A review by mollysmith1313
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

4.0

Before I read this book, I saw reviews that complained this book was like a smash up of a bunch of ideas that are already explored in stories like Divergent, Eragon, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, How to Train Your Dragon, Throne of Glass, Poppy Wars, etc. Once I got into the first 20% of the book, I easily understood why someone would come to that conclusion. And I kind of agree with it. Especially now that I’ve finished it. But I liked all those books for their own sakes (having read them all at some point over the years), and wonder if I hadn’t already read those books if I would actually like this book a lot. I found myself annoyed often by the characters (how they were written or how they rationalized) or by plot holes. But I did also find that if I waited and kept reading enough, everything eventually got “better” to read. I know that’s a vague word to use there, but it’s true in my case. The action scenes are very chaotic and a little hard to follow, but I think that was purposeful. The romance is VERY heavy on the smut in the latter half of the book, just so you know. I think it was really good to have included so much clear consent and an emphasis of exemplifying mutual pleasure, but it was still a little too long-winded and explicit for my particular taste. I also appreciated nods to LGBTQ people and people with disabilities. The ending was definitely very suspenseful, and it provided a cliff hanger that made me immediately look up the name of the next book of the series (Iron Flame).