Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - A patra aripă

Fourth Wing is an incredibly divisive book, but I really enjoyed it. I do wish the world building was a bit more fleshed out as the only real complaint that I have with this book is that I was missing more explanations on the world, its laws, magic system, lore etc. Otherwise, I thought it was a good first novel to a series and I'm looking forward to reading Iron Flame!

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kshertz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I think the criticisms are valid but because I’m not a huge dystopian reader, I’m able to just enjoy the storyline. There was some romance but it’s not the main plotline. But I loved every minute of the story and it was very exciting!

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meaghanslibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is how you write a fantasy book! WOW WOW WOW

I am so happy the hype is real! Throughout reading this book I was starting to get that 5 star feeling and the ending sealed the deal for me.

I've seen some critiques about this book, like the nickname "Violence" for "Violet" isn't that cute or the writing isn't that descriptive. These are fair critiques, but I ate this book up!

This book was such an enjoyable read! I will say if this is your first foray into the fantasy world, I could see it being a bit confusing because there isn't much world building. The author dives us right into the story. I think creatively we learn about the backstory of the world we're dropped into, but it's not the chapters and chapters of world building that are in some other fantasy books.

I felt so many emotions reading this book and became attached to so many characters. I am so excited to read the next book and I'm praying to Malek, or whichever Gods the book recommends, that the next one is as good as the first.

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jjyork's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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sugar_fox's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Usually, I’m not a huge fan of fantasy books. Specifically romance fantasy. I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance fantasy, at least not since I was incredibly young.

And yet, I found this book positively entertaining and brilliant, wonderfully so. The idea felt fresh despite being a trope I’m sure has been used many times before. I adore the characters within this.

Violet was a strong female character, but not to the level of being a Mary Sue. She’s the perfect level of strength, but having vulnerabilities (and not being fucking emotionless) and imperfections. She has to earn her skill, she doesn’t come into the academy knowing it all.

Xaden was introduced to us as the cold but cool love interest, and from the get-go I was all for that. From his first meeting with Violet in the woods, we see a man fatally loyal to others like him, that actually cares about things (again, not fucking emotionless) and has imperfections and faults of his own. I was expecting the classic ‘bad boy’ trope with Xaden and was pleasantly impressed that the author didn’t go down that route.

As for their relationship, I loved it. I was already biased given I love the romance trope, but this book made me believe in their chemistry. Not through defining the trope, and telling me, but showing me. It seemed like a natural progression from enemies to lovers, and the things they’d argue over wasn’t foolish or fickle unlike other books tend to make arguments between the main couple feel. They had their own grievances and character arcs outside of each other and I loved that.

Now for Dain. I fucking hate dain. I’m not talking about any other side characters (and I mean that as an insult towards dain), but I just had to mention my absolute loathing of this character. And I do not mean this in fault of the author, no, she wrote this exactly as she meant to to evoke these feelings. His character was almost too real. The overprotective smothering ‘friend’ who totally doesn’t want anything more than friendship. The way at every turn, he’d try to prove Violet incapable of making decisions. I almost wanted Violet to

kill him over Jack, because at least Jack was plain in his horribleness

.

I loved the way the background characters were written as well. They each had their own little arc and moments throughout the story, making them feel more realistic and like actual people would behave. They weren’t just chess pieces to move around in a game, they were the chess masters each with their own agenda and goals in mind. There was no clear 2 sides that people chose, it was a free-for-all.

As for the writing. This book is not complexly written. It does not take the mental mind of Albert Einstein to decode what the authors conveying. despite that, the scenes can be imagined clearly, and the events make excellent sense. I really do like the writing, as can be seen from the time period in which I finished the book (less than 2 days lol). The dialogue was golden and humour was used appropriately. These actually sounded like 20 year old kids in a perilous situation, but still having fun.

Overall, I’d recommend this to anyone thinking about picking it up. And whilst you begin reading this masterpiece, I’ll start hoping that I can buy the next book for myself by Christmas.

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wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

While I understand why people would enjoy this book, I am unfortunately one of the ones that couldn't turn off the feeling that I was reading a YA that was aged up to include sex.

I could not read the word badass without cringing. The world building was positively wild. It's in a more historical fantasy setting where they write with quills, use weapons, crossbows were a big deal, people who wield magic have access to smaller abilities like locking/unlocking doors, making mage light, etc. There lots of wooden shit, but that also translated to having wooden exercise equipment to essential get swole in a modern fashion, rather than bodyweight exercises. There's a brief mention right at the beginning about shoe sizes which means they have standardized them? And the whole riders quadrant can get married before everyone else when the graduate.... At age 23? That's early for this society? And the focus of sexual relations was just pervasive. The talk of raging hormones... The convenience of fertility suppressants getting a brief mention before boning down. Oh and gods are worshipped, but not by dragons.

There was some disability rep that I think was decent considering that it was a fantastical setting with healers, and the character didn't want to "look weak" and would refuse treatment to speed the healing process. There was some LGBT+ rep as well, but mostly on a surface level for side characters.

Honestly, it was fine but the romance had me putting the book down regularly and made finishing this book difficult.

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pandact's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

You know a book is good when it's impossible to stop thinking about it all day! I play a boardgame and think of Liam carving a dragon miniature, or riding a roller coaster feels like flying on a dragon. And this PLOT was a roller coaster with twists and fast paced writing comparable to a Sanderson avalanche.

It also puts the adult in "young adult," if you know what I mean, and balances wish fulfillment with a gritty fantasy world. The magic is always dazzling and exciting, but so are the limitations and challenges for the characters. That's the best example (while avoiding spoilers) of how Yarros deftly avoided problematic tropes like a Supercrip, and you can tell it's OwnVoices. It felt like the book was reading my mind most of the time and you know the publishing team is going to go far because it's already signed for Amazon TV!

All I can hope is that the next book has an ending that's just as satisfying or waiting for the rest of the series is going to kill me!

For now I'll just listen to the soundtrack of How to Train Your Dragon and the bonus chapters 🐉

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