Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is going to be a long, weird critique. But first let me tell you, I did like the book. It was entertaining, had good characters (Xaden was the perfect male lead, a tormented warrior who hides behind a mask of toughness and cruelty), awesome twist at the end (not going to spoil it for you), dragons (can’t go wrong with dragons), and the romantic sidestory (apart from the graphic sex) was mostly well written and heartfelt (my favorite part is when in chapter 32 Violet meets Xaden at the parapet). I’m glad I read it and I will definitely read the next in the series.
But was all the hype deserved (crap, I had to wait weeks to get a hold of one copy. In this day and age of print on demand, this sure smelled suspiciously of a marketing coup)? No, it wasn’t. I have read equally or better books that got much less (or no) hype. Kudos to the publisher for pulling a good marketing coup. Even the disclaimer at the front of the book was a brilliant move to attract the attention of eager readers looking for something that moved them, something new and exciting. Except there wasn’t really anything terribly new in the story. After all, everything has been already written one way or another and Yarros did a great job at remixing some elements we have seen before (okay, maybe older people have seen before). The book really isn’t as violent as it claims to be. The Hunger Games was so much more violent and shocking. The idea of factions fighting against each other was used very successfully in the Divergent series.
Now for what really got on my nerves. One—and this might be due to the narration since I listened to the audio book before getting the print copy—every character in this book sounds so freaking immature. They act like young teenagers. And yes, they were young, but they were in this tough military academy where their lives hung by a thread, you would think they would act a bit more mature? Maybe I’m wrong. Or maybe it was the voice actress’s reading that made them sound like that. Not sure.
The other thing that annoyed me was the tough sex. When did this idea that for sex to be good it has to be somewhat destructive? I remember years ago watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s episode when she has sex with Spike for the first time and the whole building comes down around them. That kind of made sense. Buffy and Spike were powerful mystical beings. There was also the underlying feeling that Buffy thought of that relationship as something bad, something to punish herself. Which makes the scene logical. That’s not what is going on in this book. Here it feels as if it’s all for spice level and no other reason.
In conclusion, absolutely read the book. It’s a good ride into an interesting fantasy world, just don’t get sucked into this almost mythical wonder surrounding it (AKA hype). There are a lot of just as good—if not better—books out there.
Author Natalina Reis 