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Arts·Commotion

All the hype around Rebecca Yarros's Onyx Storm, explained

Book lovers Arizona O’Neill and Lu Aburawi talk about the phenomenon of Rebecca Yarros’s Empyrean series as the third book, Onyx Storm, hits shelves.

Author Arizona O'Neill and content creator Lu Aburawi give their read on the popular dragon school-set series

CBC Arts ·
Audience member attends author Rebecca Yarros in conversation of her new book "Onyx Storm" at The Town Hall on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, in New York.
Audience member attends author Rebecca Yarros in conversation of her new book "Onyx Storm" at The Town Hall on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, in New York. (CJ Rivera/Invision/AP)

For the past week, Rebecca Yarros's novel Onyx Storm has been dominating the publishing world, both online and off.

It marks the third installment in the wildly popular Empyrean series, which follows a 21-year-old heroine named Violet as she navigates life at Basgiath, a war college for dragon riders. 

Now a fixture on BookTok, these novels have been championed by fans of the romantasy genre, with Onyx Storm earning bookstore Indigo's biggest first day of sales in almost a decade.

Today on Commotion, book lovers Arizona O'Neill and Lu Aburawi talk about how the Empyrean series became a phenomenon.

WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube:

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.

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