Today’s review is about FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros, which took the bookish world my storm. I hadn’t planned on reading it so soon after my pre-order arrived. But there are so many spoilers and discussions floating around (an understatement) that I didn’t want to continue to dodge. So does it live up to the hype? Well, check out my review to find out!

Author: Rebecca Yarros
Series: The Empyrean, #1
Age Category: New Adult
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Publish Date: May 2, 2023
Print Length: 512

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Official Synopsis

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from New York Times 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.

My Review

FOURTH WING is the internet darling of the spring as we the readers transition into a hot dragon summer. It is chock full of the tropes that seemingly dominate readers’ preferences in darker fantasy romance. But beyond these enticing devices it is also a story that dips beneath the veneer of war propaganda and the power of knowledge. It’s not all fun and games…unless you’re the reader.

This book is an addictive fantasy romance comfort read that will first and foremost thrill fans of the A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series. It has a strong female lead (Violet) thrust into the brutal world that is Basgiath War College. She has a disability that she refuses to let slow her down, so there is prominent disability representation. What I appreciated about this aspect is that there is commentary about accomodation. That is, just because something is done one way doesn’t mean it has to continue to be done that way. There is no one way fits all and Violet challenges the status quo, mainly to survive, but it has the same effect to impart change.

I loved the incorporation of dragons, which plays a large role in this book as the book cover and synopsis make evident. The small dragon illustration at the beginning of each chapter was a nice added detail. Violet and her peers train for weeks to become strong enough to potentially pair with a dragon and become dragon riders. These dragon riders are one part of the Navarrian military whose main objective is to keep the peace and maintain the borders.

The writing style is approachable and easy to binge. I loved [most of] the banter between Violet and the very obvious future rivals-to-lovers interest. The nickname bestowed upon Violet made me cringe, but that’s a nitpicky thing and is purely a personal preference. The tension and spice were great, with the caveat that I felt it all transpired too quickly. It went from “we should talk about this” to “let’s beat around the proverbial bush and bring down the house instead.” I felt that their development into spice land would have been stronger if such a discussion actually transpired. That aside, while it was fairly easy to predict where the plot would go, FOURTH WING remained a pleasure to read. It’s important to approach it as a comfort read rather than a literary masterpiece (which it may be to some), particularly if one errs more on the side of a critical reader.

I recognized a lot of similarities between FOURTH WING and ACOTAR. Yarros tweaks them just enough to fit a story about war games and dragons, but it was difficult not to notice the resemblance. I have some mixed feelings about this. I acknowledge that there are only so many fantasy elements to incorporate into a new book. And I love the ones featured in ACOTAR and FOURTH WING dearly. But when the number of similarities add up it becomes obvious what audience an author is trying to capture. (I think this is a big driver behind why this book broke the internet–the ACOTAR fandom is huge.) That’s not necessarily a negative thing. But it’s also nice to feel like I’m reading a newer concept rather than something that feels a bit rehashed. However, this might be exactly what a potential reader wants to cure that fantasy romance hangover generally generated by ACOTAR.

It may seem like I didn’t like FOURTH WING as much as my overall rating implies. However, I did quite enjoy it and actually decided to savor rather than rush through it. I do think it lives up to the hype, even more so if a reader is naturally less critical than I am. FOURTH WING is sure to please readers looking for their next fantasy romance book hangover. Luckily they won’t have to wait long as the next book hits shelves in early November.

Rating: 4
Content warnings: parental death, blood, sexual content, murder
Reading format: Hardback

Similarities to ACOTAR

For fun I wanted to point out some of the similarities FOURTH WING has with ACOTAR. Consider this a spoiler warning. If you have not read the book and don’t want to know anything, then ignore this section. There are also generalized spoilers for the ACOTAR series.

Tattoos: In ACOTAR the Illyrians have traditional tattoos, plus the mark of a bargain in the Night Court is also a tattoo. SJM constantly refers to the tattoos that curl over Rhysand’s skin, or any of the bat boys, really. In FOURTH WING a dragon “burns” their mark, so to speak, onto their rider’s body. Xaden’s tattoo happens to be one that spans much of his back and, if I’m remembering correctly, also curls up onto his neck.

Signet Powers: Powers specific to a person is not a new trope. But I want to highlight that Xaden’s power is essentially the same as Azriel’s. Azriel is a Shadowsinger, or someone who can wield and control shadows, hear things others cannot, and use shadows as transport. This makes him perfectly suited as Rhysand’s spymaster. Xaden can also wield shadows as his signet power and can and does use them to learn secrets.

Mountain Trial: In ACOTAR the Blood Rite is the culmination of an Illyrian warrior’s training. If they make it out alive, they become warriors and are placed in three tiers. This Blood Rite occurs at the base of their sacred mountain, Ramiel. Whoever reaches the summit wins the Blood Rite. In FOURTH WING the cadets have to succeed at several trials on a mountain that mimic various maneuvers they have to do as dragon riders. Completion of this event means they can move on to the next phase, which is Threshing.

Librarians: In ACOSF we meet Clotho, who is the priestess in charge of the library at the House of Wind. She cannot speak to do atrocities others inflicted upon her in the past. In FOURTH WING one of Violet’s closer friends is a Scribe who also cannot speak. The reason is not the same as Clotho’s, but the similarity remains.

Spill the tea: In ACOTAR the Suriel tells Feyre to stay with the High Lord. I won’t get into to the details of that, but if you’ve read ACOTAR, then you’ll understand. In FOURTH WING, Tairn says something incredibly similar to Violet: “Stay close to the wingleader until we return” (p. 182). I instantly thought of the Suriel because the wording was so similar, though not necessarily as ambiguous.

Dain = Tamlin: Just like Tamlin, Dain always thought he knew what would be the best for Violet. And just like Tamlin, he was wrong and refused to listen. He was annoying and overbearing under the facade of pretending to care because he just couldn’t not be in control. Enough said.

Bond Communication: In ACOTAR Feyre and Rhysand can talk to each other through their mate bond. They’re able to communicate mentally without speaking a word out loud. Violet and Xaden can also talk to each other this way, albeit the mechanism is slightly different (p. 337). Because Violet’s and Xaden’s dragons are bonded, they’re able to utilize that bond to communicate mentally with each other. Whether or not this means Violet and Xaden are fated mates is yet to be seen.

So, the above similarities are some of the more obvious ones I noticed. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more that I missed. If you noticed any similarities, let me know in the comments!