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A review by lawbooks600
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
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
3.0
Representation: Implied Brown character, character with a physical disability
Score: Five points out of ten.
I own this book.
So this one won Best Romantasy and is the novel on everyone's radars. When I tried to get Fourth Wing at the library, so many people placed a hold on it that I had to buy it alongside the following instalment in the series, Iron Flame. Did I mention Fourth Wing will be series spanning five parts long? Unfortunately, when I read and finished Fourth Wing, it underwhelmed me.
Fourth Wing starts with the first character I see, Violet Sorrengail, conscripted to be part of the Riders Quadrant rather than the Scribe one, all because her mother forced her into it. Why? It's not clear since it's a plot hole. If I made a list of all the imperfections Fourth Wing has, it would go on for so long. It's apparent that the author put more effort into the romance than the world itself. I must also give credit to Rebecca Yarros for creating memorable and likable characters like Violet, but I cringed at Fourth Wing at times, especially when Xaden calls Violet 'Violence.' Really?
I was not expecting that one spicy scene to happen toward the 400 page mark, and after I read that, it disgusted me, but there's more of them. Violet is the underdog as the author portrayed at Basgiath War College, a school of dragons which doesn't care about its students' lives. It's like The Hunger Games with dragons. No one cares if one person in the college murders another. However, in some chapters, Violet didn't fight off cadets alone. Instead, another friend poisoned Violet's opponents to increase the odds for her. I'm unsure how I feel about that, but I understand how that would be necessary, considering Violet's condition. The worldbuilding isn't there. There's no reason as to why everything is the way they are. I struggle to comprehend how Basgiath War College came to be, or why do they care about dragons so much. I'd have preferred if Rebecca Yarros created names by herself instead of stealing Gaelic words and then mispronouncing them. The conclusion is a high note.
To summarise, Fourth Wing is a high fantasy story that looked so promising, but when I accomplished reading the narrative, it disenchanted me and left room for improvement. Maybe romantasy isn't my cup of tea yet.
Score: Five points out of ten.
I own this book.
So this one won Best Romantasy and is the novel on everyone's radars. When I tried to get Fourth Wing at the library, so many people placed a hold on it that I had to buy it alongside the following instalment in the series, Iron Flame. Did I mention Fourth Wing will be series spanning five parts long? Unfortunately, when I read and finished Fourth Wing, it underwhelmed me.
Fourth Wing starts with the first character I see, Violet Sorrengail, conscripted to be part of the Riders Quadrant rather than the Scribe one, all because her mother forced her into it. Why? It's not clear since it's a plot hole. If I made a list of all the imperfections Fourth Wing has, it would go on for so long. It's apparent that the author put more effort into the romance than the world itself. I must also give credit to Rebecca Yarros for creating memorable and likable characters like Violet, but I cringed at Fourth Wing at times, especially when Xaden calls Violet 'Violence.' Really?
I was not expecting that one spicy scene to happen toward the 400 page mark, and after I read that, it disgusted me, but there's more of them. Violet is the underdog as the author portrayed at Basgiath War College, a school of dragons which doesn't care about its students' lives. It's like The Hunger Games with dragons. No one cares if one person in the college murders another. However, in some chapters, Violet didn't fight off cadets alone. Instead, another friend poisoned Violet's opponents to increase the odds for her. I'm unsure how I feel about that, but I understand how that would be necessary, considering Violet's condition. The worldbuilding isn't there. There's no reason as to why everything is the way they are. I struggle to comprehend how Basgiath War College came to be, or why do they care about dragons so much. I'd have preferred if Rebecca Yarros created names by herself instead of stealing Gaelic words and then mispronouncing them. The conclusion is a high note.
To summarise, Fourth Wing is a high fantasy story that looked so promising, but when I accomplished reading the narrative, it disenchanted me and left room for improvement. Maybe romantasy isn't my cup of tea yet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Bullying, Animal death, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
Full trigger warnings: Fire, explosions, animal attack and death, death of parents, friends and others by falling, physical injury, near-death experiences, poisoning, blood, grief and loss depiction, murder, bullying, self-sacrifice, emesis