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A review by valpyre
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Did not finish book. Stopped at 61%.
i havent opened this in literal months so i think it's about time i logged it. uh, let's be real, i fully gave into the hype about this against my better judgement. to the people who genuinely enjoyed this, i'm so happy for you but that just wasn't my experience reading this, and it just grinds my gears hearing constant praise for this book with little to no nuance or criticism about it (two things can be true at the same time!).
from the jump, i was not a fan of the exposition -- the physical description of violet was very juvenile and gave me very "the most special and unique girl in the world" vibes. i've also heard praise for this book's representation of a character with a disability/chronic illness, but, and i admittedly say this with little expertise, i found violet's abilities so inconsistently described. she always has no confidence that she'll be able to pass any of the college's bizarre trials, and the next, she's reminding us about how speedy and agile she is. and her quirk of reciting facts about the literal world setting when she's nervous just felt overdone and convenient. this book is full of telling you as opposed to showing you.
violet's voice as a protagonist was just grating -- i can take a little anachronism for fun but structure and tone was just all over the place in this book. there were times where chapters ended on a tension-filled cliffhanger and then the next chapter started back up after all the action had happened. there were also so many repetitions that defined certain events like gauntlet and presentation day, and then other events like squad battle just happened with no prior explanation. it was just hard to get into for me.
i tried to get through it just for the romance aspect, but even the fun of that fell away after a while. the "forbidden" romance in part bc of the xenophobia associated with xaden's character was just icky for me. the appeal was superficial (really, really superficial considering all the descriptions of xaden's godlike physique).
so yeah, not for me.
from the jump, i was not a fan of the exposition -- the physical description of violet was very juvenile and gave me very "the most special and unique girl in the world" vibes. i've also heard praise for this book's representation of a character with a disability/chronic illness, but, and i admittedly say this with little expertise, i found violet's abilities so inconsistently described. she always has no confidence that she'll be able to pass any of the college's bizarre trials, and the next, she's reminding us about how speedy and agile she is. and her quirk of reciting facts about the literal world setting when she's nervous just felt overdone and convenient. this book is full of telling you as opposed to showing you.
violet's voice as a protagonist was just grating -- i can take a little anachronism for fun but structure and tone was just all over the place in this book. there were times where chapters ended on a tension-filled cliffhanger and then the next chapter started back up after all the action had happened. there were also so many repetitions that defined certain events like gauntlet and presentation day, and then other events like squad battle just happened with no prior explanation. it was just hard to get into for me.
i tried to get through it just for the romance aspect, but even the fun of that fell away after a while. the "forbidden" romance in part bc of the xenophobia associated with xaden's character was just icky for me. the appeal was superficial (really, really superficial considering all the descriptions of xaden's godlike physique).
so yeah, not for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and War