Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Summary:

Violet has spent almost all 20 years of her life preparing for a life as Scribe surrounded by books. Her mother, the general, has different plans and orders her to become a dragon riders. Smaller than everyone and because of who her mother is, she already has a huge target on her back without the danger of the training and challenges. With less dragons willing to bond with riders and more attacks on their borders, everyone is desperate for a change to prove themselves. Violet suspects their leadership is keeping secrets but she’s going to have to try to stay alive to find out what they are.

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this book and the world but there were some issues that I want to discuss.

Starting off with the good, I love that the world revolves so much around dragons in that the humans must give deference to whatever a dragon decides. I also love the way dragons communicate with the riders. Who doesn’t love dragons in a fantasy book? 

Is Xaden another book boyfriend? Yes he is. The author did a great job establishing his character as love interest and a leader.

Overall, the story had many elements that keep me interested. A completely new world with fantastical creatures, attractive guys, witty/sarcastic banter and strong female leads all make up this book. The unique elements to the world are definitely there and appreciated!

So, what went wrong for me? I did not always appreciate Violet as a main character. You have a girl who is holding her own despite her disadvantages so you get the impression that she’s got her wits about her. However, every step of the way she’s ignoring obvious warning signs about Xaden and about the military college she attends. It made it really hard for me to sympathize with her when the truth comes to light about Xaden and the world she lives in. It’s hard to like her as a character when made the decision to put blind trust in things and then feels betrayed by what was in front of her the whole time. Additionally, Violet is constantly distracted by her attraction to Xaden so much so that maybe that’s the reasons she missed so many obvious signs.

Now, my issues with Violet also stem from the writing. The pacing for this 500 page book was so inconsistent that it made hard to really lose myself in the story. I personally felt if some of the cringey dialogue was cut, this wouldn’t have had to be a 500 page book.

Given the length of the book, I found the world building to be lacking. I found the initial effort at building the world to be distracting as it came from the main character spewing facts as a way to calm her nerves. Not what I was expecting and I would have loved more of a foundation beforehand or some type of set up. You’re really just randomly thrown these details at times.

The hints and plot devices are so obvious that it makes the orchestration of events and characters very clear which took away some of the enjoyment for me. The main characters feel like more like stage pieces set up to play a part that suited the plot in an unnatural way. There’s nothing wrong with predictability as long as it’s written well and the work was done to really establish both the characters and plots around the predictable points. Unfortunately, that was not done here.

Personally, I found this to be a great book because I enjoyed it and I understand why so many people have been raving about it. Objectively, I’m not sure this more than just a good book with good elements. I will be reading the next one when it comes out but I’m the meantime I’m happy to focus on other books.