The Dryad Storm

Wanted dead or alive by the entire continent, Elloren Gardner must accomplish the impossible: unite the world under the same banner. She knows that if they stay divided, authoritarian dictator and wielder of the Shadow Wand, Marcus Vogel, will invade among their discord and tear their world apart. As his Shadow forces corner the rest of the free world, Elloren finds herself in the Northern Forest, newly transformed and more powerful than ever. Separated from all her allies, save her love, Yvan Guryev, Elloren chooses to join with the forest and the natural world. The sentient forest crowns her as the Dryad Witch and gives her more power than she ever imagined herself possessing. Elloren is an inspiring, curious protagonist, and The Dryad Storm follows Elloren’s perspective, along with her friends’ perspectives. 

The Dryad Storm follows old and new faces, including an old acquaintance Gwynnifer Croft Sykes, a forgotten ally Gareth Keeler, and Elloren’s best friend Tierney Calix, among others. They all share Elloren’s determination, fierce morals, and unwillingness to quit, even in the face of grave danger. As Gwynn escapes from the West to find Elloren, Gareth holds the oceans in the East, and Tierney protects the rivers, but it’s up to Elloren to unify every survivor. With religious divisions and new magics at play, the Wand of Myth is lost, and the Shadow Wand waits in the wings for the coming winter to drain the forest of its power. Everyone gears up for the final battle between the Black Witch and the Icaral of Prophecy, and, like all predictions and omens, nothing is as it seems.  

Like the rest of the series, The Dryad Storm contains many fantastical elements and a complex web of details that can be overwhelming at times. As the finale, The Dryad Storm has a complex plot, and  

important information can be difficult to keep track of. This is especially true, considering that the story is further complicated by the multitude of perspectives, some of which are only used once or twice. The use of all these perspectives complicates the story and slows it down, meaning it’s not as engaging as it could be. The plot is predictable, and the story’s quality and character are lacking depth . Character development is rushed, and loose ends are tied up too neatly to be natural. However, the novel ultimately conveys a powerful message: the only way to break the cycle of hate is to choose love. All the religions on the continent have the same core belief in acceptance, kindness, and love, and once the characters realize this, Vogel is essentially defeated.  

Readers who love the magical youth of Harry Potter and the brave politics of The Hunger Games will love The Black Witch Series and Elloren’s fierce resistance. The Dryad Storm is filled with supernatural creatures, growing teenage romantic relationships, and living environments fighting anthropogenic decimation. Elloren and all her allies are well-constructed characters who defend themselves when challenged, lead by example, and adhere to strong moral principles. Overall, this is a beautiful story with moments of unifying hope, magical corruption, and lovely, budding friendship.   

Sexual Content  

• During the Eastern holiday of love, Xishlon (similar to Valentine’s Day), Elloren’s old friend, Gareth, reminisces about his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Marina. He thinks about when “Marina sinuously drew off his tunic and kissed the skin over his thrumming heart. She pulled off her own clothing, Gareth’s pulse quickening as desire raced through his veins in response to the sight of Marina’s moon-washed, naked form . . . far under the water they pulled each other close and kissed unreservedly . . . they stopped short of taking each other to mate that evening.” Later in the evening, Gareth finds Marina and they talk about sex, referring to it in the Selkie tradition of “joining their tides.” They don’t actually have sex. 
• When two of Elloren’s allies, Mavrik and Gwynn, are trying to escape the West, they grow closer to each other, bonding over the pain of leaving their brainwashed spouses behind. They form an attraction, and one night in the desert between the East and West, Gwynn dreams about her ex-husband, Geoffrey. “Geoffrey’s never kissed her like this before. She lets out a moan and surrenders to the kiss, thrills to this new, wantonly insistent Geoffrey, his usual hesitancy gone . . . he rolls his body onto hers and coaxes her thighs apart. . . his arousal quick, so intensely hard.” Gwynn wakes up to discover that she’s been kissing Mavrik in her sleep, and that he was also dreaming about his ex while kissing her. They separate immediately. 
• When Elloren’s friends, Tierney and Viger, are in front of the Great Tree, Viger’s magic is amplified. To control it, Viger kisses Tierney. Viger “deepens the kiss. . . trembling with want, [Tierney] opens her mouth to him . . . the intoxicating motion of his tongue hinting at the things he might be capable of if she joined with him fully.” He cuts off the kiss when he no longer needs it. 
• After Elloren is transformed into a Dryad, she re-establishes the mate bond with her love, Yvan. Elloren “shudders against Yvan, his lips on [hers], [her] heart fracturing open as [their] Wyvern-bond reignites under the Great Tree.” She kisses him several more times throughout the novel. After Elloren and Yvan find themselves back in the Eastern forest the night before they fight Vogel, they have sex for five pages. “Yvan joins with [Elloren] in a rush of fire . . . the sensations are surprisingly intense, it’s almost unbearable as [they] fall into a slow then confident rhythm.” They have sex twice. The second time later that evening.  
• When Mavrik and Gwynn try to break into the magical forest to get in touch with Elloren, they work together night and day to create runes. They talk, and their grief bonds them further. They eventually have sex. “Mavrik brings his lips to hers, and Gwynn gasps as he pushes forward, joining their bodies. She tightens her thighs around his . . . thrilling to his passion, his hard maleness and stunned by the whirling rise of pleasure where they’re joined, she hugs him to get more of him . . . she arches her head back just before Mavrik lets out a groan against her shoulder.” 
• When Elloren’s brother, Trystan, and his boyfriend, Vothe, emerge from the tree network transformed into Dryads, they kiss, happy to be alive. “They’re closing the distance between them, Trystan’s lips crashing down on [Vothe’s], their lightning igniting against each other’s in an incandescent firestorm, lighting up the surrounding air with forking white and blue power.” 
• Over the course of five pages, Tierney has a sex dream about three different men, including Viger, her friend Fyordin, and Elloren’s cousin Or’myr. All three men are in love with her, and she has had romantic encounters with all of them during the series. The dream begins with Viger, then suddenly Tierney is in a different place with Fyordin, then her dream shifts to a cave with Or’myr. An example of the kind of language used during this scene is when Or’myr penetrates Tierney, his “body joining with hers in a surge of purple lightning and her rushing rapids.” The language is vague and ambiguous, but it is implied that she dreamed about intercourse with all three individually.  
• While Tierney and Or’myr hold a magical shield to protect a river against Gardnerian forces, they joke about sexual euphemisms from their different cultures. Tierney mentions she’d like to “dance around the Ironwood tree” and “play with his sword of manhood.” Or’myr laughs and says he’d like to “partake of the garden.”   When they defeat Vogel, Elloren’s roommates, Ariel and Wynter, find each other on the battlefield. Ariel “chokes out a strangled sound of emotion before she and Wynter pull each other into an embrace then into an impassioned kiss.” They break apart and go home. 
• When they think they’re about to die and Vogel’s shadow forces are going to crash into their magical shield, Tierney and Or’myr kiss. “Both of them [were] ready, [Or’myr] knows, to let this last kiss be their final cry of rebellion against the Shadow’s triumph.” They break apart when the forces disappear. 
• After the war, Elloren’s allies, Iris and Sylvan, find each other in one of the Eastern forests. They are now free to start dating. “Iris can’t suppress her own besotted smile as she grips Sylvan’s leafy tunic and pulls him into a fiery and thoroughly claiming kiss. . . as Sylvan draws her down to the mossy Forest floor and reveals the full, Xishlon-fueled wonders of the Zhilaan Forest’s embracing love.” 

Violence  

• The Dryad Storm features numerous battles and duels, some of which contain violent descriptions. Therefore, not all of them are included below. 
• During the attack on the Amaz capital, Elloren’s ally, Alder, witnesses some of the violence. “A primal scream tears from Alder Xanthos’s throat. Explosions sound on all sides, hammering her ears.” Many are dead, wounded, and kidnapped. The description of the ambush and the related violence lasts seven pages.  
• Alder’s pet eagles are killed by Damion Bane, one of Vogel’s right-hand men, and “he raises a limp golden eagle in the air . . . and shakes him like one might shake a sack of millet.”  
• Before Gwynn flees from the West, she remembers “a mob of six Gardnerian men . . . holding down two Urisk girls . . . digging knives into the tops of the screaming children’s ear and swiping off the points, blood streaking down the girls’ terrified faces.” She remembers this event to dispel any guilt about leaving the West. She protects the girls in the memory, tearing them away from the men before they can do more harm. 
• Vogel’s forces take Elloren’s ally Sparrow prisoner. One of the men, Tilor, has a history of harassing her and requests that Sparrow spend time with him. He “reaches toward Sparrow’s chest, and she lets out a growl of protest, her skin crawling as he fondles the petals of one of the small violets [on her dress], then yanks the flower from the fabric and tosses it to the floor before running his hand territorially over her breast and squeezing tight.” Sparrow stops him before he can do anything else. Resistance forces break into the prison and save Sparrow. No one is injured. 
• Resistance forces believe Sparrow and Elloren’s ally, Valasca, are traitors. The Resistance forces collars on them that could “cut off the air to Valasca’s and Sparrow’s lungs at any moment.” The collars eventually come off, but they receive some vague threats and glares from various Resistance members.  
• In a conversation with Tierney, Viger reflects on his childhood. He thinks about how his adoptive father “punche[d] Viger in the face. Hard. Sending Viger to the floor, blood streaming from his nose.” His father did this out of fear of Viger’s powerful, dark magic. 
• To further their grip on the continent, Vogel’s forces take control of Ishkartaan. Vogel watches them. “The soul-expanding sound of thousands upon thousands of heathens screaming.” There’s no physical description of the violence or bodies, just the burnt and desolate landscape afterwards. 
• Elloren and her allies try to secure help from the East. Suspicious, the East tries to corner her and her friends. Elloren and her allies defend themselves by “hurling out wind spells to force back the incoming [Eastern forces] as well as those guarding the border’s apex.” Nobody is explicitly hurt, and the fighting stops when Elloren and her friends escape. 
• While coming into his power, Vogel decides to marry Elloren’s old bully, Fallon. Fallon is willing at first, but then Vogel “brings his mouth to hers with bruising force” and bites her, bloodying her lips. “Fallon cries out as bindings snare tight around her wrists, ankles, and wand.” Vogel leaves her in a prison cell. She is held captive until Elloren is thrown in with her, “vine-bound and gagged.” Elloren kills Fallon to protect herself.  
• Fallon’s death allows Elloren to escape, which triggers the final battle of the war. This battle lasts approximately thirty pages, with Vogel and all his demons dying. None of Elloren’s friends are hurt. An example of the violence occurs right after Elloren frees herself, when “a lung-punching gust hits [her] back, Shadow slithering straight through [her] and around [her] rootlines as [she’s] blown clear off [her] feet.” She gets up and continues fighting.  
• The only survivor of Vogel’s forces still intent on waging war, Damion, is hunted down and cornered by Elloren’s allies, Diana and Aislinn. Damion was married to Aislinn and sexually abused her, so “Diana’s growl tears through the Forest. . . ripping, slashing noise sounds and Damion Bane begins to scream.” It is implied that Diana tore him apart, though the chapter ends and there is no description of the body. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Elloren’s former roommate, Ariel, has a history of addiction to an opiate-like substance called nilantyr. While Elloren and her friends are hiding out in the forest trying to come up with a plan to defeat Vogel, he lures Ariel away and tempts her with nilantyr.  
• Elloren’s “chest contracts with alarm as [she] registers the grayed nilantyr plants spread around her, thick with dark berries.” Ariel resists the temptation and doesn’t have any. After, Ariel tells Elloren, “resisting nilantyr is a daily fight. I struggle.”  

Language    

• Language is very tame, but words like stupid, idiot, and hell appear frequently. 
• The word slut is used once. 
• Bitch and whore are used infrequently 

Supernatural  

• The Dryad Storm contains magic and supernatural elements on every page. There are several different kinds of supernatural creatures, including Lupines, Selkies, witches, faeries, wyverns, dragons, demons, Icarals, sentient forests, Dryads, Kelpies, Amazonian rune-wielding warrior women, lizard people, and individuals with skin of all colors of the rainbow. 
• Magic appears in many forms, including in battles, holidays, and transformation. For battle, magic is used through spells, wands, and runes. For example, Elloren’s friend, Gareth, is protecting a river from Gardnerian forces by warding it. “Gareth thrusts his wand arm upward as he launches himself back toward the surface while murmuring a wand spell in the Selkie language, the low tones flowing smoothly from the base of his throat, the translation effortless. Power shoots through him with such force that it rattles his wrist.”  
• The primary example of a magical holiday is Xishlon. This is an Eastern holiday similar to Valentine’s Day, celebrating love. The moon turns purple and has a powerful effect on people for a night, heightening feelings of attraction and love. For example, Elloren’s friend, Andras, reminisces about his ex, Sorcha, and thinks about how “the pull of the East’s lavender moon and the torment of its thrall grow ever more acute as the moon’s purple light deepens. Because he’s still in love with her.” 
• There are two primary examples of transformation in The Dryad Storm. Once, to trick Elloren and lure her away from her friends, Vogel magically turns himself into her love, Yvan. Elloren’s “horror turns cataclysmic as. . . his glamour drops away. Revealing Vogel’s green-glimmering, black-haired, shockingly shirtless form.” 
• The second kind of transformation happens when Elloren and her friends unite with the forest. Many of them transform into Dryads, or their skin turns color. As an example, when Yvan unites with the forest, “white bark forms all over [his] body and. . . Yvan’s whole form is drawn into the Great Tree.” He reappears soon after, the Great Tree’s “bark bulges outward and morphs rapidly into the shape of a man before the bark gives way.” He has new violet-tinted eyes, green-tinted skin, and a tree tattooed onto his hand.  

Spiritual Content  

• The Dryad Storm continues with the complex religious system woven throughout the Black Witch Series, which mirrors modern monotheistic religions and intertwines them with politics. This religion has strong allusions to the three main monotheistic religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Their religious structures dictate more conservative norms than usual. References to their religion are heavily present in the novel, and priests hold prominent positions in high government and university institutions. 
• Various creatures have different faiths, which all contain a myth of two great wands – one good, one evil. These faiths also all mention a Great Tree, a prophecy of the Black Witch and the Great Icaral, and the end of days. At one point, when reunited with Marina, Gareth says, “All the myths are converging so that all peoples of Erthia can come together and fight.” 
• Before she leaves for the East, Gwynn watches Vogel give a speech where he claims, “We have dealt a staggering blow against the heathens of the East. Our Blessed Black Witch and Mage forces have struck down [the Eastern forces] and their unholy cesspit-city.” Numerous times, Vogel makes religious speeches like this and commits atrocities in the name of his religion. The magic that binds marriages together is hijacked by Vogel and used to control married Gardnerians, including many of Elloren’s allies, but this ultimately fails.  
• During this speech, Gwynn remembers how she was made to “read The Book of the Ancients without ceasing” a few years ago after insisting that their servants were people too. She pretends to have been indoctrinated back into the fold but is secretly planning to leave for the East. 
• As Eastern forces hunt down Elloren, falsely believing her to be allied with Vogel, they also close their own borders and grow more fundamentalist in their own religion. Their government releases a statement that says, “We extend an offer of [Eastern] citizenship to all [Elves] who pledge fealty to the Vo Conclave and the Goddess Vo on High.” This declaration is redacted when Elloren and her friends defeat Vogel.  
• In the epilogue, Elloren and her friends are raising an orphaned Gardnerian, Valen, who possesses considerable magical power. When he comes of age, he is approached by displaced Gardnerians who still believe in Vogel’s teachings. They insist that “an Icaral demon took apart the world. You’ve been tricked and fooled. Brainwashed into believing those heathens and demons should not be slain. . . the Magedom itself was led astray. But Valen, you can change all that for us. You can bring about the true Reaping Times and fully cleanse Erthia.” Valen refuses to embrace them and their religion, turning them away. 

by Kate Schuyler