When I tell you Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros has the book community in a chokehold... let's just say you couldn't escape this book even if you wanted to (thanks BookTok and Bookstagram). Word has it it's the next best thing after A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Hunger Games. A fantasy novel about dragons with an enemies to lovers side-plot? How could I not be intrigued? After reading some glowing Goodreads reviews, I simply had to read it.
So I did.
For those still unaware, Fourth Wing is a new adult fantasy novel by Rebecca Yarros. It's action-packed, features a lot of dragons and a steamy romance. The pacing is excellent and the stakes are incredibly high. There's hardly a dull moment in the book. It keeps your attention and reads like a train.
Unfortunately, Fourth Wing didn't live up to the hype for me, at least not in some aspects. For an adventure novel, it's great. For a fantasy novel, it leaves some to be desired. Obviously, since this book is so beloved, it does at least something very right. While I acknowledge its success and that I, too, really enjoyed reading this book, it didn't blow me away, and occasionally frustrated me. Here's why.
(Spoilers)
+ Pacing
The pacing is well-done. There's months worth of time skips, and for this story, that really worked. There's very little exposition and a lot of action from the get-go. From Parapet to the Gauntlet to bloody fights, there's more than enough action to avoid a dragging story. Events like Presentation and Threshing are talked about and explained in advance, leading to increased anticipation, and, because of their execution, good pay-off.
+ Stakes
Of course, The Rider's Quadrant is not for the weak or the weak-minded. A lot of people die or get hurt. I figured that, what with her main character plot armor and all, Violet is not going to die, but during dangerous scenes I found myself nervous for her all the same. That's because Yarros is unafraid to let her main character hurt. There is no guarantee she is going to come out unscathed. It kept me on the edge of my seat.
-+ Dragons
The dragons in this story sure get their time to shine. I love how downright terrifying they are and sometimes endearing (in Andarna's case). I liked that they're depicted as highly intelligent beings, and speak the human language at least telepathically. Moments like Presentation and Threshing offered interesting insights into the human-dragon relationship. There is surely a lot about them that has yet to be revealed, so I'm curious to learn more about their culture and politics.
However, I really didn't get why nobody uses saddles if not being able to keep your seat on dragonback is a known challenge. Even for people who do manage to keep their seat, it might add extra security for dangerous manoeuvers - not as if dragonriding isn't already dangerous enough. Saddles, plus saddlebags, would also be great for carrying gear and weapons. If dragonriders get stationed at a certain place for a longer time, how are they going to carry their stuff? Does their stuff just travel by what, a horse? It just doesn't make much sense. There's a reason dragon saddles exist in other series featuring lots of dragons like Game of Thrones and Eragon. The more common dragon riding is, the more likely it is that people come to the conclusion saddles are simply more convenient. Perhaps it would have been more logical to have saddles already be a thing, but Violet needed one tailored and adjusted for her size and condition specifically. That way there'd still be a thoughtful gesture from Xaden.
-+ Characters
Many characters acted very similarly throughout the book. I think this was mostly because most of Violet's friends all had the same humor, which consisted of a lot of sexual innuendo. But while they did not have very differing personalities, they were fleshed out at least a little by their backstories. Perhaps it was because of this that I started caring about the characters all the same. That is the important part. When Liam died, I somehow really felt the urge to cry.
As for development, I have to say I was disappointed the issue of Violet not being able to keep her seat on Tairn was solved by the saddle, not by her building muscle and improving through practice.
-+ Romance
Though I did enjoy the romance - the build-up and the tension were great - there were two aspects to it that I did not enjoy.
1. The spice
I have come to the conclusion that smut might not be for me. It is rare, incredibly rare, that I stumble upon a spicy scene that I actually find well-written. In a lot of cases, I find them to be anything but romantic. In the case of Fourth Wing, it is because of the explosiveness. Closets have to break, thunder has to strike, and they have to do it everywhere but the bed. Quite the opposite of what I associate with what's sexy. Especially for the slow-burn lovers out there (like me), what's associated with sexiness is slow, smooth seduction. Sultry smiles, slow movements and flirty eyes building tension.
In the spicy scenes I often read, however, there is hardly any time for this. It leads fast to sex where everything has to be so eruptive and animalistic, I find an obvious lack of tenderness, intimacy, affection. Romance.
Fourth Wing was, unfortunately, no different. However, I won't cut my rating down because of this too much, because this is a question of preference.
2. Xaden commiting
When, after Xaden and Violet sleep together, Xaden makes it clear he doesn't want a relationship, Violet proceeds to try to convince him to commit anyway. Eventually Xaden agrees. I felt uncomfortable about this. Because of the parapet scene in particular, Violet and Xaden coming together fell a little into the "girl saves sad boy from himself" category for me. That is not her job. And a girl needing to convince their love interest to be with them feels icky to me, like a relationship that is uneven from the beginning. Furthermore, if someone does not want to commit, you can't make them. They have to come to the conclusion that they are ready to do so by themselves. Say that you do convince someone to be in a relationship with you, then they would be doing it a little reluctantly and probably because it's all or nothing. This gives the relationship a high chance of failure.
- Themes
This is perhaps my main criticism, because I care a lot about themes. The themes are present, but there is very little depth to them. When finishing Fourth Wing, there is not much of a message or even a thought that it leaves you with. There are interesting aspects to be explored, such as Violet's family dynamics, the questionable morals of Basgiath, the importance of recording history, and yet none of them are delved into deep enough to really mean something.
What confused me most was that, near the climax of the novel, Violet remarks that leaving the innocent people of Resson to their fates "goes against everything they believe in". Throughout the majority of the story, the reader has seen cadets - innocent people - die left and right in their sheer attempt to jump through the hoops of the Rider's Quadrant. Did the Rider's Quadrant protect them? Far from it. They were not protected as part of the Rider's quadrant's policy. This means their disregard for human life is embedded in their rules. So when we reach the climax, are we really just supposed to believe the Rider's Quadrant cares about innocent lives, when up to that point they have done everything they can to show that human lives mean nothing to them? Violet's remark, as well-intended as it was, fell empty.
- World-building
For the majority of the book, the world-building does not extend far beyond the Rider's Quadrant. Of course, there is the promise that this might still happen in the next four books - Rebecca Yarros has confirmed she has plotted for a total of five books in this series. And, understandably, there's only so much world-building you can do in a first book in a series without slowing the book down. Since the pacing was great, I am not judging too harshly on this aspect. The world-building may still better over the course of the series, though the fact remains that there was precious little culture in this novel, despite culture being such a vital part of the fantasy genre.
- Names & language
This critique is both personal and constructive. With some place names, it is like Yarros took to Google Maps, swiped it to Europe, and then started copy-pasting. She used, unironically, real-life places such as Montserrat (a famous mountain range in Spain), Messina (city in Sicily) and Navarre (region in Spain) as fantasy (place) names. Some people, maybe those from anywhere but Europe, might not have such a problem with it. But as someone from the Netherlands living in Spain and as a fantasy writer myself, this comes across as very, very lazy. Great fantasy novels make you forget about where you are, they do not remind you of it. Coming up with place names that sound both unique and foreign is difficult, but if you are going to use real-life locations verbatim, at least use tiny villages and obscure locations nobody has ever heard of, not entire regions or famous mountain ranges. Or change one or more letters, it is really not that difficult to make alterations of existing words and avoid this whole mess. Examples: Montserrad / Montsarat / Montzerat, Missina / Masina/ Messine and Navare / Nivarre / Neverre. There. Took me two minutes.
Or, for the love of God, Google place names before you use them in your fantasy novels.
On top of that, the use of language is modern, western and even a little political. Words like 'vibe', 'objectifying', 'boy-next-door', 'toxic', 'What. The. Hell' (oh, so there is a hell in this world?) are used very frequently. I'm fairly certain that this use of language is partly responsible for Fourth Wing's success, since it made the book accessible and relatable to a large audience, but it does not suit my personal taste. It is just not very classy, it will make the book read dated in just a few years, and it took me out of the story.
Conclusion
To conclude, there were several elements to Fourth Wing that fell short for me. Some of these elements were personal taste, but some were shortcomings that do not make too much sense for the genre or good storytelling in general. For all its flaws, I still recognize that this novel has high entertainment value. There are some core components like romance, pacing and stakes that are very solid and that have undoubtedly led to its success. So is it entertaining? Yes. Is there a lot of substance to it? No.
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