 | Threshing Day (The Empyrean, #3.5) by Rebecca Yarros ★★★★★ Read: October 11, 2026 224 pages |
I didn't expect a collection of short stories to pull me back into the Empyrean world this hard. But here I am, completely wrecked by a book with no central plot, no romance arc, and no villain to hate (well there was Alic I guess 🤣) — just twelve bonding stories that quietly rearranged everything I thought I knew about characters I've been reading for three books.
That's what Threshing Day does. It takes the riders you already love — or haven't forgiven yet — and strips them back to the moment before they became who you know. Before the wars, the betrayals, the alliances. Before any of it. Just a person on a field, facing a creature that sees straight through them.
And every dragon asks the same question, in a different way: who are you, really?
Some answers are defiant. Some are devastating. Some made me laugh until I ached. One made me want to reach into the pages and hold someone, because I had no idea — none — what they were carrying underneath the composure the main books showed me. Yarros doesn't just fill in backstory here. She rewrites how you'll see these people when you go back. The steady ones weren't always steady. The brave ones weren't always sure they wanted to survive.
What surprised me most is how different each bonding feels. Some are earned through combat, others through stubbornness, one through pure chaos and mutual insults up a tree. And then there are the ones that aren't earned at all — they're recognized. Grief meeting grief. Loss meeting loss. A dragon saying not prove yourself but let's carry this together. Those are the ones that stay in your chest.
The collector's edition is gorgeous — full color dragon illustrations at the start of each story — and the audiobook production is smart: each story gets its own narrator, so every rider has a distinct voice. For a book this short, the care that went into the presentation says everything about what this collection means to the series.
If you've read the Empyrean series, this isn't optional. It will change your reread. And when book four finally comes — whenever it's coming — this is the emotional primer you didn't know you needed.
Tropes: found family · sacrifice · chosen bonds · grief and survival
Trigger warnings: Violence, death, suicidal ideation
That's what Threshing Day does. It takes the riders you already love — or haven't forgiven yet — and strips them back to the moment before they became who you know. Before the wars, the betrayals, the alliances. Before any of it. Just a person on a field, facing a creature that sees straight through them.
And every dragon asks the same question, in a different way: who are you, really?
Some answers are defiant. Some are devastating. Some made me laugh until I ached. One made me want to reach into the pages and hold someone, because I had no idea — none — what they were carrying underneath the composure the main books showed me. Yarros doesn't just fill in backstory here. She rewrites how you'll see these people when you go back. The steady ones weren't always steady. The brave ones weren't always sure they wanted to survive.
What surprised me most is how different each bonding feels. Some are earned through combat, others through stubbornness, one through pure chaos and mutual insults up a tree. And then there are the ones that aren't earned at all — they're recognized. Grief meeting grief. Loss meeting loss. A dragon saying not prove yourself but let's carry this together. Those are the ones that stay in your chest.
The collector's edition is gorgeous — full color dragon illustrations at the start of each story — and the audiobook production is smart: each story gets its own narrator, so every rider has a distinct voice. For a book this short, the care that went into the presentation says everything about what this collection means to the series.
If you've read the Empyrean series, this isn't optional. It will change your reread. And when book four finally comes — whenever it's coming — this is the emotional primer you didn't know you needed.
Tropes: found family · sacrifice · chosen bonds · grief and survival
Trigger warnings: Violence, death, suicidal ideation
Track your own reading journey ✦
Discover Tynga Publishing Reading Journals
