REVIEW: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Truly, people missed their AO3/Fanfiction.net/Wattpad era, and it shows.
Executive Summary: Violet Sorrengail is the youngest child of the Sorrengail family. Her mother is the General of the . . . Navarre Army. (Could not remember and had to look up.) Violet is a student at the Basgiath War College, hoping to become a Scribe, as her father was. On the morning of Conscription Day, however, Violet’s mother informs her that she will be conscripted as a Rider. Riders, well, ride dragons. Fourth Wing is Violet’s journey through the lethal training process to become a Rider, just trying to make it to Bonding Day.
Star Rating: I gave this three stars on GoodReads. First, this book was so damn long for no damn reason. Copyediting is dead, I say! Dead! Truly, this book could have been more impactful with 30% fewer character deaths and 30% fewer pages. Violet was an engaging protagonist but the world building was absolutely terrible. Also, I’m so tired of BookTok men having wild names. Dain? Nope. Xaden? Hard pass. I’m imagining meeting a human man with the name Xaden and honestly keeping a straight face in front of him. Poor Xaden.
Content Rating: Now, I don’t jaunt down the treacherous pathways of dark “romance” for my reading pleasure, to be clear. (All you girlies that fantasize about men that commit actual war crimes, power to ya.) So, when I say a book is an R, I mean that the MPAA would give it an R, not, perhaps, BookTok itself.
There’s violence, folks. The main character has a condition that causes her joints to easily get dislocated. The phrase “my shoulder separated” is enough to make my food unsettle in my tummy, okay? GROSS.
Also, there’s the usual open-door smut toward the last quarter of the book. Body parts are described in their cringey euphemisms. Various methods of enthusiatic copulating are described. Women arrive at climax within approximately six minutes of air time. In other words, it’s a fantasy novel. Read at your risk. 🤷🏻♀️
Review: Be warned, I truly do not know how to review the book without spoiling the plot. I will warn you before true spoilage occurs.
I guess, first, I will say that I have determined that the New Adult genre is simply not for me. The writing is so bad, y’all. The plot is fine! But the execution of the craft of writing is so egregious, I cannot honestly engage with the plot.
My critique of the writing is not unique to Yarros, but she is choosing to write in a genre that is rife with the same problems. The first is the utter anachronisms. At one point, Violet is coaching herself against falling for the quintessential Bad Boy That All The Girls Want (It’s Xaden, obviously) and says “No, Violet, we do not fall for toxic men.”
What in the 2023 American Girl?
This book is meant to be set in a time and place that use DRAGONS AS WEAPONS OF WAR. “Toxic” is a word used for POISON in this kind of world. NOT MEN! This sort of anachronism continues throughout the text. Which leads me to my second point.
The “world-building.” Yarros’ main girl, Violet, spends a majority of the time info-dumping facts about the world, the dragons, the war by chanting random facts about it all while anxiously performing physical feats well outside her innate capability. I wish I were even remotely kidding. So, even while I was rooting for Violet to show up all the ableist rude folk in her class, I was silently screaming about “WHY IS SHE JUST RUNNING AROUND YELLING ABOUT DRAGONS?? SAVE, LITERALLY SAVE, YOUR BREATH!”
Later, in one of her classes, the teacher has a magical ability—given to him by his bonded dragon—to project an image outside of his mind. Now, we won’t dismantle too much of the geopolitical fixings of this world. But, in Navarre, the conscripts need dragons to fight the war. There are few dragons. The dragons, like wands, choose the rider.
why is a dragon-bonded rider teaching a class in the school that could be taught by anyone else not bonded with a dragon?
Because, apparently, Yarros’ classes needed some form of magical PowerPoint. 🙄
These were the moments that are just, generally, difficult for me. Part of the fun, for Mack, is the immersion into a clever and well-constructed world. If the fantasy is mere window dressing for cool fight montages and smut, that’s okay! Just not my cuppa.
Review with Spoilers: Also, I say this often, but I almost always call twists. Specifically when they are so YA coded.
Basgiath War College is an interesting mix of Hogwarts, Panem, and Chicago from the Divergent series. There are four factions: Riders, Scribes, Healers, and Infantry. Riders are essentially the Dauntless. So, although Violet really wants to be a Scribe (Ravenclaw), her evil War Mom forces her to join the Rider Quadrant (like the Reaping for Katniss). Now, unlike dear Ms. Everdeen, Violet is 20 years old.
Therefore, all the students in the war college . . . engage in sexual intercourse at their leisure. (I almost typed out a particular four letter word, but this is the Internet, and it all lives forever. So, they…you know.) But, golly gee, if they don’t all speak/act/banter like they’re all deeply sheltered sixteen-year-olds.
Now, I say that this is YA coded, because, well, think of most of the YA protagonists:
Harry Potter—absurdly good at Quidditch without receiving any formal training whatsoever on a broomstick. Also, the Chosen One.
Buffy Summers—sixteen year old cheerleader who’s really skilled at re-deading the Undead. Also the Chosen One.
Percy Jackson—really, really talented at all forms of swordsmanship. Just give the boy a sword and he’s better than Ares, God of War. (This is canon. I’m not even exaggerating a little.) Also the Chosen One.
Tris whatever her name is—(It’s Prior.) She’s Divergent. So, that’s cool. Gets dangerously close to Chosen One territory.
Katniss Everdeen—Although she is malnourished and therefore diminuitive, she’s ridiculously good at shooting arrows and dismantling global regimes. Practically the Chosen One.
Bella Swan—has the personality of a boiled potato yet manages to pull the hottest boy in school. Although it is only in the context of Romance, she, too is the Chosen One.
Back to Fourth Wing. With the revue of the Chosen Ones, recall Violet Sorrengail. She’s diminiutive, like Katniss. She’s wily, like all the protagonists before her. She’s worried about a dragon roasting her on bonding day.
But in her ye olde BrainPowerPoint class, they see a black dragon. The teacher’s commentary?
“The black dragon hasn’t been seen in years.”
My immediate reaction? Oh. Violet’s gonna get chosen by the Big Black Dragon.
Who does Violet get chosen by? The Big Black Dragon. His name is Tairn. His dragon-wife is bonded to none other than Mr. Xaden Riorson—the sworn enemy of one Violet Sorrengail.
Whoever could have seen this coming? 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
But guess what, dear reader? What can dragons do? Read minds. So, after Violet gets chosen by Tairn (and also another dragon, Andarna—a mythical golden dragon whom Violet protects from slaughter) she can telepathically communicate with Xaden.
Stephenie Meyer, you scoundrel. Edward Cullen’s mindreading ability has really done a number on an entire generation of readers.
Anyways, the entire story plays out like a mid-tier [insert any of the above franchises] fanfiction.
There’s the lust-filled fight scene between Violet and Xaden.
There’s the hesitant alliance, forced-proximity, enemies to lovers story line.
There’s the third act betrayal by the childhood best friend.
There’s the dead family member that’s definitely dead even though I keep thinking about him and I never saw his body or had a funeral for him and I keep mentioning that he’s dead so he must definitely, certainly be dead. Why don’t you think he’s dead? (Only for him to literally appear on the last page of the book, quite expectedly.)
Tl;dr: Will I read Iron Flame? Yeah. But I’m not spending one penny of my money on it. Fourth Wing was enjoyable but no masterclass in writing.
I laughed out loud 😂