Reviews with content warning for Blood - Fourth Wing

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

336 reviews

danielle_isreading's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

That ending makes up for every annoyance early on. Dang!

Content Warnings

meeileen's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

It's a 10/10, but by the end it got a bit too cheesy.

Content Warnings

zakcebulski's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Spoiler

Fourth Wing ... What can I say?
This book is one of those that is taking the internet, specifically TikTok by storm and it is easy to see why!
I was recommended this book by my girlfriend who had devoured it in two days flat. She is a fast reader anyway, but, this was something special.
So, I read it and took much longer to read- to her dismay as she wanted to talk about it as quickly as possible.

I will not be covering the entire story, as I hardly ever do. This book follows Violet Sorrengail- the daughter of a high ranking General who is famous (or, infamous) for putting down a rebellion that was taking place in Navarre- the land where the story takes place.
Violet is a very smart individual who has aspirations of becoming a Scribe- one of the roles that is up for choosing in this world, along with Healers and the Riders- literal dragon riders, which is pretty hype.

General Sorrengail forces Violet to go the Rider's quadrant- she will not have a Scribe daughter.
So, in an effort to follow in her older sister Mira's and deceased brother's Brennan's footsteps as Riders.
This is a plot set up that we have seen before- a character who is greatly out of their depths jumping feet first into a scenario where they should not flourish.
Along the way we are introduced to many other characters- Dain, a childhood friend of Violet's who is a dickhead, Rhiannon and Ridoc, Liam and.... Xaden Riorson.
Xaden is the son of the man who attempted to start a revolution to overthrow the government of Navarre and was executed by Violet's mother for his act of attempted secession and treason.

Over the course of the book we are shown the world that Yarros created here, which is interested, but feels well-treaded.
The classes and sparring that take place have the potential to be interesting but are... boring? Ill developed? Not sure, I would have liked a little bit more discussion into them, however.

The most interesting section is the Threshing which is where we are taught about how potential riders are able to link and bond with dragons, which, again, is fucking sweet- who doesn't like goddamn dragons??!?!

At this time Violet bonds with two dragons, which is absolutely unheard of throughout history. Not only that, but, she bonds with Tairn- who is the strongest dragon and a younger dragon Andorna (sp?).
Now, we learn that if a dragon dies, the rider dies as well, and, the dragons are able to channel their energy through the rider and grant them special powers. Cryokinesis, slowing time, reading minds, etc. I will say that the powers are enough of a variety on the standard powers that you may see that they are pretty interesting.

After the Threshing we learn further that Xaden's dragon Sgaeyl is bonded to Tairn, which links Xaden to Violet and dun dun dun!!!!! Violet ends up in bed with the enemy who is not the enemy, whodathunk?
I will be honest, I didn't expect for a second that Xaden and Violet were actually going to be at odds with each other throughout the book. From his very introduction it was clear to me that she and he would end up together, and boy howdy do they end up together.

The absolutely graphic sex scenes in this book are... alot to read... to the point where my apparently prudish ass could have done with them being stripped (wrong word) back a little bit... I had heard that there were sex scenes, but good heavens.
I am good on reading about the cock being at one's opening or talk about clits for a while.

I have to commend Yarros' writing when it comes to action set pieces- she clearly, to me, has a knack for writing amazing and awe inspiring action. There are several fast paced action scenes that if done with any less finesse would have come off as very sloppy, but, Yarros absolutely nails it and I think that this is something that should be talked about more.

One thing I do have to take a little bit of objection with is some more of the cliches that I saw in this book.
When this book started and Violet was a nerdy character I would have put all of my money on her being exquisite with knives as her weapon- and wouldn't you know it? That is exactly what happened. This is jsut one example of things that I have seen before that felt like they were well worn.

I also wish that the constant use of adjectives and some clunky dialogue would have been parsed through a little bit. I mean the constant reference to people being ruthless is overdone. What makes this worth mentioning is that Yarros absolutely has the pen game necessary to show the ruthlessness and brutality of characters- show, don't tell! I think that this would have opened up the character development to be even more nuanced and well done.

That leads me to the characters. To be honest, I think that the characters are likable when they are supposed to be, and they are abhorrent when they are supposed to be. There is very little gray in this book that isn't resolved pretty quickly. The character who has the most intrigue is Dain's bitchass, as he is a very... rules above all type of character. He even gives me incel type vibes, which is icky as fuck.
I think that the characters are serviceable to move the story along but I do hope that they are fleshed out more in the future installments of this series.

Also, is there any credence to Dain's powers being a subversive type and his high government standing? It run a very unsettling parallel to the real world where people in power use their power to get things like sex from the less powerful. An interesting potential reading on a power dynamic.

Overall, I thought that the world that Rebecca Yarros erected here was interesting, if a little less fleshed out than would have liked. I can say the same for the characters- as soon as Violet and Xaden were introduced it was evident that they were going to both survive this book and would end up together. The side characters could also get a bit more fleshing out to make their stories more impactful, in my opinion.
I will definitely be reading the sequel, when it comes out, but I just hope that it takes more risks and does more that we haven't seen before.
Rebecca Yarros is a strong fantasy author, and I hope that she continues building on the strong foundation that she has started.

Content Warnings

gphemsley's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

nataliebootlah's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.5

I finally read it! Was it overhyped? Maybe. Did I text all of my friends who read it, listen to two podcasts on theories almost immediately after finishing, and preorder the next book? Yes.

I’ve mentioned before that my love for reading started with the Eragon series. So it was almost a guarantee that I would love this book for the dragons. Well here I am loving it for the bonds with said dragons, the magical-military school, smoldering sexual tension, representation that didn’t feel forced, detailed world building, and the twists and turns along the way. Plus, it definitely straddled the line between young adult and new adult, which made the characters more relatable.

Here’s to binging the sequel!

Content Warnings

barocap001's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

Content Warnings

eberzy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous 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

Well that was an absolute vibe.

Unique world and storyline complete with all of those addictive tropes. Was the mind to mind communication, segregated career school, shadow-wielding powers, and tattooed bodies among other things unoriginal? Absolutely, but they all make sense to the world in a way that is acceptable to me. The dragon abilities and banter are unexpectedly awesome. Love the chronic illness representation. There were and are a lot of kept secrets and hidden clues that made this so fun to read and set up a lot of excitement for the rest of this series. This will be a fun one to theorize about. Pre-ordered the next book even before finishing.

Content Warnings

blucbell's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I LOVE THIS BOOK! the way that most of the words in this book are just too heavy to process and less expansive that i was unable to fully immerse myself in the world-building, yet the story become more enjoyable the further i read. I'M INSANE in chapter 31 when they throw dirty talks to each other 🤧

Content Warnings

sarah_simpkins's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

caseydouglas1's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.0

Content Warnings

More...