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A review by booshort
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
adventurous
dark
inspiring
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
Ok, I get it. I get the hype. Ahem…
HOLY SHIT I LOVED THIS BOOK.
I hadn’t felt this *addicted* to a book in a LONG fucking time. I saw a tiktok before reading this, saying that it was like the 2010 era of reading. Where you’d essentially be counting down the minutes until school was over so you could RUN home and get back into whatever incredible world you’d been immersed in. And now, after finishing Fourth Wing, I couldn’t agree more.
Every. Single. Page. Was crack cocaine. It was an entirely new story to me, yet was giving me nostalgia to my early reading years where I just couldn’t put a book down.
Is it completely original? No. Is it full of tropes? Yes. But they don’t feel obvious. The tropes are woven through the story where it feels natural. There’s a reason why it’s enemies to lovers. There’s a reason why Violet is an underdog. So many other books with similar tropes, don’t seamlessly integrate them as well as this one did. It feels like a fluid cohesive story, and nothing stands out to me as being blatantly shoehorned in.
~ SPOILERS BELOW ~
The Characters
Violet: I can relate to her. While my disability is not physical, every emotion and reaction she had to what she could and couldn’t do regarding her disability was something I have experienced. The constant need to prove to yourself that you’re just like everyone else in your abilities is overpowering sometimes. I too, push myself more than I should, to an idiotic amount, just to prove a point that is only in my head. I loved the disability representation, and most of all, I loved the fact that she still accepted help when needed. Her ability to stay on Tairn is a great example. Push yourself all you want, but sometimes you need some accommodations, and nothing is wrong with that.
Xaden: I really liked his interactions with other characters; we don’t get to know much about him until later in the book, and even then, not that much, so I really hope we get to learn more in the future books. But as for the interactions with others, I loved that he stood up for Violet’s capabilities, and I loved that it wasn’t all of the time; that he mostly let her stand up for herself. He pushed her to her limit a lot, but seemed to back off if he sensed it was getting too much. He called out people for their ridiculous babying of Violet, and I appreciated that.
Tairn: 10/10 perfect father figure that I never had. I can’t believe he had Andarna in a baby bjorn. Mrs. Yarros, please make him real.
Andarna: like Xaden, I hope to see more of her. I was a bit confused as to the aging process of dragons. I was under the impression all “baby” dragons were gold and had feather tails, and then would molt(?) their gold scales and grow into whatever type of tail they would end up having. But I guess we’ll see.
Rhiannon and Ridoc: this is how I like friends to be written in stories. While a lot of books write the “best friend” in these situations (boarding school/any new environment), to be the first ever person they meet, which admittedly is Rhi, I thoroughly enjoyed Ridoc’s slow integration into the group.
Dain: who?
The Writing
While I wouldn’t classify it as anything incredible, I also wouldn’t say it was terrible. So often I find with fantasy novels, that when the MC goes through any sort of pain in battle, that each time it’s described as horrendous, and the author gives it paragraphs and paragraphs of long tortuous agony, whether the incident is any mundane action or the climax of the story, the same goes for expending any sort of magical power. What I mean by that is, a lot of the time (I find SJM very guilty of this) the author doesn’t take into the account of the rising action. Each fight/release of magical power is treated the same as if it has the same stakes. I hope I’m making sense here… my point is Yarros didn’t do that. While Violet does go through an exceeding amount of pain throughout the book due to her disability and the nature of the riders quadrant, the action, wounds, and descriptions thereof rises with the plot. Other than that point, which I did think stood in contrast to other fantasy novels, I found her writing to be solid middle of the pack. Neither here nor there.
The last thing I want to say is the representation is impeccable in this book. Not just the disability and chronic pain rep, but the queer rep is also great. What I like most about this book is none of these representations are shoved in your face. As in, it’s never the defining factor in a character. Nobody outright says any sexualities, gender orientations, or other disabilities or illnesses. Sure, Violet is a special case where we see her struggle more because she’s the MC, but it’s always adding to the plot, and her disability is never a defining factor to her character. Just like none of the queer characters are only there to be queer.
This is the proper way to do representation.
HOLY SHIT I LOVED THIS BOOK.
I hadn’t felt this *addicted* to a book in a LONG fucking time. I saw a tiktok before reading this, saying that it was like the 2010 era of reading. Where you’d essentially be counting down the minutes until school was over so you could RUN home and get back into whatever incredible world you’d been immersed in. And now, after finishing Fourth Wing, I couldn’t agree more.
Every. Single. Page. Was crack cocaine. It was an entirely new story to me, yet was giving me nostalgia to my early reading years where I just couldn’t put a book down.
Is it completely original? No. Is it full of tropes? Yes. But they don’t feel obvious. The tropes are woven through the story where it feels natural. There’s a reason why it’s enemies to lovers. There’s a reason why Violet is an underdog. So many other books with similar tropes, don’t seamlessly integrate them as well as this one did. It feels like a fluid cohesive story, and nothing stands out to me as being blatantly shoehorned in.
~ SPOILERS BELOW ~
The Characters
Violet: I can relate to her. While my disability is not physical, every emotion and reaction she had to what she could and couldn’t do regarding her disability was something I have experienced. The constant need to prove to yourself that you’re just like everyone else in your abilities is overpowering sometimes. I too, push myself more than I should, to an idiotic amount, just to prove a point that is only in my head. I loved the disability representation, and most of all, I loved the fact that she still accepted help when needed. Her ability to stay on Tairn is a great example. Push yourself all you want, but sometimes you need some accommodations, and nothing is wrong with that.
Xaden: I really liked his interactions with other characters; we don’t get to know much about him until later in the book, and even then, not that much, so I really hope we get to learn more in the future books. But as for the interactions with others, I loved that he stood up for Violet’s capabilities, and I loved that it wasn’t all of the time; that he mostly let her stand up for herself. He pushed her to her limit a lot, but seemed to back off if he sensed it was getting too much. He called out people for their ridiculous babying of Violet, and I appreciated that.
Tairn: 10/10 perfect father figure that I never had. I can’t believe he had Andarna in a baby bjorn. Mrs. Yarros, please make him real.
Andarna: like Xaden, I hope to see more of her. I was a bit confused as to the aging process of dragons. I was under the impression all “baby” dragons were gold and had feather tails, and then would molt(?) their gold scales and grow into whatever type of tail they would end up having. But I guess we’ll see.
Rhiannon and Ridoc: this is how I like friends to be written in stories. While a lot of books write the “best friend” in these situations (boarding school/any new environment), to be the first ever person they meet, which admittedly is Rhi, I thoroughly enjoyed Ridoc’s slow integration into the group.
Dain: who?
The Writing
While I wouldn’t classify it as anything incredible, I also wouldn’t say it was terrible. So often I find with fantasy novels, that when the MC goes through any sort of pain in battle, that each time it’s described as horrendous, and the author gives it paragraphs and paragraphs of long tortuous agony, whether the incident is any mundane action or the climax of the story, the same goes for expending any sort of magical power. What I mean by that is, a lot of the time (I find SJM very guilty of this) the author doesn’t take into the account of the rising action. Each fight/release of magical power is treated the same as if it has the same stakes. I hope I’m making sense here… my point is Yarros didn’t do that. While Violet does go through an exceeding amount of pain throughout the book due to her disability and the nature of the riders quadrant, the action, wounds, and descriptions thereof rises with the plot. Other than that point, which I did think stood in contrast to other fantasy novels, I found her writing to be solid middle of the pack. Neither here nor there.
The last thing I want to say is the representation is impeccable in this book. Not just the disability and chronic pain rep, but the queer rep is also great. What I like most about this book is none of these representations are shoved in your face. As in, it’s never the defining factor in a character. Nobody outright says any sexualities, gender orientations, or other disabilities or illnesses. Sure, Violet is a special case where we see her struggle more because she’s the MC, but it’s always adding to the plot, and her disability is never a defining factor to her character. Just like none of the queer characters are only there to be queer.
This is the proper way to do representation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Vomit, and Gaslighting