Fourth Wing: A Review

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It's been a while since Fourth Wing took BookTok by storm, catapulting itself to the top of people's TBR lists with promises of dragons, and sass, and sassy dragons. The avid chatter caught my attention, but I held off on reading the book for precisely that reason. With opinions clamoring for your focus, skewing your independent perspective with their own, it was impossible to tell if the book deserved the praise that it was being handed.

So, I waited... and waited... and waited some more.

I readily admit that, upon buying the book from a wholesale club, I finished Fourth Wing in two or three days. With that being said, there were a few fairly large snags in the plot which disrupted my sense of disbelief. When a character is written specifically for a trope, they can be difficult.  Xaden knows that he is unlikeable- not just from Violet's perspective, but by the quadrant as a whole- and uses it to his advantage when his life becomes entwined with the daughter of his father's executioner. Xaden uses Violet's anger to force her loyalty: towards him, Tairn, Andarna, and the second home which is surrounded by death. In a book such as Fourth Wing, loyalty is conditional at best and decrepit at worst. Riders are encouraged to form loyalty only to their wing; anything else is considered a danger, and laughter rarely goes together with fire-breathing dragons.

Dragons.

Did I mention that this book has dragons? Sassy, sometimes grumpy, but fiercely loyal dragons? Or that the dragons are the best part of this book? Despite my qualms with Xaden's existence as a personified character trope, I kept returning to Fourth Wing. Tairn, the eldest dragon of the two, is a gruff grandfather. He might spend half of his time admonishing Violet, but he shockingly wants her to not die. Andarna, a ray of sunshine in a setting stained red by death, is the little sister. Watching these three interact as a second branch of Violet's found family- that is the reason I kept returning to this novel.

Come for Xaden, sure. Stay for the dragons and a story that keeps you glued to every page.

(LIAM IS BEST SIDE CHARACTER.)


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