Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Fourth Wing - Flammengeküsst

While I understand why people would enjoy this book, I am unfortunately one of the ones that couldn't turn off the feeling that I was reading a YA that was aged up to include sex.

I could not read the word badass without cringing. The world building was positively wild. It's in a more historical fantasy setting where they write with quills, use weapons, crossbows were a big deal, people who wield magic have access to smaller abilities like locking/unlocking doors, making mage light, etc. There lots of wooden shit, but that also translated to having wooden exercise equipment to essential get swole in a modern fashion, rather than bodyweight exercises. There's a brief mention right at the beginning about shoe sizes which means they have standardized them? And the whole riders quadrant can get married before everyone else when the graduate.... At age 23? That's early for this society? And the focus of sexual relations was just pervasive. The talk of raging hormones... The convenience of fertility suppressants getting a brief mention before boning down. Oh and gods are worshipped, but not by dragons.

There was some disability rep that I think was decent considering that it was a fantastical setting with healers, and the character didn't want to "look weak" and would refuse treatment to speed the healing process. There was some LGBT+ rep as well, but mostly on a surface level for side characters.

Honestly, it was fine but the romance had me putting the book down regularly and made finishing this book difficult.

Content Warnings

nicosta_music's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Is this really the book y'all have been hyping up so much? Fourth Wing is generally entertaining enough to keep you reading, but it's by no means a masterpiece. The first thirty-something chapters could have been condensed (or even cut entirely), since the book only got interesting in the last few chapters. Some character choices or world-building facts had no logical explanation besides the plot requiring them. I wish the book had focused more on the world itself than whatever Violet spent this book doing.

The writing style felt like it tried to be YA but the book was actually adult fiction. Despite this being a high fantasy setting, the author used the phase "for the win" three separate times (I counted), but thank god she changed "birth control" to "fertility suppressant." The same zinger phrases are repeated word-for-word across multiple chapters. I also thought a few lines were just plain corny but that's personal preference.

All of the characters in this book were clichés, which isn't a bad thing if it's done right, but these characters were not. Violet in particular was a Mary Sue. She constantly calls herself and gets called weak, small, fragile, etc. despite also being the super-special chosen one archetype. The most interesting characters were the dragons themselves,

and they mostly exist as disembodied voices.

Overall, this book reads like a CW TV show in literary format. It's fun and exciting but lacks the depth I was expecting from a book with this much praise.

Content Warnings