Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Alas de sangre

Throughout the entire book I wondered if Rebecca Yarros had ever even considered getting Fourth Wing professionally edited. There are about seven phrases repeated ad nauseam in this book, which I may have noticed only because I was listening to the audiobook, but I honestly think I would have noticed it in print too. This was very annoying.
Repetitive things I did not enjoy:
- mentions of gold flecks
- "good point" "fair point" "s/he has a point" (you could make a dangerous drinking game with this one)
-

Tairn is the mOsT pOwErFuL dRaGoN or any other reason why

no one really wants to mess with Violet
- mentions of brows doing things.
- Mentions of "he gave me [such and such look that makes her horny] but noooo we aren't thinking about that right now"

This book is like if someone took Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, removed the good worldbuilding, added even more racist stereotypes, combined it with the Divergent style revolution (not the well thought out Hunger Games one), got the sex scenes written by a Gena Showalter wannabe, then threw it in the dryer on high to felt. Like yeah I guess it was entertaining but it was kind of like a train wreck. Like others have said, this feels ripped right from wattpad.

I will be reading the next book.

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grayscale08's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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carriebp's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

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unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This book was fine, but I found it very derivative - like I had read all of it some place before. It’s basically like Top Gun plus Hunger Games plus A Court of Thorns and Roses. If you like the dragons, I cannot recommend Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series enough - it’s basically the same dragon-magic system but the world makes more sense.

Basgiath has to be the world’s worst military school - it seems like it exists simply to kill off its cadets which seems counterproductive? Call me crazy but there are stakes higher and fates worse than death. In a book written in first person POV you know from the jump that the narrator isn’t dying soooooo the tension I wanted in the first part of the book simply wasn’t there.

In the year of our lord 2024, I simply cannot get into a hero named Xaden, even though I liked him just fine in terms of his actual actions/personality. Tairn was the best character in a SEA of named characters who were interchangeable and forgettable. Violet is very much a 20 year old dystopian fantasy heroine.

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indigoa's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.75

Couldn't put it down. There are definitely similarities to other series out there, but I enjoyed the writing style and plot development immensely.

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ericiusm's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.75

This is cringy edgy shit. Curse G. R. R. Martin for giving authors the great idea of killing characters off with ease, cause now every wanna be edgelord out there kills people left and right for the sake of gasps. Yarros is a horny teenager try hard that doesn’t understand worldbuilding, romance, fantasy and the military. Sometimes I wonder why my stupid brain gave me such powerful insecurities paired with perfectionism, cause without by now I would have been a best selling author of at least one poorly written fantasy trilogy…

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stitchbooks22's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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sagesanctum's review against another edition

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adventurous funny relaxing 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

4.0

A pleasant read. Nothing too cerebral & a few sections--mainly surrounding/building up to the sex scenes--felt a ligtle cheesy, but overall it's a fun story that held my attention.

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