“Fascinating. You look all frail and breakable, but you’re really a violent little thing, aren’t you?”
— Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing
The vibes
book (shipping delay) / pants / jacket / tee / boots / backpack / necklace / ring / sticker
The review
At age 20, Violet Sorrengail is ready to take her place studying to become a scribe like her recently departed father, but her mother, the commanding general of Navarre, has different plans for her youngest child. Violet, whose body has been weakened by an illness as a child, has been sent to Basgiath to become a dragon rider — a powerful position that includes bonding with a dragon that then transfers a magical power to you.
That is, if she can survive surrounded by the many perils of the environment — plus her enemies, the ones whose rebellious parents were killed at the command of her mother. Xaden Riorson is one of those children of the rebellion, forced to become a rider to serve Navarre, and, it just so happens, that he’s bonded to the most powerful dragon. He’s also, like, really hot.
Fourth Wing is literally everywhere right now, and for good reason. The book is actually sold out of its first edition, which includes the dragon sprayed edges. So, with people trying desperately to buy it, resale prices are insane — in the 100s! I managed to buy one of the last copies and I had the thought that if I didn’t like it, I could sell it for a profit! Jokes on me because I loved this book and can’t wait for the sequel!
The thing about fantasy for me is… I just don’t really love the whole idea of immersing myself in a whole fictional world. It just seems like a lot of work to really get to know the environment — plus the plot plus the characters. Oh and THE CHARACTERS. All wild, hard-to-pronounce/spell names — and there are a lot of them usually in fantasy books.
Fourth Wing was no exception to these things that usually bother me about fantasy books, but based on the MANY amazing reviews (right now, this book that is only 6 weeks old has over 87K ratings and a 4.7 star average), I decided to give it a try. And I’m so thankful I did.
Like most people my age (ahem, millennials), we were voracious readers of fantasy series — Harry Potter, Divergent, Hunger Games. Also, Twilight, but that was a bit too young for me when it came out. These worlds raised us, and I felt like Fourth Wing could be a little treat to myself to go back to a time in my life where I just loved being in an entirely different world.
While I’m not going to be some committed fantasy reader moving forward (still withholding the Sarah J. Maas trends), I really loved and appreciated this little dip into fantasy and AM committed to keeping up with the series.
Things to know: Not officially giving any trigger warnings, but know that there are some gory descriptions and a whole lotta death. I’m not sure what age group this book is marketed to, but there are some descriptive sex scenes toward the end of the book (and a lot of discussing it throughout). So, yeah, not YA, but maybe new adult and on.
On the audiobook: The audiobook is available on Scribd, which is a major perk! But the audio production isn’t that great. The narrator is fine, it just ended up not being my favorite way of consuming the book.
Up next: The sequel has already been announced. Iron Flame will come out Nov. 7 — click here to pre-order.
BookNerdalie 