Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Fourth Wing

Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

610 reviews

comeherecupcake's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional funny 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: Complicated

I loved this book! It hooked me from the beginning with characters that felt grounded and real and kept me engaged with character growth, world building, magic, dragons, a few good twists, and a few helpings of spice. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next!

Content Warnings

akswhy's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A really solid start to a fantasy series! Loved the magic system and the pace of the reveals. The romance was age-appropriate for the characters, but some of the writing was a little too modern. For example, Violet often thinks Like. This. For. Emphasis. It’s internet speak and very out of place in a fantasy world. Past that, I really enjoyed the plot and I’m looking forward to reading the next book!

Content Warnings

minerva_library's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful 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: Yes

In the past, I've enjoyed dragon books, but what really motivated me to read this one was how popular it had become online - both Xaden the love interest and the plot itself. I really enjoyed book 1 of this series. Like many books I've enjoyed - I read through this book within just a day or so - and could see myself reading through again with more care and attention to detail. It was also enjoyable to read about a protagonist that wasn't the physically strongest as

she's described to have a chronic condition that fans have pointed out sounds like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) - which Author Rebecca Yarros shares that affects the body's connective tissue.

I loved the stubborn and intellectual nature of Violet Sorrengail. She quickly learns that

due to her less than physical prowess, she'd have to rely on her intellect and cunning which she quickly does by poisoning opponents that otherwise would have the physical upper hand.

I enjoyed the lore and political background that was woven through the story -

as it was a big reason that Violet, daughter of the general, should otherwise stay away from Xaden Riorson, the handsome dragon rider whose family Violet's mother had executes as traitors.

However, it's understandable Violet falls for him as he's definitely described as swoon-worthy.

This book definitely relies on a bit of the "Chosen One" trope with

Violet - the rather unsuspecting hero- in the lead role. Not only does she bond with TWO dragons - something no one else has - but they are both rare and powerful dragons. Not all of her power is reliant on her dragon either as from her bonds with her dragon she gains the ability to wield lightning.

I did enjoy this as it wasn't too leaned on, and there were times that Violet seemed genuinely at threat rather than protected by plot armor.

Also the ending! Even when I had my suspicions - the emotional payoff was so good!

Content Warnings

dinosachi's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Spicy level 3/3

Content Warnings

justcaryn's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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: Complicated

The only reason I didn’t give this 5 stars is the third act “huge argument that could have easily been avoided with one conversation”. But other than that, this was so good!!

The main female character is disabled and that’s a big plot device (she gets bullied by almost everyone) and there’s betrayal and a death that’s so sad I cried on the way to work, but I’m not a huge fan of the breakup in the last few handful of pages due to people just not wanting to have a damn conversation. But the tension buildup was great.

Content Warnings

hellokittysith's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

risarcheron's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

If you need a non-serious read and/or an intro romantasy book, this is a decent place to start. It is a fun, light read (if you aren’t used to the depth of other fantasy books) with a ton of fantasy elements and tropes. However, if you want a better book series to restart your book reading journey, I would recommend the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas or “War of Lost Hearts” by Carissa Broadbent series. I think that this book’s rating is severely inflated from others discovering it on BookTok.

Overall, this book feels like good fan fiction on Watt Pad. The character development is severely lacking.

Frankly, it was shocking that the FMC and MMC get together before the book even ended as it seemed like little to no time for the “enemies to lovers” trope to happen. While it was obvious they would get together from the start, I wish there had been a slower burn and more character development before they got together. The lust from the FMC starts almost immediately with almost no build up. The MMC’s nickname for the FMC is cringeworthy and predictable.

The story throws together a bunch of other fantasy/dystopian story lines (ex: Divergent, Game of Thrones, ACOTAR, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, etc.) and many tropes into one book (ex: shadow “daddies,” enemies to lovers, smol girl/big man 🙄, etc.)

The writing is cringeworthy at times…

I cannot think of another fantasy book series where a FMC would say she wants to climb the MMC “like a tree” not just once, but twice…

On a more positive note, one aspect of the book I really appreciated was that the FMC

had a disability,

which is not widely represented in other fantasy novels.

Content Warnings

jfischer97's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

costey_e's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This was a fun story to read overall, but the plot was fairly predictable and the main character was inconsistent.

Content Warnings

mari1532's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I finally decided to break down and read this book because everyone is talking about it and the fear of missing out is a real thing. Overall I can see why people enjoy this book. The vibes are like if The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Harry Potter had a baby with a Dragon and they threw in a bit of The Grapes of Wrath in for flavour. I enjoyed the story and wanted to see how the story played out. I however was not overly emotionally invested in the characters in the book. I think that the most emotional was at the end of the book when someone died. I wasn't overly distraught but I did say out loud, "Oh No! Why?!".

I think that the real weakness of this book is the part that I would describe as the dash of The Grapes of Wrath. I felt like certain parts of the book were a bit like the chapters where Steinbeck describes the Dust Bowl and the devastation of the Great Depression. Does it help to paint a vivid picture of the landscape? Yes. Was that an award-winning novel? Yes. Did those particular sections bore me to tears? Absolutely. I understand that Yaros had to build the world that the series takes place in from the ground up, but it felt like it took way too long and I'm not entirely sure why there was so much time spent on the world-building. At certain points, it was a bit like please just stop with the history and the fight scenes and get to the dragons and whatever is going to happen.

I do appreciate that Violet has a chronic illness that is represented throughout the book and the different ways that she must adapt to her world are highlighted. However, Violet as a character overall was rather annoying. I'm also unclear on how old she is supposed to be (20, I think), but she seems so naive about the world for being out of her teen years. Also, the subplot between her and Jack (Jake?) was messed up. If Yarros was hoping to highlight the ablest, patriarchal, group-think, that happens with incels given a modicum of power I guess she succeeded, but it did not endear me to anyone in the story. Overall no one does anything about this behaviour and he is repeatedly emboldened by not being disciplined and is often rewarded. Good people were standing up for Violet and they got killed, but we let this idiot live to further our war games? Cool, we've demonstrated the moral degradation of conflict I guess.

It was also incredibly annoying that Dian continued to be given the benefit of the doubt by Violet when he repeatedly demonstrated he was a two-faced, brown noser. He felt like a great description of the Milgram Experiment. Can't possibly break a rule to help you, will spy because told to do so. Become angered when rejected and then you show affection for someone else.

There were also so many unanswered questions in this book. This review would be three pages long if I went into detail about each thing that I was confused about, which given the length of the book is a bit wild that there would still be so many loose strings floating around even with more books in the series.

Overall I'd describe this book like a Hallmark Christmas Movie. The Christmas Prince with dragons if you will (I know that is a Netflix movie). Did I watch the movie and both of its sequels, sure did. Did I enjoy them while I watched them, absolutely. Were they the greatest movies ever written, no, but art is meant to bring joy as much as it is designed to make you think. This book is for the thrill of reading.

Content Warnings

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