Fourth wing, as was advertised, is amazing and magical and heartbreaking… For a fantasy book.

It’s known that I don’t love fantasy novels. The made up words confuse me, the endless list of characters and places I’m forced to remember stress me out, and the world building. So. Much. World building. My brain was about to explode. But this one was so engaging that sometimes I forgot my hatred for world building.

For this only being a single book instead of a whole series, I got really attached to the characters. We went through alot together in those 500 pages. I do wish we got more of Violet’s backstory: The reasons behind her morals, why she makes the choices she makes. I hope that will be explored more in the sequel, Iron Flame. 

I have to give it to Ms. Yarros, this world she built is beautiful and full of creativity. It’s like Harry Potter with dragons and lust. Many reviewers on Goodreads criticize this novel for its cliches and unoriginality, along with complaints about how some of the plotlines were taken directly from other popular fantasy books. I agree, it’s like a quilt of fantasy books stitched together by Yarros’ words; But stitching still takes a lot of work. 

Xaden is the perfect love interest. He’s brooding and mysterious. Tall, dark and handsome. Violet and Xaden are written as the classic light and dark fantasy couple. I was having a lot of fun following their love story. 

There were a considerable amount of crazy plot twists in here, and I found myself audibly gasping at times. I made faces, I screamed, I laughed. This novel took me on a dragon ride of emotions. It didn’t make me cry my eyes out though, which was pretty disappointing. 

There was a lot of fighting in this book. Bloodshed always gives me an adrenaline rush and has me flying through pages to see what happens, but I think I prefer emotional and confrontational drama over descriptions of how much physical pain she’s in. And that magical flow of worlds that I love so much was pushed to the side to make room for all the ACTION and direct narration of whatever crazy thing’s going down.

I’m giving Fourth Wing a whopping 4.7 stars.  This book left off on a cliffhanger. I HATE cliffhangers, and now I have to read Iron flame.

https://www.goodreads.com/joliedx2