A review by barda
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
fast-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
It was...okay.
There's a lot of hype over this book as it has a lot of the popular tropes in new adult romantasy at the moment - enemies-to-lovers, a female main character with a penchant for sarcasm and hitting/stabbing people, a supporting cast of vaguely diverse people that somehow either become friends-for-life with the main character or act like complete psychopaths towards her within a minute of meeting her, and of course an extremely tall, attractive bad-boy male love interest. Does this book do those tropes well? Absolutely. But does the book do much beyond that? Not really.
The world-building was a bit half-hearted and haphazard, with some things not logically making a lot of sense (why have a school based around murdering each other off as the dragons only want the strongest - when the dragons themselves will pick off all the weak ones later anyway?). Violet herself isn't too bad and it was nice to have a main character with an actual disability even if the importance of said disability is unevenly applied during certain parts of the book; however, the supporting characters could have easily been interchanged with each other with how little character development each of them receive. Xaden was fine as a stereotypical male love interest, but his attraction to Violet seems to come out of nowhere and we're not really given many compelling reasons for them getting together beyond the two of them thinking the other attractive.
The main glue of the book is, of course, the dragons. The dragons were easily the best part of the book, but they were still quite lacking in terms of overall character development. Tairn is funny and his interactions with Violet and the other characters were very enjoyable, but he's only introduced a third of the way into the book and Violet and Xaden's romance is emphasised in the latter half of the book compared to developing her companionship with Tairn. Adarna's lack of development is even more egregious; the few lines she has are absolutely adorable, but we're given so little time with her that we're instead directly told what her personality is instead of experiencing it naturally as the story develops.
So if you're the type of person that enjoys the current new adult romantasy tropes as they are, then you will probably like this book. Due to enjoying said tropes myself, I did overall have fun reading the book and will probably pick up the sequel, and it was an easy, fast-paced read. However, the lack of character development and world-building is a sticking point, and one I hope the author can improve upon as she writes the series.
There's a lot of hype over this book as it has a lot of the popular tropes in new adult romantasy at the moment - enemies-to-lovers, a female main character with a penchant for sarcasm and hitting/stabbing people, a supporting cast of vaguely diverse people that somehow either become friends-for-life with the main character or act like complete psychopaths towards her within a minute of meeting her, and of course an extremely tall, attractive bad-boy male love interest. Does this book do those tropes well? Absolutely. But does the book do much beyond that? Not really.
The world-building was a bit half-hearted and haphazard, with some things not logically making a lot of sense (why have a school based around murdering each other off as the dragons only want the strongest - when the dragons themselves will pick off all the weak ones later anyway?). Violet herself isn't too bad and it was nice to have a main character with an actual disability even if the importance of said disability is unevenly applied during certain parts of the book; however, the supporting characters could have easily been interchanged with each other with how little character development each of them receive. Xaden was fine as a stereotypical male love interest, but his attraction to Violet seems to come out of nowhere and we're not really given many compelling reasons for them getting together beyond the two of them thinking the other attractive.
The main glue of the book is, of course, the dragons. The dragons were easily the best part of the book, but they were still quite lacking in terms of overall character development. Tairn is funny and his interactions with Violet and the other characters were very enjoyable, but he's only introduced a third of the way into the book and Violet and Xaden's romance is emphasised in the latter half of the book compared to developing her companionship with Tairn. Adarna's lack of development is even more egregious; the few lines she has are absolutely adorable, but we're given so little time with her that we're instead directly told what her personality is instead of experiencing it naturally as the story develops.
So if you're the type of person that enjoys the current new adult romantasy tropes as they are, then you will probably like this book. Due to enjoying said tropes myself, I did overall have fun reading the book and will probably pick up the sequel, and it was an easy, fast-paced read. However, the lack of character development and world-building is a sticking point, and one I hope the author can improve upon as she writes the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Chronic illness, Murder, and Sexual content
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, and Violence
Minor: Drug use, Torture, Vomit, and War