A review by readingwithmeredith
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
challenging
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? Yes
4.5
I’m not a fantasy reader but I enjoy dystopian so I thought I would give this a try. Overall, I enjoyed it but it wasn’t a 5🌟 suck me in and have to finish it immediately kind of book. At times it felt a bit boring and I felt like I wasn’t understanding the world like I wanted to, but then there were times where it was really good. I think I will continue the series and I’m thinking if book 2 is like the parts that really captured my attention then that could be a 5🌟 book. I am thankfully I had the audio and physical book because it helped me slow down and understand what was happening and learn the fantasy world language.
My biggest issues weren’t the war and injury elements but was the strong language and open door scenes- I don’t think it would have bothered me as much if I hadn’t read the author’s note mentioning “her Heavenly Father.” I’m assuming she is referencing God. I just struggle with connecting that information as a Christian myself. For other sensitive readers- know the open door scenes took up about 12+ pages (2 main scenes and 1 smaller one) and were pretty easy to skip but don’t just skip a whole chapter or jump to the next one because I found I had to flip back and see details that were at the end of those scenes. There is some suggestive dialogue throughout post those initial scenes but because it wasn’t in a majority of the book it didn’t bother me as much and I found them easier to ignore.
My biggest issues weren’t the war and injury elements but was the strong language and open door scenes- I don’t think it would have bothered me as much if I hadn’t read the author’s note mentioning “her Heavenly Father.” I’m assuming she is referencing God. I just struggle with connecting that information as a Christian myself. For other sensitive readers- know the open door scenes took up about 12+ pages (2 main scenes and 1 smaller one) and were pretty easy to skip but don’t just skip a whole chapter or jump to the next one because I found I had to flip back and see details that were at the end of those scenes. There is some suggestive dialogue throughout post those initial scenes but because it wasn’t in a majority of the book it didn’t bother me as much and I found them easier to ignore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, War, Medical content, and Sexual content
Minor: Chronic illness and Death of parent
Surprisingly, the war element did not bother me as much as I expected it to. The big things that bothered me was the language and the 12+ pages of open door content/suggestive dialogue. In some ways I was able to skip it, but there were elements of it towards the end of the moments that felt necessary to the story.