Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Quarta Asa

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Quarta Asa by Rebecca Yarros

718 reviews

solarel's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

This one gripped me about 30% in. It was a lot of fun and very approachable. The world building was a little hollow but the plot was very well woven. It’s diverse, but sometimes the diversity feels a little forced. One side character is deaf and the main character signs with her. However, the deaf character is part of a group that values keeping a stoic face and she isn’t able to be very expressive. Most sign languages use facial cues very heavily so it felt a little like it was just thrown in there with little thought. It could have been an interesting thing to explore briefly, but was overlooked.

So world-related plot holes aside, it’s well worth the read. And it’s very much my jam. (The sexual scenes were probably the best written smut I’ve read in a long time. Well done.)

Content Warnings

shuglen's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious relaxing sad 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

What in the acotar, got, hp and serpent & the wing of night did i just read?!? This is the best book i have read in a while. I cried, I laughed, i was blushing, but most of all i fell in love!! I really recommend this book if you like fantasy, a good lovestory and lots of action! 10/10🌟

Content Warnings

katiefronk's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

Content Warnings

rarity's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous medium-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

Content Warnings

anoelle896's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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: No

Content Warnings

bethy_joy's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional 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

Content Warnings

caskraft's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional 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

The narrator did a bit too much 'acting for the back row' for my taste, but the book was great.

Content Warnings

micaelamariem's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I'm in too many book clubs to keep up with. Four months ago, one of those book clubs chose Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, so I sent a hold request to the library. I had heard of it but was unprepared for how popular it was. I was 50-something in the hold request line and it took these four months to actually get my hands on it. Needless to say, I didn't read it in time for the club, but I'm still glad I read it!

The author, Rebecca Yarros, is a busy woman. Not only does she write books, but she's a military wife with six kids. While she has written a lot of books, I think Fourth Wing is her first fantasy novel.

"A dragon without a rider is a tragedy. A rider without a dragon is dead."

Fourth Wing is an elite fantasy romance. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail is forced to join the war college and train to be a dragon rider, rather than join the scribe quadrant like she wanted. Violet is unsure she'll survive the tests and training--many die and she's weaker than most, with brittle bones and a small stature. To make matters worse, Xaden Riorson is there, the son of a traitor--he would want to kill her just for being a Sorrengail, the daughter of the general. When things can't seem to get more complicated, Violet starts to suspect that leadership isn't being completely honest about what's going on outside the college walls.

If that summary doesn't sell you, let me tell you how much I loved this book. I loved it so much that I'm not sure I can express it properly in words, actually. It has been months, almost a full year, since I felt so connected to a book like this. Maybe because it has some of my favorite things: magic schools, enemies to lovers, training sequences, political intrigue, dark secrets.

The characters were wonderful and well-rounded. Violet shows a good source of disability representation within a fantasy novel. Because her mom had a sickness when she was pregnant, Violet is very weak and her bones break easily and she's always in pain. While this is a fantastical chronic illness, I think a lot of people may be able to relate--for example, I have chronic migraines, chronic knee and back pain, and stomach issues and yet this book made me feel like I can still be badass. I also loved how there were things about her illness that she could not overcome but had to adapt instead, showing the reader that this difference was not weakness.

Xaden was the brooding dark figure we all love in a good fantasy novel. He had his secret and deep down a sweet, protective side. But his protectiveness was a foil from Dain's--their characters showed how protectiveness can be sweet if you still trust someone to make their own choices and support them or it can be overbearing and belittling if you box them into a corner.

The side characters were also amazing. My favorite, of course, was Liam. He showed what it means to be a quiet friend, what it means to be humble, how to show your emotions through facial expressions. And Rhiannon was also great--the girl best friend every girl should have who loudly supports her friend and is determined to train and help.

Talking about the characters would be so incomplete without mentioning the dragons! I loved these dragons. Tairn, the fierce but noble one. Andarna, the sweet and stubborn and sometimes naïve. Sgaeyl, ready to strike down any enemy. These dragons had their own personalities and their own laws and they provided more insight onto our mere human characters.

The worldbuilding and plotline were so intricately intwined. I don't want to give any spoilers, but one thing I thought was clever was to have a main character who was so interested in books and history that we as readers get tidbits of the world's history from her. But in all fantasy novels, what never fails to amaze me is the research and grit put into designing magic school's classes, magic systems, maps, borders, fables, history, governments, books, fantastical creatures, and more. And being able to keep track of it and incorporate it into the plotline so they become key plot points. If only I can be such a good world creator and writer someday!

And the writing style was also great. I truly felt like it was Violet's voice, like I was in her head as she took in everything, from gigantic dragons flying overhead to the deathly obstacle course she had to complete and more. It made reading the five hundred pages fly by and made me wish for more.

The only drawback is there was some predictability. Maybe it's just because I read a lot so I can instantly recognize key tropes and foreshadowing. I still loved the book despite being able to predict some of the key plot points. I still highly recommend the book.

In fact, I give this book five stars, which is rare for me this year. I need to get my hands on the copy AND preorder the sequel, Iron Flame.

Content Warnings

lizziaha's review against another edition

3.75

Every fantasy book I read, I try to find the little detail or saying that implies a small little tear in the worldbuilding, a earth thing that has slipped through the cracks. In this book, the existence of parrots is canonical 🦜 It’s not necessarily impossible that parrots exist in this world but I do still think it’s funny. On the topic of worldbuilding though, I thought that Violet simply reciting facts about the world felt like a cop out. I also felt like the tone of the book didn’t always match the stakes. Even the stakes in the enemies to lovers romance felt low. Like I think that they should’ve tried very hard to kill each other at least one time! It would’ve built the tension! But I think that was part of the problem. This book has a telling, not showing kind of narrative voice. Like we’re told that Violet has strong connections with all these people but I don’t SEE it. Even when it comes to the dragons. The rider bond is supposed to be the most sacred bond, but I never really felt that. We’re also told like a million times that Violet is the most intelligent girl that ever lived or whatever, but she was occasionally giving idiot to me so idk what to do with that. Overall the book was fun to read but I had a few hang ups. Hopefully the next book will allow for a deeper exploration of these traits and relationships.

Content Warnings

walenchao's review against another edition

1.75

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Hope you like 2010s YA books but with graphic sex 3/4 into it. Page 400 of 500 is not the place for the first explicit sex scene in a romance novel, yet somehow it’s the only non-boring sequence in this overwrought, plodding tale.

The “world building” is a flimsy Potemkin city of cardboard cutouts and embarrassing tropes and cliches, with the only redeeming feature being the dragons themselves, something there are precious few moments with outside of the usual Joss Whedon dialogue and snarky remarks. Lots of “chuffing” as a catch all expression for dragon-y displeasure.

In this medieval inspired Harry Potter meets dragon ROTC knock-off you will read phrases like “for the win” and “he is absolute love” and punctuation, that. Always. Does. This. Because. That’s. How. The. Fanfic. Community. Writes. I. Guess? Seems. Rude. To. The. Fanfic. People.

Needless modern swearing, somehow people still use the middle finger as an insult here and turns of phrase that don’t make sense, a will they/when they romance between pretty insufferable characters billed as “enemies to lovers” that is paper thin and one of the worst protagonists I have ever read as your only POV.

The heroine spends most of her time objectifying the boys in her class, being buffy-style snarky, poisoning her classmates (!!!!) and talking about how she’s so weak and frail and small (tiny, he could crush me, oooh these big huge strong men oooooh) while somehow constantly being able to take an incredible amount of damage and abuse in comparison to her classmates. Everyone is stronger than her at all times except when she needs to do something and it would be inconvenient to fail. This is mostly because every test and trial results in the death of other students, supposedly to “cull the weak” but the narrative is that they have fewer and fewer eligible riders every year and that they’re losing the war at the border so I don’t really know why they’re just… letting everyone die or kill each other at a school?

This goes from mild curiosity to a absolutely tedious chore by about page 275. Lots of sloppy trope-bait writing, in all honesty it seems like it could have really used another editing pass because the sentence to sentence structure is a rickety mess.

This gets 1.75 “smiles curling up her face” 😏out of 5 “arched eyebrows”.🤨

Content Warnings

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