Let’s be friends on Goodreads

Well friends – I finished this one today and my head is still spinning. There are so many thoughts swirling in my head, so let’s dive into my review of “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros. You can pick up a copy here.

Now, I’m pretty easy to persuade to read hyped books, and I tend to love them. It’s not uncommon for me to give most books 4 or 5 stars on Goodreads. This book, however, I would rate 20 stars if I could. It’s just that good.

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this post also contains spoilers. you’ve been warned

When I tell you that I was hooked from the very first chapter, I’m not even exaggerating. Some of the reviews on Audible (where I listened) mentioned the narrator, Rebecca Soler, sounding sick or congested, but I didn’t get any of that. I thought her voice was phenomenally selected for Violet and her inner monologue, and honestly, her voice reminded me a lot of the intonation of Mirabel from Encanto (don’t judge, I have a toddler and I love Disney movies).

Amazon Blurb:

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.

We first meet Violet when we learn that her mother, commanding general is forcing her into a different area of study at Basgiath War College. Violet, wanting to be a Scribe like her late father, is now headed for the (dragon) Rider’s Quadrant, one of the most dangerous to make it through. She’s extremely underqualified (most kids train their entire lives to enter this portion and still die in the most painful ways), not interested, and honestly, I’d classify her as physically broken. She alludes multiple times to having been mended throughout her life by very skilled healers, and she still has joint problems. Statistically speaking, there’s no way she should have made it.

But damn it, she does make it. She makes it big time, and not only gets bonded by the baddest dragon on the planet, but ALSO bonds with a second dragon. God. I really thought during Threshing (when dragons first bond with their riders) that it would be Andarna alone (the smaller dragon) to bond with Violet. But when the shoe of Tairn selecting her AND THEN ANDARNA, I turned into a puddle of cheering goo on the seat of my car. There were so many times during the initial bonding that I laughed out loud at the commentary between Tairn and Violet. Yarros was the queen of awkward comedy, in my opinion.

Violet’s character growth was outstanding to me, and really shined through. One of the things that stuck out to me was Dain (uhmmmm, he’s the worst) telling her that Basgiath essentially strips you of your humanity. The fact that Violet could keep herself intact throughout EVERYTHING she went through, was badass, if I’m being frank.

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I think one thing that separated this book the most from other fantasy series that I enjoy (particularly ACOTAR or Crescent City), was the level of depth that the side characters were given. I absolutely fell in love with Rhiannon, Ridoc, and Liam, and I even loved Imogen by the end. I even found myself invested in stupid Jack Barlowe (who I was more than happy to see be killed when Violet’s lightning wielding came to fruition) and his arc. I literally had some sort of mental connection to most of the side characters, and I don’t remember crying nearly as much for the deaths of side characters in Crescent City as I did for the death of Liam and his dragon at the end.

I was also surprised at how much I was actually hooked from the first “page” (quoting since I didn’t read the physical book). It typically takes me a lot of painstaking t to get into a new fantasy series/book because the worldbuilding is pretty dry. This book was not the case. The worldbuilding had a lot of comedy and honestly a good bit of drama to keep me hooked and interested. I loved the relationship between Violet and her sister Mira and their bond over the loss of their brother Brennan. You could feel the love that the siblings had for one another, both at the beginning with Mira coming to defend Violet to their mother, and when Mira gave Violet the book/journal that Brennan gave to Mira during her time at Basgaith.

AND WHEN I TELL YOU THAT I SCREAMED AT THE “WELCOME TO THE REVOLUTION LITTLE SISTER” AT THE END. BREANNAN IS ALIVE. BRENNAN IS ALIVE. I really should have seen that twist coming, but I was so sure that he was gone. No way in hell did I think he would still be alive. AND DID XADEN KNOW?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I now have so many questions.

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Let’s talk about Violet’s love interests here. There’s the “boy next door”, childhood best friend Dain Aetos, who possesses mind reading powers if he touches your head, and then there’s Xaden Riorson, a traitor’s son who possesses shadow manipulation powers.

Right from the start, I didn’t trust Dain. His stupid need to baby Violet really pissed me off and made me want to jump into a fictional story just to punch him in the mouth. He spent too much time trying to get Violet out of the Rider’s Quadrant and back into the Scribe Quadrant, that he literally just screwed himself over. Not to mention, he used his powers on Violet without her permission – reminder that he requires TOUCH in order to see memories. To me, that’s a huge personal space violation. The end twist where he took her memories and essentially set her and Xaden up to die made me wish the slowest, most painful death imaginable upon him. Maybe, if we’re lucky, Tairn can get him in later books. That would be ideal.

And then there’s Xaden. Book boyfriend of the century. He treats Violet like an equal, which is a sexy characteristic in itself. They were always supposed to be enemies, but honestly, I never really saw a ton of hostility. Xaden’s dad being murdered/executed at Violet’s mom’s hands really elicited a Romeo and Juliet vibe. They were drawn to each other well before Tairn bonded with Violet. I’m convinced. I honestly wouldn’t even be surprised if they were a bonded pair like their dragons. I wanted to scream a few times at the “he only tolerates me because of our dragons” thoughts at the end, but I think they’ll get over that pretty quickly in the next book.

Long story short, I’m absolutely vibrating with excitement at the next book. This is very Harry Potter meets Hunger Games meets Dragons and I am HERE. FOR. IT.

If you’ve read it, leave me a comment and let me know what you think! My thoughts are pretty jumbled, so this likely doesn’t chronologically make sense, but I really am just….a mess about this book.

until next time xoxo