Jul 31

Jul 31 Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)

Author: Rebecca Yarros
Publisher: Entangled: Red Tower Books
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

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.

TL;DR Review

Fourth Wing doesn’t do much that’s new — it’s a tropey hero’s journey — but it was super bingeable and a hell of a fun time. Can’t wait for book two.

For you if: You grew up on YA fantasy and love a steamy romance.

Full Review

You know I had to see what all the hype was about. And I’m glad I did! This book doesn’t do much that’s new but it was super bingeable and a hell of a fun time.

The book is set at a catch-all college where students divide up into their chosen fields. Violet Sorengail trained her whole life to become a scribe, but at the last minute her mother, a top general of the army, forces her to enter the (dragon) Riders Quadrant instead because “Sorengails are riders.” Problem is, the entrance exam is walking across the ledge of a roof in a storm, and you either pass or you die. In fact, dozens of first years are killed off every day in the Riders Quadrant, and then those who do make it through have to hope a dragon chooses them. All the while for Violet, the hot, shadow-wielding son of the leader of the last rebellion has his eye on her.

This book is super tropey (hero’s journey with a bookish female protagonist, bad boy love interest keeping secrets, cold mother, dead father, etc) but simply fun — all the things people who grew up on YA fantasy will love. There are some worldbuilding mismatches (rubber boots, modern slang); Rebecca Roanhorse said it feels more like urban fantasy vibes than high or military fantasy, which I agree with.

Most of the plot has a familiar shape, but it does have a few good twists in there, including the very last one. And of course, it’s very steamy — although I wish there had been a bit more development of Violet and Xaden’s feelings for one another outside of pure sexual attraction.

Finally, there is some rare representation here — Violet, billed as small and “fragile,” has a condition resembling Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which makes joints loose and easy to dislocate, and skin easy to bruise. This leads to chronic pain.

All in all, this was a romp and I’m psyched for book two.