Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
Published by: Entangled
Pages: 500
Format: E-Book
Series: Obsidian (Lux #1)
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Author | Amazon

Thank goodness! This book wasn’t a replica of ‘New Moon’ as I had previously imagined. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of content within the book, moving more towards originality. I appreciated this more than the last book, but it was still filled with tropes set to annoy me and at 500 pages long, I contemplated not finishing. But I did, so here are my thoughts. Romance

Oh no. It seems the way to move this forward was to craft the most dreaded thing within young adult fiction: the love triangle. (Dun, dun, dun!)
Whereas I thought Daemon and Katy had moved past their awkward sexual tension phase and admitted their feelings at the end of Obsidian, it turns out, I was wrong. They had to faff about with their heart’s desire for another 500 pages before actually becoming a couple.

I was quickly irritated with the circular nature of their relationship, that went a little like this: Daemon is a dick -> Katy gets angry -> Daemon apologises -> Make out session -> Regret. I can read that once, but certainly not four times. I wished they’d just admitted how they felt instead of faking to hate each other. It just made everyone very frustrated.

Then, Katy set her eyes on the new guy, Blake. They went out on a few dates, and Daemon thought he had the right to be jealous, when he’d had a chance to be with Katy and cocked it up so many times by being arrogant. Then when Ash moved in on Daemon, Katy was annoyed, when she’d been doing the exact same thing with Blake! None of it made any sense, and in the end, it was all irrelevant because Daemon and Katy finally grew up and talked about how they felt.

But, the love triangle, seriously? That daft decision deducts a star alone.

Plot

I thought the plot for ‘Onyx’ had a lot more going for it. It was similar to ‘City of Ashes’ in the fact that Katy was now discovering her place in the alien world, rather than being an observer. I enjoyed her role among the Luxen, and with her new found power no longer fits the weak-human-girl-who-needs-protecting trope. (Applause, applause.) I also liked how she was scared of the power she possessed. She acted how anyone would in that situation: freaked out.

Strands of ‘Obsidian’ were better woven into this storyline, such as Dawson and Beth, which have a lot of potential for development. What’s strange about these stories is that they’re a balance between normal teen life, going out on dates and to parties, but also fighting evil. The right mixture of the two was definitely achieved, but I didn’t like how hardly one scene could pass without a mention of Daemon. He seems to consume Katy’s existence, and sometimes I think it would be better if he took a step back.

As for plot devices, I thought the whole ‘there’s-something-fishy-about-this-guy’ was overused. It’s fine to have one cloaked identity, keeping things fresh and on edge. When multiple characters start pulling off the metaphorical masks, I can’t take it seriously.

Conclusion

I’m going to award ‘Onyx’ 2 stars. It ended very abruptly, just when the action was getting started, so I hope ‘Opal’ continues on this route. However, I was displeased by the lack of character development. Katy, having been in the new town for four months, hasn’t matured or changed, and I was really expecting that in a book so long. Hopefully now all the ridiculous relationship mishaps have been ironed out, we can finally move past awkward sexual tension and get to the real stuff….fingers crossed, since my previous predictions didn’t work out so well!