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A review by entirelybonkerz
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
2.0
Do you remember when you were 10 and you were left alone playing in your backyard, talking to yourself, and in the little roleplay in your mind you were the coolest, hottest, bravest and everyone around you thought you were impressive, badass , with a "mind sexy as hell" (quote from this book)and you blew everyone's minds because you can be as cool as you want to inside your own head?
Yeah, this is what this book reads like. I can't humanely comprehend how this has a higher rating than Six of Crows. I just can't. Here are the things I agree with that everyone has been saying:
Good idea, fucking awful, god awful execution. And a little bit of a Shadow and Bone rip off if you ask me.
She is supposed to be a scribe. She is forced to become a rider, she gets there, her childhood best friends who has always had feelings for her is mad that she is there, and worried that she won't survive. But don't worry, because the SHADOW WIELDER bad boy who hates her is there to train her and teach her all about that world. Oh and by the end she ends up being a LIGHTENING WIELDER. There hasn't been one in centuries.
May the sun summoner bless you Fourth Wing, you're about to get roasted.
Let's get the disability rep talk out of the way, many people told me there was some. And even if there is, the author approached the subject so so so subtlely I honestly couldn't even tell it was there. Because the only thing that was actually written was: I am so tiny, I am so weak, I am so fragile, frail, I will crumble. Please, don't send me to the dragon riding academy, because I am ramen noodle and I will break and die. Have I also mentioned I am white, pale, and very very very very thin? By the way, I am tiny. I am so smoll. I can't even jump on the dragon's back I am so small.
How will she ever survive?
I feel like for people who don’t know that specific disability, she doesn’t give you any insight? Like what does it mean? How does it happen? What is it called? As someone who had never heard of it before it was hard to even notice when she was talking about the disability. It didn’t bring any kind of awareness (which I’d think would be the whole point) Also someone who is this breakable can’t be having wild fucking sex but apparently we forgot about her disability during the sex scenes lmao. But it doesn’t matter because no matter what, everyone wanted to kill her and THERE WAS NO WAY SHE WOULD EVER SURVIVE
In this place where apparently people die daily, like flies. So much danger, so much death, so much struggle. That you don't see. You just hear about it because the author got too lazy to actually do any world building. So for the first half of the book there is just a bunch of telling and no showing.
But don't worry, this frail, little pale, white girl, with white hair will bond not ONE BUT TWO of the rarest most powerful dragons alive. Even if she's not even tall enough to jump on their back.
Also, enemies to lovers? Where? Where the fuck was that? These two have less chemistry than a priest with a hooker. Her mom is responsible for the death of someone in his family, so he blames her, he wants to kill her, he hates her from the momen the sees her (it lasts about two pages). But every time SHE SEES him, all she can think of is: "He's a shark and everyone next to him is a fish", Dammit I don't want to find this asshole hot, but he's so hot", " "omg, he calls me violence intead of violet, I am not attracted to toxic men but why do I want to bounce on his dick sooooooooooo bad..."
So she basically sounds like a 14 year old valley girl for the entire book.
They barely have any significant encounters, all of their interactions are so cringe that it makes me think this book should have been published in 2001. He smells like citrus, he has 107 scars on his back. And he tells her she's going to be the death of him every time he gets a chance.
"He's a very dangerous addiction. Something women will kill for. "
If you catch me killing for men, please, end me first.
Anyways, of course we have the most recycled sex dialogue on the plannet.
OH GODS - WHICH GOD ARE YOU CALLING OUT FOR ITS JUST ME HERE AND I DONT SHARE
They fall deeply in love with each other, even though they barely interacted throughout the book, barely created a connection and didn't even hate each other at all for longer than a couple of pages. She bonds with the most powerful dragons alive, one of her dragons is mated to HIS DRAGON, and every time the dragons get horny SO DO THEY. So they have to learn how to control the hornyness coming from the dragons wanting to fuck. I wish I was joking.
The book ends with a very predictable cliffhanger (which is a rip off from Red Queen and Divergent) and now this is one of the best selling books in the world.
Watchu gonna do.
I guess there is something out there for everyone. Part of me thinks that most people got paid really well to love this book so much. But that would be disingenuous of me to say, because I know people who didn't get paid who enjoyed it. So I guess I can see that this book might feel nostalgic.
It gives you all the 2001 writing cringe fest, so if you missed reading something like Twilight, you'll definitely have fun. The characters are as childish as Zodiac Academy characters, so if you enjoy that, you might have a good time. She steals elements from Harry Potter, Shadow and Bone (most of the plot actually) ACOTAR, and used the writing style and sex scene lines most booktok people love, so BOOM! Best-Seller.
Anyways, I am finally fucking free. I think I have learned my lesson and I willl chill on the booktok recommendations for a LONG LONG LONG TIME.
She just "borrowed" SO FREAKING MUCH from many other popular series that this feels so unoriginal. It almost feels like she threw this book into an AI and said: write me a YA novel and the AI grabbed all the most popular series and put it in there. The sex scenes are all repetitive and recycled. It reads like YA, but it has none of the good aspects from YA, there’s too much sexual content that adds nothing to the plot (and this is supposed to be a fantasy series) So yeah, it's a no from me. Too bad as well because the dragons were cool.
UPDATE: I was literally going through my old Throne of Glass highlights and found ANOTHER series this author ripped off. Aelin says she wakes up everyday and tells herself she will not be afraid. Guess who does that too in this series?