If you’re a huge fan of Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series, which features bestselling romantasy books Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm, chances are you’ve already read the latest companion novel: Threshing Day. To hold us over while she writes the fourth book in the series, this collection of short stories serves as Book 3.5, taking us back to one of the most important days for a student at Basgiath War College.
Each year at Basgiath, every fresh-faced candidate prepares to prove worthiness to attend the school. From walking across the parapet on Conscription Day, a dangerous, narrow bridge placed 200 feet in the air, to bonding with a dragon—or dying while trying—for the Threshing, first-years go through a ton of stress as they enter this next phase of life. But trust us, it doesn’t get easier from here.
Rebecca Yarros explains why Jack doesn’t have a POV in Threshing Day
In Threshing Day, Yarros takes us through 13 different POVs, following important characters as they find their dragons. So far, we had only seen protagonist Violet’s point of view as she bonded with not just one but two dragons, but she’s not the only one with a great story. One character we don’t get to see, however, is a villain named Jack Barlowe, and Yarros admitted she was surprised fans even wanted to read his POV.
While on her Threshing Day book tour, Yarros did a Q&A at the New York City stop on October 1, where she expressed how she reacted to seeing all of the demand for Jack. “It didn’t occur to me that you guys wanted a Jack POV until I announced this—which I wasn’t going to do in the first place—and then suddenly it’s like, ‘Jack! Jack! Jack!’ I’m like, ‘Oh s**t,’” she said to the audience.
Beyond sharing her surprise, Yarros dropped a hint about Jack’s importance in Book 4, which certainly has our interest sparked.
“But I think if I had known how badly you guys wanted it, I would’ve included it, just because I love making you guys happy, but I didn’t realize you guys would want it,” Yarros continued. “But the things he knows, and the things he doesn’t—I need to get to [Book] 4 first. So there’s a chance I could go back and write it and put it up on my website or something, but Jack is around.”
Jack Barlowe is first introduced in Fourth Wing as a peer of Violet’s, but immediately, we don’t like him. Not only is he arrogant and annoying, but he’s also deadly. While walking the parapet, he memorably pushes another candidate off, killing them. This is hardly the first time in the series he kills when it’s not necessary. He also targets Violet pretty early on, and they become enemies at school.
Without giving away major spoilers for the Empyrean series, Jack disappears for a bit after going head-to-head against Violet and reappears acting like a new person, but we learn what really happened to him by the end of Iron Flame. We suspected we’d be seeing more of him in Book 4 after the events of Onyx Storm, with Violet needing more information about the venin, but Yarros’ recent tease has us thinking he’ll be an integral part of the story.
There are so many unanswered questions going into Book 4, with Onyx Storm ending on a cliffhanger that still makes our heads spin. We have no idea the state Violet will be in once the next book opens up, and if/how she’ll be able to reunite with Xaden. As Yarros has shared a few times in different interviews, Xaden is in his “villain era” moving forward—and we’re both scared and excited to see what exactly that means.
While we speculate what could be next for Jack Barlowe and the rest of the characters in Navarre, we can revisit with some of them through Threshing Day.
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