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mari1532 's review for:
Fourth Wing
by Rebecca Yarros
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.
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
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism