Fourth Wing Review (The Empyrean, #1)

Hello, all!

What was the last book you were influenced to pick up-- whether that was through BookTok, BookTube, etc? For me, it was Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

Pub Date: 5-2-23
Adult - Fantasy

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail has always been content surrounded by books and history and has trained her whole life to become a scribe. But when it's her time to enroll as a cadet at Navarre, she's forced into becoming a dragon rider by her mother, the commanding general. Due to a disability, Violet's body is more fragile than others, and one thing dragons don't tolerate is weakness. They only bond with the strongest cadets; the others get burned.

The moment Violet steps into the rider's quadrant, a target is on her back. Most would kill her to further their chances of success; others would kill her just for being her mother's daughter. Xaden Riorson, the most lethal wingleader of the rider's quadrant, is one of the latter. Every day that passes, the threat of war grows, and Violet begins to suspect that her mother and the rest of the leadership are harboring secrets. With dangers at every turn, Violet will have to use her intelligence and cunning if she hopes to survive.

This book has been all over the internet lately, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It was fine. I kept seeing it categorized as adult, which I don't necessarily agree with. It's new adult, at best, but the writing makes it feel more YA. Yarros heavily relied on stereotypical fantasy tropes, which made the plot feel super predictable. I could tell from the first page how everything would play out. Due to that, nothing felt fresh or surprising. I also found some of the dialogue cringey and had me rolling my eyes more than once. I'm always thrown off when authors use modern phrases in their fantasy worlds. Despite all that, I still found it semi-entertaining. It was fast-paced, and I thought the lore was interesting-- anything with dragons is always a plus in my book. For all its hype, I did find it underwhelming, but I may continue with the series.

Rating: 3/5