Fourth Wing

Title: Fourth Wing

Author: Rebecca Yarros

Publisher: Red Tower Books (Entangled Publishing, 2023)

Category & Genre: Adult Fantasy

Page number: 498

Tropes: Enemies to lovers, Soulbond, Anyone can die

Synopsis from the book jacket:

“Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.”

Why did I choose this book to read?

Of course, I’d seen this book across social media when it first came out and again when the second installment of the series Iron Flame appeared more recently in November. People have gone crazy over this book. I’ve seen videos across BookTok of people reacting while reading it, and almost every review I’d seen was enthusiastically positive. Of course, I thought it’d be the perfect candidate to review myself and see how much it deserves all the attention it has received.

What did I like about Fourth Wing?

It captured my attention from the very first line. If I were to give the author an award, it would be for hooking a reader. I never found myself bored, and the story's intensity kept me on the edge of my seat, reminding me somewhat of The Hunger Games and Divergent series. So many different story elements made up the entirety of the plot, and it all came together so nicely. The plot flowed from start to finish, and of course, the cliffhanger at the end of the book left me completely reeling. 

This book is packed with death, so much so that death is mentioned in just about every chapter. I wasn’t expecting that, even with the novel's tagline, “Fly… or die.” It shocked me, and while I thought I would hate how much death there is, as it usually isn’t my favorite in books, I found that it gripped me even harder to continue reading. 

I loved the lore and detail that went into world-building. The whole concept of dragons was exciting, and the way the author portrayed the connection between dragons and their riders was very well done. Bonus points are given to the author for giving readers both a map of the world and a map of Basgiath. I thoroughly appreciated that, not only for seeing how detailed the author was but for the sake of being able to reference it at different points of my reading to envision what was going on. 

Where did Fourth Wing go wrong for me?

The concept of the dragons was fantastic, but the actual dragons themselves missed the mark. I felt like they were somewhat dull characters, which struck me as odd because it’s one of the most significant plot points of the novel. Most of my favorite lines involved them, so I wished there were more or better scenes with them and that they were given the spotlight they should’ve gotten.

I also had some issues with the writing style. There was an overabundance of telling and not showing emotions due to the telecommunication aspect of the story, which took some of the emotion away from me as the reader. I think this is probably one of my biggest pet peeves in books because had I been able to see the emotion of the characters through their actions or dialogue rather than just being told that they were sad or they were mad, then I, too, as the reader would’ve felt what they as characters felt. It would’ve had a much more significant impact. 

I also couldn’t get behind some of the foreshadowing of the story. It made some big moments that were coming up very obvious, which was annoying and took away from the book. To give you an example of this, without giving everything away, the orange scene. Those of you viewers who have read it will understand exactly what I’m talking about, and if you haven’t read it yet, read it and trust me that you, too, will understand. 

Here are some of my favorite quotes…

"My breathe catches and my body warms, the traitorous b*tch. You are not attracted to toxic men, I remind myself, and yet, here I am, getting all attracted."

“Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs—on the probabilities.”

“I am the sky and the power of every storm that has ever been. I am infinite.”

My character connection…

Sweet, honorable Liam. I think Liam’s loyalty throughout this story makes his character shine. He is fiercely protective of Violet at Xadens' request, but eventually, he protects her because he cares for her and is loyal to her. His bond with Xaden from their upbringing is like that of a brother neither of them has ever had. He transcends the typical sense of duty to have a duty to do what he believes is right and is all around a great friend.

Star Rating: 4 stars

Spice Rating: 4 peppers

Final Verdict:

I have to explain my rankings here. This would’ve been a five-star rated book if I hadn’t had so many issues with its writing style, which knocks it down significantly. However, I still had to rank it high because of a few things. While the writing, in my opinion, could’ve used another comb-through during the editing process, the plot was so captivating, and the world-building was so detailed that I could somewhat look past the lazy writing style. Yes, I did love the story and the relationships between the characters, and I am ranking it as such because, overall, it was a great book. However, I would’ve been remiss not to point out those discrepancies. That being said, I would reread Fourth Wing and look forward to reviewing Iron Flame soon.