Title: Fourth Wing
Series: The Empyrean
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Publisher: Piatkus
Release Date: 5th April 2023
Pages: 500
Source: Purchased
Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰
CAWPILE: 9.71/10
Synopsis
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.
Review
“A dragon without its rider is a tragedy.
A rider without their dragon is dead.”
Okay so if you’re on bookstagram or booktok there is a high chance you’ll have seen this everywhere, and if not I’m intrigued as to what side you’re on because this has been pretty much inescapable from the moment it published. It's safe to say this book has taken the bookish community by storm, I’m seeing people who don’t even usually venture into fantasy pick it up! And honestly, having read it now it isn’t hard to see why.
From the premise, a school where you learn how to become a dragon rider to the immediate high stakes as you realise this is a deadly undertaking, it is clear this is the kind of book that’ll be hard to put down. Which was exactly my experience, once I picked it up I was immediately hooked from the first chapter, you open with immediate conflict and danger and that pace makes it hard to let go of. Even when I had put it down, I was constantly thinking about when I would next have the opportunity to pick it up again. When I finished it, I was left reeling thinking I couldn’t remember the last time I’d read a series that was so immediately compelling from the first chapter, the first thing I wrote when making my notes was ‘HOLY SHIT’.
I found the characters brilliant too, their dynamics were great to see unfold and I really enjoyed that journey and I was really glad that the dragons also had personalities, and that we got a slight insight into the dynamics between them which is something I hope we see more of in the rest of the series. I was nervous that Violet would annoy me, as I find leads in fantasy books often do, but I actually really liked her character, her determination and how she dealt with so many situations throughout the book. Though of course, there were times when I wanted her to pick up on certain things earlier. However, there were a lot of characters I didn’t connect with, mainly because due to the premise I knew that it would be likely lots would die, so I didn’t connect to a lot and only one of the deaths throughout the book made me sad but I’m hoping as the series goes on I do feel more for the side characters!
“I’m used to functioning in pain, asshole. Are you?”
Another thing I really liked about Violet, was her disability. Throughout the book Violet displays traits of EDS (also known as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) which I was NOT expecting as I had actually gone in fairly blind, despite everyone posting about it. Yarros wrote Violet with her own disability in mind, EDS, and it is some truly great rep which proves that people with disabilities are still strong and capable. I was really excited to see this as it is something that has always been very close to me, having grown up with a mother who has it. So Violet immediately felt quite relatable as I could see aspects of my childhood reflected within her (you know without the dragons and death uni). I also liked how throughout the book she grew into herself and started to believe she could do more than people around her thought, really fighting against their overprotection, especially when others were building her up.
While many people are selling this as a fantasy romance, I would actually agree with literarylily who says it is less of a fantasy romance and more of a fantasy with a romance subplot (watch her video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM1ycHTHTkk&ab_channel=LiteraryLily). The romance is less of a plot than the fantasy and the worldbuilding, I imagine it may become more prevalent in the following books but in the first it was definitely on the back burner as most of the story concerned Violet herself or the world and the dynamics within the college. That being said, I loved the way Yarros wrote it. The tension throughout the book was perfect in so many ways (winky face) and when there was sex I thought it was well done, and the attitudes to sex in the book were also brilliant.
“Hope is a fickle, dangerous thing. It steals your focus and aims it toward the possibilities instead of keeping it where it belongs- on the probabilities.”
Ultimately, I really loved it and am gutted I put it off for so long (though also really glad because now there is less of a wait for book two which I need like NOW. There were still slight issues I had with it, don’t get me wrong some parts made me cringe a little, and I had guessed at all of the plot twists (though they were still executed so well that on the whole I didn’t mind). But generally it was a really enjoyable read and I can see why booksta has been going so crazy for it, I’m really excited to see what the rest of the series holds and am going to be recommending this to everyone! Also really hoping I manage to snag a fairyloot copy in the reprint as I didn’t in their original sale because of the huge demand!
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