Storm from the East soars to new heights as it showcases realistic air battles reminiscent of WWI and gripping storytelling we can’t stop thinking about. (minor spoilers)
Last year, Joanna Hathaway’s debut, Dark of the West, blew me away with it’s war intrigue heavy story line. From it’s compelling prologue to the journey its star-crossed lovers set out on, its complex plot line didn’t disappoint. Likewise, Storm from the East lived up to the high bar that Dark of the West set with its military expertise and combat descriptions, as well as its emotional gut punches that only emotionally heavy storytelling can accomplish.
Storm from the East makes me want more military heavy young adult books in general. There isn’t a lack of war in YA fiction, or YA fantasy, but most are about revolution in a very blanket term, where battles are glossed over and as a reader we only get glimpses of military tactics and war councils as the main characters rise up and somehow win without truly showing the gruesome reality that war brings.
The Glass Alliance series is a history nerd’s dream YA book series. If you like WWI, fighter planes, and realistic combat sequences, then Storm from the East is for you. I can’t stress this enough. The war intrigue is exquisitely done and skyrocketed my heart rate with each combat’s description.
I generally dislike the term underrated, but that’s what Joanna Hathaway’s books are to me. In the large scope of YA that came out last year, Dark of the West stood out to me because I hadn’t ever read anything like it in terms of war intrigue and military tactics being one of the main focuses of the plot.
SStorm of the East, too, deserves a spotlight and time to shine. The words on the pages of Storm from the East are steeped in military knowledge, making the combat scenes read like a movie sequence.
I can’t mention Storm of the East’s amazingly written combat scenes without also mentioning Band of Brothers, the HBO war miniseries that came out in 2001, because that’s the closest thing to the feeling that Storm from the East elicits, but with an added romance plot.
The camaraderie in Band of Brothers was palpable, and part of the reason that its combat scenes were as devastating and poignant as they were. Likewise, Storm from the East’s battles and flight sequences had the same sense of urgency as a reader that I’d felt when watching Band of Brothers, HBO’s The Pacific, and movies like Dunkirk.
For a book to bring out the same sense of dread and suspense that multi-million dollar movies accomplished is a feat in itself, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg that is The Glass Alliance series.
(Warning: past this point there are minor spoilers for Storm from the East)
Not only did Joanna balance a heavy, war drenched plot along with a forbidden lovers romance, but she did so while keeping true to love in wartime: by having her characters write letters.
Letters during wartime between lovers is a staple, and while it’s commonly used in fiction, the unsent letters of Storm from the East read as if they are real letters from WWI and WWII, giving readers a sense of longing that both Athan and Aurelia feel throughout their being apart.
Speaking of their romance plot, though, what truly made Storm of the East feel like a realistic wartime story was its usage of military leave and the sense of urgency such a short amount of time together elicits. Athan and Aurelia’s time together was brief, but the emotional impact of it will ripple throughout the rest of the series.
Joanna’s emotionally powerful writing style makes each scene palpable, the sense of dread during war heightened until it all snaps and is released.
The climax reads like a movie, the fallout of every single thing that happens builds up so well that I can’t even fathom what’s to come in the final book of the trilogy. All I know is that it will be heartbreakingly true to war: no one is safe.
The Glass Alliance series has a lot of themes and subplots that are found in war, like Athan’s innocence slowly being stripped from him and inability to talk about it due to combat and possible PTSD, his being unable to go against orders because he’s in the military, the refugees, failed revolutions, the propaganda, how everything is a gray area, how families are ripped apart.
War isn’t clean, it isn’t pretty, and Storm from the East doesn’t gloss over any part of war, which makes it an even more powerful read. From the horrors of combat, to the emotional repercussions of battle, to how sometimes the best of intentions results in the worst outcomes, Joanna manages to somehow fit all of it within the pages of Storm from the East.
We are in for an emotional rollercoaster ride with the final installment of The Glass Alliance series, no matter what happens, because with war, anything is possible.
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