Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

21 reviews

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Stalking, Classism, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, War, Violence, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Body shaming, Death, Grief, Torture, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death of parent, Genocide, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Physical abuse

cdoubet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Abandonment, Grief, Misogyny, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexism

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

I couldn't have seen anything in this book coming. The twist and turns were surprising and the story was rich with intrigue. I can't wait for Yarros to finish off this story in the next few books! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Medical content, Gore, Murder, Grief, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Classism, Emotional abuse, Sexism, War, Body shaming, Bullying, Vomit, and Toxic friendship

diana_raquel's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

“A dragon without its rider is a tragedy.
A rider without their dragon is dead.” 

I started this book because I friend of mine wanted to start reading again and didn't know what to read. And because this was something that was recommended to her, we decided to do a buddy read. However, not gonna lie, I had a lot of doubts about this one. This book gets a lot of hype and I tend to have a very 50/50 reaction to hyped books: I either love them or hate them. 

Well, take this review with a grain of salt (because I'm still riding the fumes - that's why I'm not going to give 5 stars to this book) but I f****** love this book! I loved every single second of it. The drama, the action, the romance, everything has its time and blends together to make a really good story! The characters are well written and structured! 

I'm excited to start the second book, and really recommend this series!!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Racism, Violence, War, Blood, Bullying, Colonisation, Death, Murder, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Stalking, and Medical trauma

Minor: Physical abuse

vr_alyssa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? No

4.0

The hype around this book is super intense, so I struggle with this. I do not want to add to the praise, as I really wanted to dislike this book. But I just don't.

I was a little put off by the Divergent vibes I got from this book, but with dragons, cursing and sex. Aside from that, this book was really hard to put down (meaning I did not put it down until I finished it). That being said: I am unsure as to the quality of this book. The enemies to lovers slow burn was definitely hot (which I think most of the hype is focussed on), but I am honestly not sure about the quality beyond the 'hotness' of this book. My gut says the book isn't that great, once the tension is taken out of the equation. But, on the other hand, at this point I've read the book three times within the scope of five months. And when taking into consideration that I haven't really been reading a lot of novels, as I was too distracted and just read a lot of comics... It probably says something that it is still exciting to read, even the third time. 

Nevertheless, immediately purchased the novel and obviously buying the sequel as well. So I guess Rebecca Yarros and Instagram/Tiktok got me in the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Violence, Cursing, and Sexual content

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Bullying, Animal death, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, Ableism, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

lemonwrlds's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Murder, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Violence, War, Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

clairew97's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Grief, Ableism, Child death, Violence, War, Animal death, Bullying, Blood, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, and Sexual content

ozlitlist's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

1.0

Fourth Wing is an example of an author who I think genuinely has some good ideas, but lacking execution. Similar to a broken clock being right twice a day, there were a handful of scenes I found endearing, and genuinely several ideas I think were good! But there are so many tropes, faux pas, and overall clunky writing that it would knock me out of enjoying the scene every time.

The fact that the book is set in a world with dragon riders - yet every ONE is only ever described with a modicum of detail other than “large” “fierce” with x color skin and y weapon for a tail, really speaks to the fact that I just don’t think this author knew how to pull off the ideas she had. The dragons are about as diverse as our cast - which is to say not much.

Rebecca Yarros is also an example of what I’d call a confused author. She either doesn’t know what makes her world interesting, or isn’t sure exactly what to focus on. As a result the book just feels messy and poorly thought out. Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually a massive fan of romantasy, but this book just feels confused between a “brain off fun romantasy” where you suspend disbelief and forgive perhaps silly heterosexual tropes - and an attempt at a more serious commentary on war propaganda that in my opinion is not handled with much grace. 

You cannot make a plot driven political war commentary fiction, and a dime-store-style “just for fun” kind of book.

The fact that Violet is as bigoted as anyone else until she meets a rebel’s child who is “the hottest man she’s ever seen” and THAT is one of the biggest factors in turning the tide?? Had her and Xander actually become friends, or had any discussion at all without a constant inner commentary about her intense and unquenchable sexual desire it would have been much better handled. But that doesn’t happen.

Finally, Rebecca Yarros has a frankly juvenile style of writing I just couldn’t get into. Using anachronism constantly in your fantasy world does not make it “accessible” to people who don’t like fantasy. And EVEN if it did - why are you writing your fantasy book for people who don’t like the genre? This is among a HOST of questions I don’t believe this author asked herself.

This author has good ideas, which is what kept me reading, but her characters are wasted on the page, flat and caricature-esque. She obviously attempts to play and subvert tropes, but only reaffirms them. She tries to pull off too many ideas to be terribly successful at any of them.

But what really knocked this down a peg to one star was the one of the final twists of the book.

You’re going to tell me that a woman raised by a Scribe, who PRIDES herself on her critical thinking and bookish tendencies was never taught history is written by the winners?

Do better.

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Content Warnings

Minor: War, Vomit, Violence, Murder, and Sexism

pinkloop's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, War, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Violence, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit, Bullying, and Death of parent

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I wanted to come back and also add that the characters were flat and one dimensional and the main character didn't

train with her dragons not once. she had two dragons and we got no training sequences ? yeah , lmao okay.

I could deal with her being a Mary Sue but the dragon bit that I just mentioned? Very disappointing. This was just really mediocre. 

I'm giving this a 2.5 stars out of 5.

October 1st, 2023 

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I would say that I read this book because I had FOMO (fear of missing out) because almost everyone in my friend group was talking about this book and I couldn't join the conversation, I just had to sit there feeling silly and confused. So I decided to pick up this book!

That being said, I think it was okay. I'm not used to reading long fantasy books so I'm not sure if it was me or the book, but certain parts seemed to DRAGON (drag on - lmao I love puns). The audiobook was about 21 hours and I just remember listening around hour 18 wishing it was already over. 

I also had an awkward time with the intimate scenes, not because I'm a prude and don't like sex or intimacy but because I'm a women who is 32 years old (as of writing this review) and the main character was about 20 and her love interest was about 23. I have no interest in reading inmate scenes about characters more than 10 years younger than me, it just felt a bit awkward. 

Other than those two issues, I think the book was fine. I enjoyed certain parts more than others, like I really enjoyed the actions scenes and the scenes where "secrets" were releveled. If there wasn't much going on in the story, I was probably a bit bored. 

I'm giving this a 3 stars out of 5.

July 7th, 2023

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Genocide, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and War