Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Fourth Wing

I took off half of a star just because some of the world building and descriptions were a little too confusing to me and could have been done better in keeping me engaged within this fantasy world; the imagery wasn’t quite there for me. And I’ll admit the writing in general was not my favorite, though the characters and plot made up for it for the most part.

But alas!!! This was a fun one!!

You’ve got dragons, you’ve got a war college, you’ve got enemies to lovers, you’ve got mysterious happenings outside of the border that are kept hush hush, you’ve got redacted history and rebellion, you’ve got strong friendships and literal soulmates… I loved it. Our female protagonist Violet is not unlike any other leading character in these kinds of books—she’s weak and fragile, not cut out for the life she’s forced to take on, a disappointment to her mother, the least impressive of her siblings. UNTIL! She proves everyone wrong, even herself, as she is meant to do for the story to exist of course. Which isn’t a bad plot, even if it’s been done many times before, because it clearly works. Violet goes from meek little sister who prefers books over battle, to the incredible dragon rider who packs a striking punch. And Xaden—pretends he loathes her and wants to kill her, broody and closed-off, strong and intimidating to everyone else, but in reality a very kind, caring person who would do anything for Violet. Their chemistry was sizzling, and I loved learning more about their fated connection. The YOU DIE, I DIE trope to a T.

Dain—basically Gale from The Hunger Games but even worse—however, can suck a dozen eggs.

Overall, an intriguing and heart-pounding introduction to the Empyrean series! Great mix of fantasy and romance! You’ll want your own dragon and wingleader boyfriend asap.

Content Warnings

dkamada's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious reflective

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

14greentrees's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

klsreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Ok. Is this book good? I don't think it is. Is it readable, especially if you haven't read a lot of fantasy? Absolutely. Fourth Wing is a mishmash of fantasy and romance tropes that have been done countless times before (and likely much better). The worldbuilding isn't good, and the political intrigue plot falls apart if you look at it for a moment. Despite how it's marketed, this isn't high fantasy - this is a modern romance book in a theoretically medieval dragon school ("war college" barf barf barf).

This school makes no sense. If you are hemorrhaging military recruits and having to conscript the children of literal rebellion leaders (??????????????????????), why are you allowing hundreds of talented young folks die during Hunger Games-esque trials and Harry Potter-esque games and Divergent-esque quadrant pruning?

This brings me to another point that has been repeated many times - nothing in this book really feels original. It seems like Yarros took the most popular tropes, ideas, and characters from fantasy series and smudged them together. There were points where I recognized lines similar to Hunger Games, Six of Crows, Twilight, etc. Many people have pointed out similarities to other series that I haven't read (ACOTAR, Red Queen, Eragon, etc.). This is a book for people who wanted Alina to get with the Darkling. [Wait, are we sure this wasn't Alina/Darkling fanfic? Violet commands light(ning), Xaden is a morally gray shadow-wielder, and Dain is a rule-bound, childhood friend hottie with an undying crush on Violet.]

Fourth Wing was easy reading but too long, and extremely predictable. It's ok to borrow inspiration from the others' work, but the only thing I felt was marginally original was the disability representation. However, even though Yarros has EDS herself, I still feel like she flubbed the rep. Violet spends most of her time busting her ass and getting hurt to perform at a similar level as her able-bodied peers. Instead of continuing to utilize accessibility devices and her intellect, she rages against modifications that might help, nearly dying dozens of times due to her stubbornness. Though she eventually accepts a saddle from Xaden and Tairn, it's with much complaining (everyone should have a saddle. Why the fuck would you want your riders to fall and die after all that work?). She compartmentalizes her pain, with the overall message being, "See? You, too, can overcome your disability with hard work." I don't think this is a good lesson, and would've liked to see something more along the lines of, "Even with a disability, you can modify activities to reach your goals, kick ass, and be engaged with the things you love." We get some of this messaging, but it's not enough, and I left disappointed.

Relatedly, Violet's plot armor was unbelievable. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR/WIPEOUT COURSE?? The gauntlet literally ends with a steep ramp. This killed me. How does someone with a connective tissue disorder get through these military-ass challenges without years of strength training? For someone who (assumedly) has POTS, how is her balance so excellent? How is she so fast? This is shitty disability rep, sorry. It's cool that her disabilities turn off when she needs them to.

I have one last thing to say, though, because I think this part really sucks. Yarros is unashamedly pro-military. She calls her husband her "Captain America" in the dedication and talks in the acknowledgements about how she landed her military hero hubby. Her characters aren't supposed to "get used" to death, but recognize that it's a necessary evil to keep their people safe. Characters are proud of their service, even though it's likely that the military school will kill them. Though the ending of Fourth Wing introduced questions about Basgiath's leadership, the overall message is still, "The military is good and necessary as long as the right people are leading it." This is gross, and I will never be ok with the things this type of reasoning excuses (wiping out a population of trapped people, for example. Is that a necessary evil, Yarros?).

I know this is a lot of complaining, but I enjoyed reading Fourth Wing because it read like a fanfic, and I gobble that shit up. I'm under no illusion that it's groundbreaking, though. If this is one of your first romantasy books and you can get past her political views, I say go for it. You will probably love it, since it's an amalgam of the most popular enemies-to-lovers tropes. It's a nostalgic YA story with smut - sexy, predictable, and satisfying if you don't look too closely. Probably a 2.5 or 3 stars, but rounded up to 4 because I did eat it up until about the 70% mark and I got really excited about the dragons.

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