Book Review | Fourth Wing | The Most-Hyped Book of the Year

I’ve given this book a month to breathe before coming back and reviewing it because I don’t know if I’ve read something this contentious since A Little Life. Many love it, are in love with it, are in love with the characters. Others find themselves vastly disappointed. And I think I know where that comes from.

This review is spoiler-free.

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A 4.7 RATING ON GOODREADS??

It has something to do with the book’s massive popularity on TikTok. Stay with me here—when Colleen Hoover first blew up, many in the established book community scoffed (and continue to scoff.) People who read Colleen Hoover don’t really know what’s good, they said. But if that were the case, why was she so wildly popular?

The answer was that those weren’t the people reading and posting about CoHo. It was brand new readers—something the publishing industry is always in dire need of, since a lot of their perennial bestsellers come from brand names trusted by an older audience. And say what you will, but Fourth Wing is an excellent entry into romantasy for those who aren’t already soaked in the genre.

Rebecca Yarros has confirmed that this was one of her goals in writing this novel. The worldbuilding is intentionally simple (cue me trying to suppress my rant on the misunderstood merits of soft worldbuilding). The romance is intentionally romance-like—romance-book-like, even—as opposed to the ‘realistic’ romance you’d find in a fantasy novel written by a man. It’s smutty and cringey and a bit over the top. Remind you of a certain sneered-at romance author? As with other popular romantasy, good sex and romance is a great way to get a lot of people on board with your writing, however flawed. (cough cough SJM)

It’s also written in accessible modern language, which Yarros has also explained was intentional. High fantasy often uses, er, old-sounding language to try to augment the old-timey world it’s set in, with varying results (a negative example would be in The Shadow of the Gods, a high fantasy series that I loved, John Gwynne uses the word thought-cage instead of mind, to no apparent purpose. It never failed to jerk me out of the narrative.). I will note that for me personally, this kind of language made Fourth Wing feel downright juvenile sometimes.

All of these factors make Fourth Wing fun and readable. I can respect that, just like I can respect that it’s written and edited pretty well. I love seeing and reading reviews that gush over aspects of this book that yes, you can find in pretty much any good romantasy book, but are simplified and digestible in this one. Yarros has figured out that many readers like a YA voice with adult themes, scenes, and language, and I can’t really be mad about it. In fact, I really enjoyed it!

Where I draw the line is calling it better than anything Sarah J. Maas has written, or trying to compare it at all to any high fantasy out there. I wouldn’t even put it up against Serpent and the Wings of Night, the last romantasy book I reviewed that was often compared to ACOTAR.

LET’S TAKE A DEEP BREATH

Despite all that respect, I have a laundry list problems with this book.

The resident TDH (Tall Dark and Handsome) lacks anything unique—he’s like a particularly unoriginal carbon copy of, in no particular order: Casteel, Rhysand, Azriel, Hunt, Elias (iykyk—everyone go read An Ember in the Ashes), Ruhn, Dorian, Darius, Hades (pick your book series), and more. Just because he talks dirty like a man in a dark romance does not mean he is better than the Shadow Daddies that have come before (though it is super fun. Don’t tell Cassian I’m cheating.) That doesn’t mean I don’t love him, but I won’t lie, he doesn’t have his own corner of my brain like some of the others do.

The plot is so, so deeply predictable. I saw a TikTok that said that Fourth Wing was doing something revolutionary by starting in the middle of the action, when the FMC was about to enter dragonriding school. And I think I shouted at my phone: that’s literally in media res! Every book on writing or English ever has a chapter on it! It’s literally so common! I can understand using a straightforward structure that will keep the pace moving and refrain from confusing readers, but I don’t think a single scene in this book surprised me. More than that, the writing doesn’t seem to be creative with its own predictability.

Here’s what I mean: in The Serpent and the Wings of Night, Clarissa Broadbent uses a very tried and true plot structure. Where Yarros uses a ‘hogwarts’ plot (new weak kid struggles then succeeds at special fantasy school—I will also gladly take arguments for a ‘divergent’ plot), that one uses, well, ‘hunger games’. But Serpent knows the reader understands the hunger games plot, so it doesn’t spend too long dwelling on how it works, instead focusing on the characters’ experiences and even coming up with some twists I did not see coming.

That said, I can see how new readers wouldn’t predict the ‘twist’ at the end, or maybe even some of the stuff that goes down with Violet and Dain that seemed deeply predictable to me. And it is pacey. You could accidentally stay up late reading it. People do often comment on the fact that while this novel is billed as enemies to lovers, the main couple spend at least half the novel as, if not lovers, then just…obsessed-with-each-other-tension. Which I actually liked, but I can see why some readers are disappointed.

EVEN MORE GRIEVANCES (Spoilers be here)

As a big fantasy reader, these dragons are so one dimensional! You get maybe two or three scenes where Tairn gets to have a grouchy if fond personality, but the connection between Tairn and Violet is totally unbelievable. Dragons in general are underdeveloped for a novel that actually features them in many of the scenes—which is harder to find in fantasy than you’d think. (My favourite dragon series is, of course, Temeraire.)

The best friends—and I don’t want to pick up too many haters for this, but yes, Liam included—often come off as flat caricatures. She meets her best friend coincidentally on her first day at dragonrider school in the line to go in? It’s kind of lazy writing, in my opinion.

And the there’s Violet herself. Maybe because I’m not disabled, but I didn’t clock that she was disabled for most of the book—convinced by the passages in which she trains and builds muscle and seems convinced that will be enough to get her into shape. I don’t expect Yarros to come out and say that she had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which affects the joints and ligaments, but on first read, I’ll admit that I just didn’t understand what the issue was, or how severe. Looking back, I can admit that I was wrong: her disability is actually treated with great understanding (and Xaden handles it very attractively as well, I must say).

However, that doesn’t entirely absolve her character. While I liked her insofar as I appreciate a sassy, poison-loving heroine, her character arc wasn’t entirely satisfying to me, since she finishes the book with the exact same insecurities and beliefs she begins with. She still daydreams of the scribe quadrant, even when she has accepted that she is a rider; her family still seems to walk all over her. She does the chosen one thing where she denies having the chosen one thing to an extent that it’s kind of annoying.

IS IT WORTH A READ? (Spoilers be over)

Honestly, I suspect one of the reasons this novel has gotten such confusingly rave reviews. is the number of not-so-well-written novels readers (including me) have gotten used to reading. We’re used to looking the other way and just…using our imaginations. Executing a book, even one as basic as this (and I do not say basic in a negative way) is not easy.

I do like Xaden, the resident TDH. I do love that we have a good romantasy with lots and lots of dragons in it. I do like a lot of the tropes, and I think they were executed well. I liked the romance and I didn’t hate the plot—after all, at least it moved. But I’m not convinced I would even still be thinking about Fourth Wing anymore if it wasn’t so massively popular.

Red Tower Books has done an excellent job nailing this corner of the market, which is just now coming into maturity. A new adult imprint from a historically YA publisher, I can see why they (and Yarros herself) have the knowledge and experience to knock a project like this out of the park.

Worth a read, but won’t blow you away. Unless it does, in which case, go read all my other 5 star reviews.

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