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A review by whatjuliareads
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
So many people told me to read this, and while I enjoyed it, it definitely wasn't the mind-blowing experience I was hoping for. I love dragons, I love world-building that centres around politics and betrayal, I love high stakes adventuring. Fortunately, this book had all of that.
As far as fantasy representation of disability goes, I was pretty happy with this. Dealing with pain, it can be really annoying to see a fantasy "cure" for disability. Violet has to deal with her disability, to work with it and try to mitigate issues arising from it. No one erases it, and we have people running the gamut of pretending its not an issue, to trying to coddle her, to trying to help her grow with it.
The romance is really where this one fell flat for me. The love triangle was so obviously going to go the way it went. If you love a trope-heavy love triangle, this is definitely for you! I just really can't get behind love triangles for whatever reason - one day I'll see one done in a way I like, but I just find them really difficult to care about. The sex scenes were... honestly almost funny, except for some of the choice of language (why there is a trend to describe consenting sex as "an assault" I have no idea - but I guess it's better than when people try to make assault into consenting sex) and I found myself really ambivalent about them.
Some real highlights were the dragons! The dragon personalities, and the personalities and shenanigans of the side characters were just delightful. I loved the idea of signets and the danger of their manifestation, the way magic works and the way that dragons have their own society and keep their own counsel? Loved that.
Overall, good enough to continue with the series.
As far as fantasy representation of disability goes, I was pretty happy with this. Dealing with pain, it can be really annoying to see a fantasy "cure" for disability. Violet has to deal with her disability, to work with it and try to mitigate issues arising from it. No one erases it, and we have people running the gamut of pretending its not an issue, to trying to coddle her, to trying to help her grow with it.
The romance is really where this one fell flat for me. The love triangle was so obviously going to go the way it went. If you love a trope-heavy love triangle, this is definitely for you! I just really can't get behind love triangles for whatever reason - one day I'll see one done in a way I like, but I just find them really difficult to care about. The sex scenes were... honestly almost funny, except for some of the choice of language (why there is a trend to describe consenting sex as "an assault" I have no idea - but I guess it's better than when people try to make assault into consenting sex) and I found myself really ambivalent about them.
Some real highlights were the dragons! The dragon personalities, and the personalities and shenanigans of the side characters were just delightful. I loved the idea of signets and the danger of their manifestation, the way magic works and the way that dragons have their own society and keep their own counsel? Loved that.
Overall, good enough to continue with the series.