on Mare and Cal. And boy do I dislike that ship. They basically have zero chemistry, and their relationship seems, quite frankly, forced. The last time it crossed my mind that those two might actually be cute together was somewhere at the beginning of Red Queen, before we even knew Cal was a prince. And it’s not even Mare who annoys me (in fact, I found her to be okay) but Cal, and I honestly think she deserves better. The thing is, he is spineless. And everyone knows it and acknowledges it. And that is fine, I have nothing against flawed characters if they are acknowledged as flawed. In fact, they can be quite likeable. But I have no idea what has Aveyard been trying to do with Cal. She tries to portray him in a good light, and yet literally everyone points out his flaws, including himself:
“I should be the one to do it. I should have the spine for that. But I can’t bear it. I can’t bear the weight of [something spoiler-y].”
What is the point of making a completely weak main character with no evident purpose of making him that way (and not even making him grow out of it properly)? I just don’t get it...
Thankfully, Mare realized what he was like and, despite her being inexplicably in love with him (and vice versa), they spent most of the book apart, therefore enabling the plot to progress. Her character actually experienced quite the growth throughout this book, becoming decidedly less annoying and more mature. Still, this will they-won’t they crap somehow felt even worse in the long shot. It almost seems like Aveyard tried to create chemistry or sexual tension between them, but only succeeded in annoying me to death.
The other thing that annoyed me was the lack of relevation on origins of newbloods and even Silvers themselves. It’s something that has been hinted at and building throughout the previous installments, and to finish off the series without that big, long-awaited revelation is plain laziness in my opinion. None of the “Julian will research in Montfort” crap can compensate for the fact that we still know nothing about this world and how it came to be. And instead of wasting hundreds of pages on boring monologues of “Cal, Maven, I’m the lighting girl, I’m a monster”, maybe Aveyard should have worked on the history of her world a bit more.
I can’t decide yet if I’m satisfied with the way everything ended or not. I’ll try to keep this as vague and spoiler-free, but let’s just say that scene near the end was a little—well, underwhelming. Dumb-ish even. I just don’t believe Maven would actually do what he did, despite everything. On the other hand, everything else was pretty well resolved and gave off a feeling of closure, which is something that you need after reading a series this long.
Will I ever read it again? Most likely not. Would I ever recommend it? Also, not very likely. Still, I’m glad I’ve managed to get through this series, both because I’m happy it is finally over and because there were some parts of it that I actually enjoyed. Still, the actual rating would be somewhere around 2.5 stars.
Thankfully, Mare realized what he was like and, despite her being inexplicably in love with him (and vice versa), they spent most of the book apart, therefore enabling the plot to progress. Her character actually experienced quite the growth throughout this book, becoming decidedly less annoying and more mature. Still, this will they-won’t they crap somehow felt even worse in the long shot. It almost seems like Aveyard tried to create chemistry or sexual tension between them, but only succeeded in annoying me to death.
The other thing that annoyed me was the lack of relevation on origins of newbloods and even Silvers themselves. It’s something that has been hinted at and building throughout the previous installments, and to finish off the series without that big, long-awaited revelation is plain laziness in my opinion. None of the “Julian will research in Montfort” crap can compensate for the fact that we still know nothing about this world and how it came to be. And instead of wasting hundreds of pages on boring monologues of “Cal, Maven, I’m the lighting girl, I’m a monster”, maybe Aveyard should have worked on the history of her world a bit more.
I can’t decide yet if I’m satisfied with the way everything ended or not. I’ll try to keep this as vague and spoiler-free, but let’s just say that scene near the end was a little—well, underwhelming. Dumb-ish even. I just don’t believe Maven would actually do what he did, despite everything. On the other hand, everything else was pretty well resolved and gave off a feeling of closure, which is something that you need after reading a series this long.
Will I ever read it again? Most likely not. Would I ever recommend it? Also, not very likely. Still, I’m glad I’ve managed to get through this series, both because I’m happy it is finally over and because there were some parts of it that I actually enjoyed. Still, the actual rating would be somewhere around 2.5 stars.
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