Fourth Wing book review

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Series: The Empyrean #1
on May 2, 2023
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 500
Format: eBook, Hardcover
Goodreads

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros
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

You cannot be anywhere on bookish social media without seeing Fourth Wing everywhere, and I was sceptical that it was as good as everyone was saying. But, I am so so pleased to say that is definitely not the case. I adored this book from start to finish and I have already pre-ordered the next one in a desperate hope that it will get here quicker.

Characters in Fourth Wing

When readers compare this book to Divergent with dragons they kind of hit the nail on the head. You are very quickly introduced to the different quadrants and the meaning behind all of them, and of course the aloof Riders. I thought this was the point where Fourth Wing was going to fall into the helpless girl becomes a badass trope and it actually works with a character with a disability. I enjoyed watching Violet work out who she was when thrown into the fire and having to find ways to compensate for her weaknesses. She ended up being one of my favourite characters, there was no whining, no woe is me speeches which usually destroys books like this, she just got on with it.

The two love interests, Dain and Xaden were interesting in their own right as well as being in Violet’s eye line. Although Dain annoyed me for the majority of the book, I completely understood his need to be within the story. It was an interesting dynamic to watch grow and shape around Violet’s changing personality and needs, especially as they had been friends for so long. Xaden’s approach and approval of Violet was refreshing, it was great to see a brooding male being so supportive of those around him. The anger and rage that surrounded him was well explained and made sense, he was just a brilliant character.

The dragons deserve a place of their own and I won’t spoil anything but the insight you get into the world and the politics is phenomenal. It’s some of the best writing and even though there’s a lot of mind talk it fits naturally into the story around the conversations.

Bad Bits in Fourth Wing

None. Utter perfection. Genuinely.

Good Bits

I could literally write 1000 words on all the good bits in Fourth Wing. This book blew me away from start to finish. There is so much to digest from beginning to end with some really great world building but I think the best bit was definitely the fact there was no huge amount of info dumping and we were able to learn about the setting in an organic way. The politics that run through this book is exceptionally well-written and I can only hope that the next book will end up expanding on the really great foundation already built.

When I say this book was brilliant I was literally counting down the minutes until I could pick it up again, and going out of my way to create the time to get some more pages read. It consumed my whole life and it is definitely a favourite for the year. I wish I could read it for the first time all over again and I won’t be surprised if I end up rereading it before my preorder hits. It was a fast paced without losing any of the plot and characters.

What now?

I am eagerly awaiting the sequel and I cannot wait to find out what happens to the characters and the world. Plus with this massive cliff hanger I don’t know where the story will possibly end up going from here. It has definitely been an experience and I think it is one of the first books this year that I have been truly wonderful.

Have you given into the hype? What did you think of Fourth Wing? Let me know in the comments?