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kp_741 's review for:
Fourth Wing
by Rebecca Yarros
Easily one of the worst things I’ve ever devoted this amount of time to. Not quite on the level of Dune 5, but I owe Rick Yancey an apology for being so scathing towards his lack of skill with dialogue. The characters are carbon copies of each other, the world is inconsistent, and there is nothing going on beneath the surface. If you were to look at it through the lens of YA, which it could be if you remove the two porn scenes, then it is much better, except at least Suzanne Collins could make use of a motif!
Every. Single. Character. Just. Always had something vaguely snarky to say. The angst was unbearable. I found myself audibly sighing at times. Every character, male or female, old or young, and even the cutaways was just violent, sarcastic, and incapable of humor. It was MCU-level jokes. One of them was literally, “Gee, that’s it?” and people actually laughed at it in the book.
While we’re on characters, Violet, aka Violence, is so unlikeable. She’s a walking trope FMC. If MC is female, must hate mom. If FMC is youngest, must be the odd one out. If FMC is in a romance novel, she must have sex with the first bully she encounters, BUT he must be pretty and have dark, mysterious eyes. She does all those. She’s a small girl with simultaneous “pick me” energy and an inability to control her emotions. Everyone tries to help her and she has 3 responses:
1. Fuck you.
2. Asshole
3. *holds up middle finger*
I’m convinced no one would talk to her in real life. She’s nice to one person, gives her a boot, and then basically never sees her again.
Xaden is a manipulative, lying piece of shit whose main redeeming quality is that he chose not to die a long time ago. He names Violet to Violence in what I can only guess is an attempt to mock her because she’s not good at being violent, unless you count cussing. She’s disarmed in most of her fights, often losing as her opponents use her own weapons against her.
And another thing! Why the hell are dragon riders training with swords and daggers? You may as well give a drone pilot a sword for all the agency the humans have over their mounts. None of their training for most of the book does anything about staying mounted. Why is there a school with such a high mortality rate? Why is murder ok in this school, but like, only if you follow these rules? Why are the dragons telepathic and yet, not? Why did our hero somehow study to be in one school before she was in another? Why does she hate all who try to control her, BUT THEN ALWAYS TRY TO CONTROL ANDARNA WHAT A HYPOCRITE!
Also, this author couldn’t hide a plot to save her life. Wonder what her dragon is going to be? Oh there’s a black powerful one? It’s that one. Oh there’s a gold one everyone underestimates? Maaaaybe it’s that one. You can only bond with one? Oh, that means it will be both. There’s a male character being nice? Bet he’s going to be comedic relief or die horribly. Oh, look! That nice guy just slipped in his slippery shoes and fell to his death! She frequently forgets her own plots. There’s 41 unbonded riders? Then, a bunch are murdered. And then there’s 41 still. Same thing happens with the 107 rebels. God I could go on! Algorithms did this. Algorithms made this book popular.
Actually, I will go just a bit further. When Violet inevitably falls out with Xaden at the end, because it’s a sequel and we have to pretend there’s tension, it’s not because Xaden lied to her (which is her problem with Dane, but fuck that rule follower, Am I right?) it’s because he lied easily. I’m sorry, you expected him to betray every single person he’s ever known and loved, and an entire city, and untold hundreds or even thousands of lives because you told him to fuck off a few times and then fucked him twice? Pick. Me. Energy. Liam deserved better.
Every. Single. Character. Just. Always had something vaguely snarky to say. The angst was unbearable. I found myself audibly sighing at times. Every character, male or female, old or young, and even the cutaways was just violent, sarcastic, and incapable of humor. It was MCU-level jokes. One of them was literally, “Gee, that’s it?” and people actually laughed at it in the book.
While we’re on characters, Violet, aka Violence, is so unlikeable. She’s a walking trope FMC. If MC is female, must hate mom. If FMC is youngest, must be the odd one out. If FMC is in a romance novel, she must have sex with the first bully she encounters, BUT he must be pretty and have dark, mysterious eyes. She does all those. She’s a small girl with simultaneous “pick me” energy and an inability to control her emotions. Everyone tries to help her and she has 3 responses:
1. Fuck you.
2. Asshole
3. *holds up middle finger*
I’m convinced no one would talk to her in real life. She’s nice to one person, gives her a boot, and then basically never sees her again.
Xaden is a manipulative, lying piece of shit whose main redeeming quality is that he chose not to die a long time ago. He names Violet to Violence in what I can only guess is an attempt to mock her because she’s not good at being violent, unless you count cussing. She’s disarmed in most of her fights, often losing as her opponents use her own weapons against her.
And another thing! Why the hell are dragon riders training with swords and daggers? You may as well give a drone pilot a sword for all the agency the humans have over their mounts. None of their training for most of the book does anything about staying mounted. Why is there a school with such a high mortality rate? Why is murder ok in this school, but like, only if you follow these rules? Why are the dragons telepathic and yet, not? Why did our hero somehow study to be in one school before she was in another? Why does she hate all who try to control her, BUT THEN ALWAYS TRY TO CONTROL ANDARNA WHAT A HYPOCRITE!
Also, this author couldn’t hide a plot to save her life. Wonder what her dragon is going to be? Oh there’s a black powerful one? It’s that one. Oh there’s a gold one everyone underestimates? Maaaaybe it’s that one. You can only bond with one? Oh, that means it will be both. There’s a male character being nice? Bet he’s going to be comedic relief or die horribly. Oh, look! That nice guy just slipped in his slippery shoes and fell to his death! She frequently forgets her own plots. There’s 41 unbonded riders? Then, a bunch are murdered. And then there’s 41 still. Same thing happens with the 107 rebels. God I could go on! Algorithms did this. Algorithms made this book popular.
Actually, I will go just a bit further. When Violet inevitably falls out with Xaden at the end, because it’s a sequel and we have to pretend there’s tension, it’s not because Xaden lied to her (which is her problem with Dane, but fuck that rule follower, Am I right?) it’s because he lied easily. I’m sorry, you expected him to betray every single person he’s ever known and loved, and an entire city, and untold hundreds or even thousands of lives because you told him to fuck off a few times and then fucked him twice? Pick. Me. Energy. Liam deserved better.