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A review by gretchenplz
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
If you loved this book, boy, will you love its inspiration, Red Queen!
I have a major issue with what is, by all accounts, fanfiction being published with none of the designating details changed. This book is so blatantly plagiarism of Red Queen (down to the unexpected betrayal and reveal at the end. Literally the exact same plot.), crossed with Shadow & Bone, with some Harry Potter and Game of Thrones thrown in.
Our main character is Mare Barrow, down to the hair and lightning powers. Our "villain" is the Darkling (or maybe Rhys). They're Divergent. They're at Hogwarts. And it's set in Westeros.
This is a HUGE issue for me. If I was Victoria Aveyard, I would have called my lawyers.
I'm not sure where to start with the rest of this review, so I will start with the writing. I imagine that this book would be more enjoyable as an audiobook since the writing style is very stream-of-consciousness. A good editor was absolutely necessary, and I'm not sure one was even present. I felt like I was trying to read a podcast. There's just too much going on. Do I need to hear every "Damn," Violet thinks? Are her meandering, wandering thoughts really necessary? And, I'm not a prude by any means, but why was every other word 'fuck?" It felt like I was inside the mind of a horny 16-year-old.
The plot. This is a high fantasy book but, unfortunately, the author does such a poor job world building that everything just feels random. The venin and the fables are discussed maybe three, maybe four times before they appear? Horrible lack of foreshadowing that really damages the reveal. I don't care about them. They aren't even a shadow of thought in my mind, and then suddenly, they appear. We couldn't have a scene where Violet tells the other cadets bedtime stories or something, to really bring the lore to a recognizable place? It's really that easy. this was clearly a "pantsed" novel, with no planning. Which you ABSOLUTELY cannot do with high fantasy.
Along those lines, let's talk about the romance. I just don't get the chemistry. The author was clearly trying to create a Maven/Mare/Cal kind of situation, but just fails so incredibly it's almost funny. I didn't care about Dain enough for his betrayal to be on any level anywhere NEAR that part of Red Queen. And Xaden... I will concede that the man is objectively hot and I am definitely hyper-fixating on him a bit, but he and Violet didn't really have chemistry... besides lusting over each other. There was no witty dialogue, no meaningful conversations. Just "You're waiting to kill me" and "You're going to be the death of me."
I think I'm the most mad about this one because there is SO much potential. There really is. I can see the vision. If I was given a month or two with the manuscript of this, i could turn this into a cohesive story that has all the pieces it's missing. It wouldn't even be hard.
I will be reading the second book because of my own curiosity, but I doubt I will see the improvement that I typically expect to see when an author moves from their debut to their sophomore novel, since they were published back-to-back.
As a seasoned fantasy reader, this was disappointing, to say the very least. I understand why people who had never read fantasy liked this, but this was Bad, by all accounts.
ETA: A giant blue dragon with a name that starts with "S"? THIS IS ERAGON.
I have a major issue with what is, by all accounts, fanfiction being published with none of the designating details changed. This book is so blatantly plagiarism of Red Queen (down to the unexpected betrayal and reveal at the end. Literally the exact same plot.), crossed with Shadow & Bone, with some Harry Potter and Game of Thrones thrown in.
Our main character is Mare Barrow, down to the hair and lightning powers. Our "villain" is the Darkling (or maybe Rhys). They're Divergent. They're at Hogwarts. And it's set in Westeros.
This is a HUGE issue for me. If I was Victoria Aveyard, I would have called my lawyers.
I'm not sure where to start with the rest of this review, so I will start with the writing. I imagine that this book would be more enjoyable as an audiobook since the writing style is very stream-of-consciousness. A good editor was absolutely necessary, and I'm not sure one was even present. I felt like I was trying to read a podcast. There's just too much going on. Do I need to hear every "Damn," Violet thinks? Are her meandering, wandering thoughts really necessary? And, I'm not a prude by any means, but why was every other word 'fuck?" It felt like I was inside the mind of a horny 16-year-old.
The plot. This is a high fantasy book but, unfortunately, the author does such a poor job world building that everything just feels random. The venin and the fables are discussed maybe three, maybe four times before they appear? Horrible lack of foreshadowing that really damages the reveal. I don't care about them. They aren't even a shadow of thought in my mind, and then suddenly, they appear. We couldn't have a scene where Violet tells the other cadets bedtime stories or something, to really bring the lore to a recognizable place? It's really that easy. this was clearly a "pantsed" novel, with no planning. Which you ABSOLUTELY cannot do with high fantasy.
Along those lines, let's talk about the romance. I just don't get the chemistry. The author was clearly trying to create a Maven/Mare/Cal kind of situation, but just fails so incredibly it's almost funny. I didn't care about Dain enough for his betrayal to be on any level anywhere NEAR that part of Red Queen. And Xaden... I will concede that the man is objectively hot and I am definitely hyper-fixating on him a bit, but he and Violet didn't really have chemistry... besides lusting over each other. There was no witty dialogue, no meaningful conversations. Just "You're waiting to kill me" and "You're going to be the death of me."
I think I'm the most mad about this one because there is SO much potential. There really is. I can see the vision. If I was given a month or two with the manuscript of this, i could turn this into a cohesive story that has all the pieces it's missing. It wouldn't even be hard.
I will be reading the second book because of my own curiosity, but I doubt I will see the improvement that I typically expect to see when an author moves from their debut to their sophomore novel, since they were published back-to-back.
As a seasoned fantasy reader, this was disappointing, to say the very least. I understand why people who had never read fantasy liked this, but this was Bad, by all accounts.
ETA: A giant blue dragon with a name that starts with "S"? THIS IS ERAGON.