The book, Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, the third book in the popular Fourth Wing series, caused quite a storm on its release day.
The highly anticipated novel, Onyx Storm came out on Jan 21, 2025. The novel’s fans’ anticipation was heightened for fans bookstores and places selling the novel held “special” release parties. For many, it was similar to the release of a “Twilight” novel or a”Harry Potter” novel. Some of the release parties were held at places such as: Books A Million, Barnes and Noble, and All Good Books. At these events fans talked theories, played trivia and won book related prizes.
Fan of the Fourth Wing series ,Allison Klinar, said “I really liked Ridoc in this book because he was very funny and I also thought that Dain had a redemption arc which made me like him again.”
This novel was so popular that Target stores released it as a “Target Exclusive.” This meant that the book would contain bookmarks, stickers, fan art and unique sprayed edges. The online release time was originally at 12 a.m. but had to be pushed back to 3 a.m., allegedly due to the Target website crashing.
Since the site crashed, only 3 customers were able to buy the book online and 5 books were sold at the Target on Harbison Boulevard. Lisa Brown was one of those lucky customers.
“There was a line outside of Target when I got there and the lights were off,” Brown said. “The worker told everyone once the lights come on they can go get their books. When the lights came on everyone went running inside to get a copy of the book.” The Target on Harbison only had 25 copies of the book Onyx Storm, this included: the regular copy, the deluxe copy, and the Target exclusive copy.
While the release parties may have pleased some of the long-time fans, some people were not happy that Target’s website crashed. Also taking some heat were Walmart and Amazon. The stores felt some fan’s wrath because Amazon had to delay shipping due to weather. Instead of shipping them on the release day, Tuesday January 21st, the date was moved to Thursday January 23rd. Fans were also mad at Walmart because some of the Walmart locations did not pay attention to the release date and allegedly gave some of their customers the book early–which caused some people to post spoilers on the book in online forums and ruin it for others.
In an attempt to avoid any spoilers, fans read the 3rd installment on The Empyrean Series at lightning speed. Nikki Iagnemma started the book at midnight on the release date and was finished 3 days later–ready to discuss the book with friends.
Many people stayed off of social media the week of the release to also avoid spoilers and information about the book. As with many books, Onyx Storm ended with a twist leaving readers wanting more. Unfortunately for fans, Yarros is taking a much needed break and the next book could be 12-24 months away.
