Scan barcode
A review by mindsplinters
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
5.0
TW : Violence, general death and mayhem
I've owned the book for a while now and just never got around to reading it and I'll admit it. My bad. It was a really solid, well-written, messy book containing dragons and adventure and politics and fighting and plotting and family dysfunction and some spice. Plus a total "will they, won't they" sorta-romance that gives you an equally messy resolution. It was a total romp where young adults are put to the test of being dragon riders or being charcoal briquettes or lambs to the slaughter. For a cast of mostly iffy people, Yarros does a find job of making you care. I mean, some of the characters are real assholes! But you don't want to see (most of) them die horribly which takes talent.
Except for you, Barlowe. You're always welcome to die horribly.
It took a bit for Violet to grow on me because she seemed so... young, I guess, but then more of her family history comes out and you see her mom and the staff of the college and her upbringing and her actual physical disability that is rather a horrible liability in a lot of ways. Soon you realize that she's still not quite admirable and she has a lemming-like ability to run stubbornly into a gaping pit but it all works. She wants to prove herself. To her mother, to others, to Dain... Eventually she realizes that she actually wants to prove herself to herself. What she thought she knew was decidedly uneven and she had to process that. I look forward to more of that in the second book.
Plus, let's face it, Xander is smoking hot, dragons are delightfully bitchy and dangerous, and this whole thing is like dropping Hunger Games and McCaffrey's Pern in a blender with some arsenic and Spanish Fly and setting it to vaporize.
Oh, and Pern? Yeah, I haven't been able to find anything but there is NO POSSIBLE WAY that Rebecca Yarros wasn't a total Pern Fangirl back in the day. Many aspects of the dragons themselves and how they bond and bleeding of emotions, etc, definitely hint at a misspent Pern youth. Not copying, mind you, but definitely reminiscent.
On a final note, NOT LIAM and I KNEW IT (the very end) and SCREW YOU (you know who). Also my now-husband gave me a Leatherman Tool after we had been dating for about a month. That's kind of like the real world equivalent of giving me a dagger, right? Swoon.
I've owned the book for a while now and just never got around to reading it and I'll admit it. My bad. It was a really solid, well-written, messy book containing dragons and adventure and politics and fighting and plotting and family dysfunction and some spice. Plus a total "will they, won't they" sorta-romance that gives you an equally messy resolution. It was a total romp where young adults are put to the test of being dragon riders or being charcoal briquettes or lambs to the slaughter. For a cast of mostly iffy people, Yarros does a find job of making you care. I mean, some of the characters are real assholes! But you don't want to see (most of) them die horribly which takes talent.
Except for you, Barlowe. You're always welcome to die horribly.
It took a bit for Violet to grow on me because she seemed so... young, I guess, but then more of her family history comes out and you see her mom and the staff of the college and her upbringing and her actual physical disability that is rather a horrible liability in a lot of ways. Soon you realize that she's still not quite admirable and she has a lemming-like ability to run stubbornly into a gaping pit but it all works. She wants to prove herself. To her mother, to others, to Dain... Eventually she realizes that she actually wants to prove herself to herself. What she thought she knew was decidedly uneven and she had to process that. I look forward to more of that in the second book.
Plus, let's face it, Xander is smoking hot, dragons are delightfully bitchy and dangerous, and this whole thing is like dropping Hunger Games and McCaffrey's Pern in a blender with some arsenic and Spanish Fly and setting it to vaporize.
Oh, and Pern? Yeah, I haven't been able to find anything but there is NO POSSIBLE WAY that Rebecca Yarros wasn't a total Pern Fangirl back in the day. Many aspects of the dragons themselves and how they bond and bleeding of emotions, etc, definitely hint at a misspent Pern youth. Not copying, mind you, but definitely reminiscent.
On a final note, NOT LIAM and I KNEW IT (the very end) and SCREW YOU (you know who). Also my now-husband gave me a Leatherman Tool after we had been dating for about a month. That's kind of like the real world equivalent of giving me a dagger, right? Swoon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse