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_chrstnlvly's reviews
216 reviews
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Death of parent
Minor: Death
- 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
4.5
It hurts to rearrange everything you think you know. Lies are comforting. Truth is painful.
Fourth Wing is a new adult fantasy romance. The writing is easy to understand, the plot is fast-paced and action-packed, and the characters are diverse, with the added bonus of DRAGONS. The banter and sarcasm are entertaining, although the banter I enjoyed the most was not between the main human characters. The book also has a great cliffhanger, and Yarros does an excellent job of making the reader feel a range of emotions throughout.
That being said, the world-building could have been better, and some characters come off as a little too dramatic. The romance can be a little cheesy, too. Oh, and the Audiobook narration was terrible, so I recommend reading the e-book version or the physical copy instead (I listened to the Audiobook while reading the e-book version).
Fourth Wing is a high fantasy book with high stakes. However, sometimes it being high stakes doesn't make sense. They were in a war, training people how to fight in the war, but during training, it felt like life was nothing. There were deaths everywhere, sometimes without any logical reason. I get that they need to weed out the riders because they need the strongest to fight in the war, but you can't help but feel how they wasted some lives (note that I said some since some who died also deserved to die). More people alive means more can fight in the war. They should have just trained them better. I still plan on reading the rest of the series. Yarros might explore it more in the following books. I hope I can get a physical copy because it's sold out everywhere.
Lastly, can we talk about how amazing Tairn and Andarna are? Tairn is like a therapist and friend, while Andarna is like an intelligent little kid you just want to protect. I wish I had them in real life!
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, Blood, and War
Moderate: Chronic illness, Cursing, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I only read this because it was book club #4's pick of the month. I know I could DNF it, but I wanted to finish it so I can join in the discussion.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Misogyny, Self harm, and Suicide
Minor: Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, and Stalking
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Sexual content
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism
Minor: Animal death and Infidelity
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
“The past is over, child. Don’t dwell overmuch on its echoes,” the old woman said gently. “you will find no rest that way.”
This is definitely my worst read of the year (so far).
It was boring. It should have been 250 pages shorter. Flynn/Eugene is not charming. Rapunzel is dumb as hell.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 23%.
The characters Bree and Archer don't appeal to me, and I'm not invested in their relationship. Even the presence of dogs in the story, which usually piques my interest, fails to hold my attention.
The writing style is also disjointed and disorganized, failing to provoke any emotional reaction in me as a reader. As we all know, the quality of writing is a critical component of any book. If it's lacking, it harms the entire story. So while this book may be getting a lot of buzz, I'm only convinced it's worth my time if the writing is up to par.
I won't force myself to read something that isn't captivating me.
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
…the past never stays where we try to keep it, stuffing it deep into the back of a closet and hoping to forget.
I feel bad for Chloe. She's surrounded by people who are either liars or immoral.
I did guess early on the plot twist, but I did not expect this to have many (minor) plot twists. Those little plot twists kept me engaged and made me skim this. However, I needed some help with this book.
Sometimes the transition of Chloe's thoughts from the present to the past (or vice versa) could be more apparent. It could have been more seamless. One minute we're reading about what Chloe was thinking about now/in the present, then the next minute, we're transported to her past, reading about what past Chloe was feeling at that moment. I don't know if this is intentional since Chloe is supposed to be an unreliable narrator, but it sometimes kept me confused. I've read enough thrillers to know there's a better way to do this.
Additionally, some parts are really repetitive. Since this is a first-person POV (Chloe's POV), we know her whereabouts and thoughts, so there is no need to recount what we read in the past chapters. We just read about 1 or 2 chapters about what happened over the weekend because we were "with her" as readers; there's no need to have 2 or 3 paragraphs of summary the chapter after.
It really bothered me how many times the words "flick," "flicker," "flicking," and "flicking" was mentioned (if you're curious: flick = 6, flicker = 13, flicking = 5, flickering = 9... that's a whole lot for a book less than 400 pages).
Overall, I did enjoy this book. I understand this is the author's debut novel. As she writes more books, her writing style will get better. It was okay, I'm glad I read it since it entertained me, but it had some problems. 2.5 stars.
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Blood, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail