February 5, 2025
Written by: Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor
“Onyx Storm” was perhaps the most anticipated book of 2025, an accomplishment it certainly lives up to. The third installment of Rebecca Yarros’ “Empyrean” series, “Onyx Storm” continues where its older sister “Iron Flame” left off.
The series follows Cadet Violet Sorrengail during her time at Basgiath War College, but as the series progresses, the stakes only increase and become more sordid.
This book was a roller coaster of emotions, leaving me speechless from cover to cover and in tears by the end. The characters that Yarros fleshed out so lovingly in “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame” get so much more depth in this third book, and many side characters take the forefront of the plot. I beg: especially pay attention to Ridoc and Aotrom and, now beloved by the fandom, “Broccoli the Cat.”
In its first week alone, “Onyx Storm” sits at the top of not one, but two “New York Times” bestsellers lists — Combined Print and E-Book and Print Hardcover — with “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame” holding numbers two and three on these lists.
Copies of this book have flown off the shelf, with the Target exclusive edition selling out within hours of the book’s release and remaining sold out for the time being. This edition featured a colored map of The Continent — where most of the story takes place — in its endpapers, full-color art and a pre-attached black ribbon bookmark. Copies of this edition are currently being sold for $100 or more on eBay.
With the cliffhanger ending readers are left, anticipation for the fourth installment is already high. However, Yarros herself has stated that she has not started working on it, nor is likely to until 2026. As a disabled author — like her series’ protagonist, Yarros has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome — the grind of meeting the deadline while also trying to be a mother of six proved rather difficult for her health, and as such, she is taking a much-needed break.
Until then, fans can only scour their copies for any clues and speculate what will happen next.
10/10.
Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu
