Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Fourth Wing

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

85 reviews

embee_the_nd_enby's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.5

If i had to summarize:

Dragons Gift Powers to Their Riders, Whom They Choose
Quippy Pale Disabled Studious Woman Turns Imperial Soldier, and Must Fight For Her Life Against Her Horniness (i'm not even joking) For the Tall Dark Mysterious Superior Officer, Much to Childhood Friend/Crush's Chagrin.
Forbidden Love Interest Believes She Can Hold Her Own, Childhood Love Believes She Should Only Be Protected
There is explosive sex, ~~pun intended,~~ and penises aren't referred to as "members;" additionally, the clitoris is actually referred to as a clit!

Disclaimer: I write this as a reader that is FAR more invested in characters than plot--as in, i have a really hard time caring about the plot if i'm not down w the characters. However, after this book, i have the interesting experience of wanting to know what happens to the story more than i care to look at the characters in it.
So i read this on recommendation and did it via library audiobook. There were a lot of fun concepts that had follow-through; there is violence (pun intended, i guess) that is written, not just a wishy-washy fade-to-black; there's a good deal of humor; adults swearing and being horny; action sequences that were follow-able; and compelling dragon universe components. I talk about this later on, but there is very much a Shadow and Bones vibe with the battle-between--strong-dark-and-"frail"-light aesthetic, with the addition of them wanting desperately to fuck each other. I'll list things I enjoyed with my critiques because there were several with the writing, and one glaring issue with the author that i'm mad i didn't look up before borrowing the book.
I will start with the author since I think it important that people know where their money/support is currently going.

Currently, the author engages with marginalized communities and human rights violations (i.e. Israel's genocide, brief mention of DRC, American imperialism) in a way that is shamefully tone-deaf and weaponized-incompetence-y vibes (re: "iM LeArNiNg" vibes). Aparently this also comes up in another book of hers about Afghanistan? As I understand it, there has been considerable editing to her public posts to indicate learning from mistakes, as well as donating to and "uplifting Palestinian children" (she emphasizes children a lot) and following/supporting Black and brown creators. And like, cool, but i'm not gonna give a fish a cookie for swimming? If you're able to talk about learning from your place of privilege, why do you continue to reference your place of privelege as reason you be excused for having distance from the human rights issues for which you say you are passionate? I like to think that she's trying to learn, I dare say she has taken in some lessons! And, when critiqued about ways she has written/spoken, she has centered herself as a victim rather than taking accountability for how she may have behaved in a not-great way. 2/10, it's lame

The rest from here obviously implicate the author as a person, but is more about her writing.

Since I listened to the book, i almost fell out of my seat laughing because my brain heard the main character's name... in a dragon book... as "Soaring" "gale." Not necessarily bad, i just thought it was cute. After that the names used got steadily less fun.
I was kinda twitching in my seat about Gaelic name pronunciation--to me, it sounded a little wack, but then i heard from people who actually know Scottish Gaelic that the audiobook is trash with pronunciation (and also that apparently the author was swapping Irish Gaelic for Scottish in a interview). Please either commit to learning about an already-existing language you want to integrate/draw from, or make your own. Like come on now. Google is largely free. The Scottish and Irish fight against British Imperialism isn't news. But, some people may say "well isn't that the narrator's fault?" Someone has to sign off on the pronunciation of an author's work, my friendss, and I imagine it'd be the book's author
It was exciting to have a type of physical disability shown in the main character, gotta write the characters you wanna see 💯💯💯 There were accommodations, methods of adapting to challenges, and some failure given that the military isn't always, uh, accommodating.
Also having Sign in the book and a Deaf character!
Again, my first thought about the characters is that it very much gives Shadow and Bones: pale disabled studious girl gets wrassled into becoming an imperial soldier, and inexplicably linked to the mysterious dark (literally) power wielder that others hate to love and love to hate. And this isn't necessarily bad. I love a good shadows/light visual concept because it can be fun! We can recognize the inherent eroticism of yin and yang amiright? Earlier i mentioned appreciating characters being allowed to be horny. And that is true; I need all authors to allow non-men characters to have sexuality outside of purity culture. However, the degree of horniness is... distracting
Violet's perspective is written to be so completely occupied by her horniness that a majority of her engagement with Xaden is as if the author wants to make sure everyone remembers keenly that Xaden is hot and Violet hasn't had sex in a long while. There is an EXCELLENT section at the ending in which their tension/dynamic is communicated well, i think, without the very repetitive reminders of Violet Being Horny For Xaden. There are bits of flirting and banter that are super fun! But other than those bits, it's no longer me enjoying a woman written as wanting/enjoying sex for themselves, it's me wanting to just be like GIRL WE GET IT, DAMN.
Option 1 of harmful writing for Xaden: the author did not commit at all to making him POC. Xaden, who is from a different land than Violet, is described in a very racially-ambiguous way ("tawny" and i think "teak" were used as complexion descriptions) that white authors will do for throwaway inclusivity points. And like, I get it, you should be able to write a character as having any sort of identity, so why not have a main interest as Brown? But to half-ass it like that? Like the man could be a very tan Italian for all we know 🤦🏻‍♀️
Option 2 for harmful writing for Xaden that relates to dark/light dynamic not being fun: the author did decide to genuinely make Xaden a brown man, AND decided to make his dynamic with Violet to be one that gives very "white girl good and light, vaguely brown man dangerous and dark and not good." Like, that is a terrible look, my friends! With a long, horrible history! And this is particularly annoying because the author has other great characters in which you find out casually about their skin tone or hair texture or sexuality or gender. So why must the love interest that's maybe supposed to be brown be pigeonholed to not just one but two harmful rhetorics? The second harmful rhetoric the story aligns with is Innocent White Woman Lusts After and Sexualizes the Dangerous Black/Brown Man. But again, this is in the event that Xaden IS read to be a POC outside of his sparse descriptions as such.
Autonomy and consent are actually big themes in this book, it actually really surprised me since stories like these often forgo autonomy for things like the fantasy of the partner just "knowing what we want" (which is funny for several reasons). And like, yeah, there are moments where Violet and Xaden do the "i've read the room and i gather that You Want Me" declarations, but don't break consent. Also, given that the universe subscribes to the Dragon Riders Have Powers direction (which i fucking adore, i love when stories do that), consent with powers is a big thing and so I'm glad it was a theme.
Now, i already don't trust empires, so that may have affected my perspective 🤣 but the empire isn't written as infallible, like there are components about the history and makeup that various characters openly question or lament as well as openly scorn. Always question your elders, my friends 🤙🏼
I adore the dragons and the bonding :)

Overall i think there was quite a bit of potential and promise for a fun time, and there were lots of things that were indeed fun! And there were aspects that were handled ignorantly, at best.

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kryolitee's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

I have no words.

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daringreader13's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.25

4.25 out of 5 stars

Really ended up loving this but DO NOT RECOMMEND the audiobook as it almost made me give up on the book completely. However, couldn’t give it 5 because Liam hurts my soul 😭

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choirgirl171's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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audrealuvsbooks3's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Not something I normally read but pretty good.

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saramassoudi's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This may be one of my favorite books. I got lost in it and the outside world went away for a bit. Though I originally thought the enemies to lovers trope, love triangle, and the underdog rising up idea has been used time and again in fantasy books (thinking of ACOTAR and Hunger Games especially), Rebecca Yarros makes so many twists and turns with this story I was on the edge of my seat pretty much the whole time. She’s really good at world building and her writing style is so descriptive and effective - she’s one of those authors that is able to just articulate certain feelings or situations that are so relatable but you can never quite describe. This is my first Yarros book but now I’m wanting to read all of her work - she’s up there with my favorite authors now.

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mossywossy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

This book is so good. Oh my god, I can’t get enough of it. What a great book to get back into reading with. I literally couldn’t put it down!! I’m so mad that I’m back to WAITING for more books!!!

It’s only not a 5 star bc the first 100 or so pages were really slow. I almost put it down bc of it, but I kept pushing through bc I am a SLUT for anything with dragons 🤩

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