War Storm by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
First, this review contains spoilers, so stop if you have not read War Storm yet- you have been warned!
I have mixed feelings about this book and the ending of the entire series. I was expecting a huge battle as the climax, and we got a rushed battle that fizzled out with a retreat. I expected a climactic confrontation between Kal and Maven, not Mare and Maven. In retrospect, Kal is not mentally strong enough to have that confrontation (physically, yes, mentally, no). I was expecting Kal and Mare to get together in the end, somehow wanting her to choose Maven but knowing she wouldn’t. It’s left open whether Kal and Mare will get back together in the long term, not the happy ending I hoped for.
Though many people I talked to about this book and series ending liked that Mare chose to be alone (maybe for a while, or longer, it’s left open), and I am wondering if that’s due to the social influence of younger generations where people are staying single more and longer because people come from families with drama and tragedy such as divorce, economically challenged, deprived of education or opportunity, or rich kids who can’t do anything but emulate their shitty rich parents- analogies to the real world we live in.
It is disappointing that Maven’s death, the killing blow at the hand of Mare, is off-screen. In that scene, Maven’s got the advantage; he’s on top of Mare with a knife, crushing her collar bone, etc., and somehow it turns, Mare blacks out, and we don’t even know what happens until she wakes, and we hear from some else that Maven’s dead. My first thought was that if Mare killed Maven, there was no way Kal would be able to live with that long-term- how could he love the woman that killed his brother, even with the tumultuous relationship between Maven and Kal?
Kal can’t make decisions. He believed that Maven could change most of the story. After being influenced by everyone, Kal finally reasons that Maven- the brother he grew up with- is no longer inside, that Maven’s mind is twisted beyond redemption. Just the monster his mother made him into. But I don’t believe how Kal could make that determination, even with everyone’s influence- I feel he was swayed into that accepting that but didn’t believe it. He spent years and years trying to find a way to “cure” Maven of his mother’s taint. He was invested in this cause, much like Luke was invested in reverting Darth Vader to Anakin Skywalker (that’s the vibe their relationship had.)
While I was unhappy with the ending and the open-ended fate of Kal and Mare, I was happy with how Evangeline’s character developed over the series. I went from hating her to her being one of my favorite characters, and her arc ended more realistically. Her journey is about becoming her true self, quite the opposite of Kal’s initial journey. Evangeline and Kal’s journey starts the same as being what their parents bred and molded them to be. Evangeline’s character, but through thoughts, feelings, and strength of character and by making her own decision based on her own experience, decides to break out of that mold and go off with her happily ever after with Elane.
On the other hand, Kal doesn’t break out of the mold until the end. First, he reads his mother’s diary, which his Uncle Julain conveniently gives him to read, essentially after the Kingdom of Norta has fallen and is in shambles. The diary reveals that Kal’s mother wishes that he breaks out of the mold and follows his heart and not be a ruthless king or something along those lines. Remember, Kal can’t make decisions. It’s his character’s annoying flaw (as Maven tells Mare several times). So, the second thing that happens is as Evangeline is making a run for Maven’s escape train to flee, she runs into Kal and, after a brief exchange, takes his arm and whispers to him, “If it isn’t too late for me, it isn’t too late for you.” This comment defines the moment that Kal’s pushed to the decision we wanted him to make all along, give up the crown and live happily ever after with Mare. And he does just that. And he doesn’t get the ending we’d expected – instead; he gives it all up for Mare, the woman who eventually kills his brother and decides she needs “alone time.” In the end. Maybe they will end up tother, maybe not. At least some characters got their happy ending, Evangeline, for example.
Overall, I was disappointed in how this ended. The series started strong with the first book, The Red Queen, but as this series progressed, as the characters developed and the plots led up to the final confrontations and climaxes, it delivered a lackluster ending.
2 Stars for War Storm by Victoria Aveyard.
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