The Storm Breaks, Demon Storm book 6
By Valerie Storm, Shadow Spark Publishing
Find out more here: Shadow Spark Publishing
Read my review of book 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 here:
Oh, boy did the Storm break in this one! A fast-paced and horror-esque continuation of Demon Storm.
Quite a lot of things happen in this book and more or less from page one. There isn't much time to dwell on previous events that Kari is, for obvious reasons, very marked by before the gang heads out on a new quest. This one features more of Guine which is a delight because he's really a fun and mysterious character! And he puts Ari and Kari in their place when they - more than once - gets delayed by their infuriating desire to fix everything!
The quest goes awry, of course, which spins Kari and Guine on a long detour to get home. And this is where things start to get ugly. Like... for real. One thought that the sudden appearance of Raven, or a semi-dead Demon and fanatic worshipers, or a little bit of dark curses, or return of the crazy singing tree was bad, but then they go to a magical and very horrible labyrinth, and the story goes from the "usual" dark to somewhat closer to horror.
It's dark, gloomy, and a little bit terrifying. And oh boy... what happens in the labyrinth stays in the labyrinth! (I so wanna spoil and scream about this, but I ain't gonna spoil and scream). It's no wonder that Kari struggles to contain the Catalyst at the end of this...
The tension is well kept throughout the book. The only markdown for me is that it does feel a little repetitive with the walking through various places of mysterious horror. However, the build-up of Kari's fear and panic is really well done, and gosh I feel for that dumb, little wolf, but giiiirlll... just for once stop and listen and you'd only be in half the trouble you are! I really, really like how her journey throughout the series and all the BS she's gone through, sure, it made her stronger in some ways, but damn the PTSD she's fighting is very real!
Guine and hers relationship is a delight. I love their sibling energy with constant annoyance yet loyalty. They're both kinda broken, traumatized, and could probably murder the world but chose not to. That seems like good things to bond over.
We're getting lots of little hints of the problems there are yet to be solved. Raven does a short appearance, throwing around her usual chaos, and there's still unresolved business with the singing tree.
I'm very curious how everything will tie together and if there'll be a Final Boss moment between Kari and Raven! (I'm hoping!)
I'm diving straight into book 7 to get the final answers!
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