BOOK REVIEW: The Fourth Wing

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

Spoiler Free:

When Violets mother- also known as the commanding general- commands her to join the most dangerous quadrant alongside hundreds of candidates, some who won’t even make it the first day, her only job is to survive.

But with a smaller, more frail body, only six months of training compared to ten years, and her mothers position creating a target on her back, Violet knows she has to work harder and smarter to make it to graduation day. The most threatening of them all: Xaden Riorson. The most powerful and ruthless wing leader in the quadrant, and also the child of a man her mother had killed.

No one, no system, can be trusted. She only has herself…until she doesn’t.

This enemies to lovers New Adult Romantasy has absolutely captured my heart in all the best ways. I couldn’t put this book down, and when I had to (because you know there’s sadly a real world out there) I found myself reaching during breaks just to read a little bit more. Yarros does such a good job in creating characters that feel real and that you’re able to connect with and even some that make you laugh aloud while reading. If fantasy is a daunting genre to you, this is the perfect book to dip your toes into for its not dense in world-building, old language, or words that are magical and made up. This is one that helps you keep your feet on earth while reading about a fantasy world. Well, for the most part at least, I mean there are plenty of moments to earthly swoon.

Spoilers Full:

Well, you’ve scrolled to the spoiler sections.

Below I’ll go into every spoiler.

I will not hold back.

This is you’re warning.

And this is definitely a book that you do not want to spoil the ending.

Everyone ready?

Can I spoil now?

My lips are unsealed…

I cannot get over how much I thoroughly enjoyed this book. For months I’ve been saying to my husband, friends and family how I wish I could read a book that was different and original. Published arts in the past few years have become repetitive and conducive to only one factor; will it sell. And because of that a lot of other ideas, authors, and works are being turned away. I am so glad this one was seen for its genius because this is exactly what I needed to fall back in love with the art of writing.

Rebecca Yarros in interviews since Fourth Wing has been published has discussed her goals while writing this piece and one that is being rapidly discussed is how she aimed for this piece to be an introductory work for the fantasy genre. Often fantasy can feel very heavy and burdened with world-building, olden-terms or made-up terms and within this novel there really isn’t any of that. Of course, there is world-building; however, it is written in a way that doesn’t info dump on the reader, but instead spaces out the information. Not to mention, Yarros introduces world-building facts or information to the reader in multiple ways. This includes directly through Violet’s thoughts, characters’ dialogue, characters’ actions, and then the quotes at the top of each chapter. These quotes are related to what occurs within the chapter directly, giving the reader some foreshadowing, but also giving a wider knowledge of the world Violet lives in.

Because within this novel so many things happen, I’m not going to go through everything that happened; I mean I definitely could, but you’d be reading another novel. Not to mention adding the millions of theories and ideas for the series that I have seen swarming all of my socials. I mean it says something about a book when there is this much chatter and so much chatter still to be had, so I’ll stick with my favorite parts.

Immediately the reader is immersed into the world that is Basgiath and quickly we learn about the entire continent. (It helps as well to have two maps; one of the continent and one of Basgiath). Violet is thrown into Basigiath college and expected to survive in the rider’s quadrant, the quadrant that is the most dangerous where each day there's a reading all the deaths from the previous day worked into the schedule. And usually in these books, a reader can read knowing their main characters are safe; however, Dylan, a boy Violet meets while climbing to the parapet slips off and dies. Its so quick and unexpected its kind of humorous. But this sets a precedent that no one is safe and it's genius because every battle, every fight you feel the real stakes in each moment.

Violet’s smart. Its her strength and its very much reiterated within this piece. In a place that worries about physical strength and brawn, Violet's smarts starts to outshine the others and it definitely sets her apart from the rest in that manner. There are many supporting characters that show the ignorance and clouded judgement that comes with cockiness and condescension. Characters such as Jack, Tynan, Pryor, and Oren. Its her smarts that put her outside of everyone else and I think it will be a huge factor in the entirety of the series.

Okay, now let’s talk about this enemies to lover/ love triangle. I shouldn’t even say love triangle because Dain is horrible, not like written horribly, but more so written so well that I hate him with a passion. Does that make sense? Dain represents the ability to outgrow where you once came from and I did love having his character be so stagnant and morally ridged because it did give me as the reader a direct comparison to how much Violet is growing within the rider’s quadrant. I mean how many times did he try to have her go back into the scribe’s quadrant? Three? Maybe more? Dain is a character that wanted to physically hold Violet back and suppress her potential. I think he stood to represent her growth but also the government involvement within how people behave and what they’re made to believe. Loyalties included. So as much as I have a huge disdain (lol get it) for his character, I see the necessity for it. I see why there needed to be a character in which Violet could physically argue with in order to get the idea or visual of her breaking away from the thought she was raised to have. And I wouldn’t call it a love triangle because did Dain ever really have a chance? Truly? On page 192, about a third of the way through Dain kisses her after the threshing to which Violet says, “The thrill is gone in less than a heartbeat. There’s no heat. No energy. No sharp slice of lust. Disappointment sours the moment.” I mean when you’re up against someone like Xaden, bond or not, how could you compete? Then again, thinking about it in the “new life vs old life” lenses, this relationship and scene makes even more sense because around threshing really is when her whole world starts to change and she starts to be confident enough to say how she’s feeling.

And Xaden. Oh Xaden. How could you not love this man? I mean technically you couldn’t if you don’t love the whole bad boy- “I have to stay away act” and I won’t explicitly call you crazy here, but maybe see a doctor? Xaden is the complete opposite from Dain in all the best ways. Yes physically, but more importantly in his beliefs and how he treats Violet. Even giving her the nickname of Violence is evidence that he’s always encouraged her to tap into that part of herself. Xaden really is a huge part of this book and I could go into every detail, but I’ll just list the quotes that I highlighted while reading and hopefully you’ll get the gist.

“His features are so harsh that they looked carved, and yet their astonishingly perfect, like an artist worked a lifetime sculpting him, and at least a year of that was spent on his mouth. He’s the most exquisite man I’ve ever seen.” (pg 18)

“‘Going for blood today, are we, Violece?’ He whispers.” (pg 106)

“True. Dain would more than take exception to Tynan’s assumptions and probably assign him cleanup duty for a month. Good thing he’s on flight field this time of day. Xaden would just beat the shit out of him.” (pg 118)

“’Killing you won’t be any trouble, Violence. It’s leaving you alive that seems to cause the majority of my trouble.’” (pg 129).

“Xaden doesn’t even acknowledge it as he turns to the other wingleaders. He isn’t demanding proof like Dain. He believes me, and he’s ready to execute a wingleader on nothing more than my word.” (pg 245)

“You are astonishing.” (pg 278)

“Now earn your nickname and try your best to kill me.” (pg 301)

“…then he rests his forehead against mine. ‘Leave for me, Violet.’” (pg 346)

“Even when I’m not with you, there’s only you. Next time, just ask. You’ve never had a problem with being bluntly honest with me.” (pg 411)

If you’ve read this book then you know what I mean when I share these quotes. You also know what I mean when I say Xaden has quickly become one of, if not the one, of my favorite book boyfriends. Unlike Dain, Xaden never held Violet back but instead had faith in who she was and gave her the tools and knowledge to grow and be better. He helped her train, gifted her a dagger that was proportionate to her body size, gifted her a seat so she could stay on Tairn, and above else always looked out for her best interest. Now knowing the ending, I think I know why… but we’ll have to wait and see.

Also, just a quick honorable mention for Liam, because umm I love you and you’re precious and I cried when you died and just *muah*.

In the end, Dain betrays Violet, what a shocker. We learn that Xaden has been playing both sides. Venin and Wyvern are actually real and not fables. Violet almost kills herself killing them. Aretia is real. Brennan is alive and they’re all a part of the revolution now.

I really wanted to give this piece a 5/5 stars but really couldn’t. I like to judge on originality and although this book does have a lot of it, the world building plot had a lot of similarities to the Divergent series. The wyvern that breathes blue fire and the venin/wyvern connection where when a venin is killed it kills all the wyren that the one venin created was way too similar to Game of Thrones. The idea is badass, which is why Game of Thrones is so good, I just wished maybe there was something that could’ve been created and unique to this story instead. Therefore, I settled with a 4.9, because this book was still pretty awesome.

I couldn’t possibly get to every detail in this book since it is so in depth and thick with action and character dynamics. Like when Tairn claims her, ugh I about screamed. If there’s anything more you want to talk about or discuss with this book, I’d be more than happy to do so. I will be reading each book that comes out in this series (Iron Flame is already pre-ordered) and love living in this world as much as I can.

Rebecca Yarros

Rebecca Yarros is the USA Today bestselling author of more than fifteen novels, with multiple starred Publishers Weekly reviews and a Kirkus Best Book of the Year. During her husband’s third deployment, she decided to pick up pencil and paper and create her own novel. With her husband now retired and Yarros having twenty books in her repertoire (+1 which Iron Flame to be released in November), they are enjoying life with their six kids navigating their busy schedules. Having fostered then adopted their youngest daughter, Rebecca is passionate about helping children in the foster system through her nonprofit, One October.

ISBN-13: 978-1649374042

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