Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

5 reviews

hannahcstocks's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Nothing groundbreaking (lots of cliches and tropes) but an enjoyable read. Pretty fast-paced, as there doesn’t seem to be much filler in any individual chapter outside of Violet’s internal monologue. The downside to this lack of filler can be that the world doesn’t feel fully built out, and the descriptions of some of the surroundings can feel lacking. I found my brain sort of filled in some of those gaps while reading though, especially when I didn’t overthink it. The plot was a bit repetitive and the internal monologue objectifying one of the characters was a little silly. But I don’t feel the book is trying to be anything beyond what it is, so I don’t begrudge those faults. Feels a little YA, which seems maybe to be a common theme in the NA genre, but just because it’s trope-y and your main character thinks like a lovestruck teen doesn’t make it a bad or unenjoyable book. Just not a profound one. Easy read despite the length, and while the plot was a little repetitive as mentioned, the chapters broke that up well enough that the repetition didn’t feel monotonous or at least still drove the story forward in some way. 

TLDR: Overall, kept my attention, and I found the pacing to be done well. If you can’t handle the internal monologue of a somewhat rebellious lovestruck high schooler (I know that’s not the age of the characters but it is how it reads) or relatively predictable but intriguing enough plot, this book isn’t for you. Even you want an easy read to take you out of your own head and world for a while, and you can take the aforementioned characteristics in stride, then give it a shot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Vomit, War, Death of parent, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Genocide, and Toxic friendship

nurseann7161's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Grief, Murder, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Violence, War, Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Classism, and Bullying

beasneaz's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Murder, Grief, and Slavery

Minor: War

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Ableism, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Toxic friendship, Blood, Bullying, Genocide, Gore, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Death, Death of parent, Violence, and War

Moderate: Grief

crinkledmochi's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

THE ENDING?!?!! 

Yeah Xaden got endless amounts of explaining to do, but this amazing!! Also Dain is the dumbest character to ever exist. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Slavery, Body horror, Death of parent, Grief, Torture, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Classism, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Kidnapping, and Animal death