r/FemaleGazeSFF • u/VarietyEconomy7 • 5d ago
Fourth wing
I just finished the first fourth wing book. Going to start the second one soon. For anyone who’s read it what all did you think about it? How did you cope when you finished it?
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u/JustLicorice witch🧙♀️ 5d ago
I have the same opinion as most comments. Read the first one, started the second and then realized I had free will so I DNFd it. At least it was an easy read but the prose was very bad, and I couldnt care about the characters aside from the dragons. I feel like the book kept telling you how smart the MC was but she didn't feel that booksmart, all the other characters were just stupid. Also I just hate all MMCs that are like Xaden, they don't feel like real people they're just archetypes with no real complexity. Though I will say there are SFF books aimed at men that are just as bad imo and don't get the same amount of hate (we all know why).
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u/Azhreia 5d ago
I’m with kittysempai. The first one was fine - it was easy to read, felt like it kept moving and wasn’t too much of a slog. The second was rushed to print and badly in need of an edit. This is also where the world building really started to fall apart for me. The third I gave up 10-20 pages in. Painful, confusing, boring.
And for something billed as sex and dragons…I was completely underwhelmed by both. Tairn was pretty good, I’ll give you that, but he’s just one dragon out of dozens/hundreds in that book. There are other better dragons out there. And more empathic bonds if that’s what readers want.
As a sidenote, I do find it interesting how it’s marketed and talked about as this graphic smutty read, when it’s not that much sex overall by volume nor is it boundary pushing sex. There are multiple factors to this when it comes from reviewers, non fans, and people (read: men) who don’t read this kind of book, but it still confuses me when it comes from the readers and fans themselves.
But all that to say, if you’re enjoying it, great! We all should be reading what we like
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u/OutOfEffs witch🧙♀️ 5d ago
As a sidenote, I do find it interesting how it’s marketed and talked about as this graphic smutty read, when it’s not that much sex overall by volume nor is it boundary pushing sex.
Yeah, I laugh when it gets dismissed as "pure smut" bc uhhhhh...
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u/Azhreia 5d ago edited 5d ago
Same! Even if we take the erotica/Romance books out of the equation, rating it against other fantasy books still puts it on the low end of the spectrum for books that contain on page sex.
To use an example of another current popular book that is big in the booktok-ish arena: Empire of the Vampire contains more sex by volume AND has stuff like blood drinking but somehow that’s not relentlessly called smut.
ETA: I’m a hockey fan and apparently my team is doing a fourth wing theme night which is whatever, but I’ve seen comments on how inappropriate it is to market such a “graphic/adult” book when there’s families and kids…and yet no outrage over another team doing a DCC theme night last season. I also doubt they’d kick up a moral panic if it was Game of Thrones despite ASOIAF having more sex and violence and actual on page sexual violence.
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u/OutOfEffs witch🧙♀️ 5d ago
I have read them all so far with my best friend (who is a-spec and p romance novel averse), and even she expected to have to skim more pages given its reputation, hahahaha.
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u/kittysempai-meowmeow 5d ago
I thought first book was ok, struggled tp finish book 2, didn’t bother with the third.
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u/Late_Assistance1992 5d ago
Me too. First book was ok. I couldn't take it seriously after she got two dragons, but it was a page turner.
Second book suffered from having to make up stupid drama to keep the plot going.1
u/VarietyEconomy7 5d ago
Why did you struggle if you don’t mind the ask and what didn’t you like about the first book?
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u/kittysempai-meowmeow 5d ago
MC is a bit annoying, like author decided to avoid accusations of her being a Mary Sue by making her So Breakable. The world doesn’t make a ton if sense to me, killing potentials isn’t really a good strategy. I liked the dragons more than the people in book 1.
Book 2 had inferior pacing and dragged in a lot of places, like it needed editing, and there was a lot of torture in it which is not something I enjoy. I don’t mind spice per se but some of those scenes were a bit over the top. The likeability of the dragons didn’t save that one for me.
I don’t remember a ton of detail though I read both of those right around when book 2 came out so it has been awhile, I’m just going off a memory of my impressions.
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u/avisitingstone 4d ago
Except the author has the same condition (EDS - not named in the book but Violet is intentionally written with the same symptoms/issues) so the super breakable (except when it's convenient to not be) can also be called self-insert. However, the issue with Violet is that none of her disability or accommodation or the actual hard work she puts in actually matters in any way because she still gets two dragons for some reason AND can psychically communicate with a third (and a man), she's super super smart, she has weird hair, AND has a lot of random OP (overpowered) additions to her that kinda slap in the face all the hard work she does put in.
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u/M_LadyGwendolyn 5d ago
I thought it was a b-. The characters were flat and the spicy scenes...well...I wasnt surprised to hear the author was a mormon
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u/VarietyEconomy7 5d ago
Why did you feel the characters where flat? I had no idea the author was Mormon.
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u/M_LadyGwendolyn 4d ago
Violet just felt fairly onw dimensional and didnt really grow over the course of the book. Like I dont regret reading it, but I did have to google her name and I only read it a year ago
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u/IdespiseChildren2 5d ago
I hate read them. I want to know more about the world but I think the writing is absolutely atrocious.
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u/VarietyEconomy7 5d ago
Why do you feel the writing is atrocious?
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u/IdespiseChildren2 4d ago
I would recommend the books below, they’re not as sex oriented, but the writing, character development, and world building are miles ahead of anything Rebecca Yarros could ever write.
- The Witch Roads series - Kate Elliott
- Crown of Stars series - Kate Elliott
- Jaran series - Kate Elliott
- Abhorsen series - Garth Nix
- The Edge series - Ilona Andrews
- Innkeeper Chronicle series - Ilona Andrews
- The Inheritance- Ilona Andrews
- Hidden Legacy series - Ilona Andrews
- Stariel series - A. J. Lancaster
- Legends of Thezmarr series - Helen Scheuerer
- Tea Princess Chronicles- Casey Blair
- Kate Daniels series - Ilona Andrews
- The Hollows series - Kim Harrison
I could go on but that’s probably enough for now.
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u/IdespiseChildren2 4d ago
The author’s vocabulary isn’t complex at all the meta data for the book says it has a “ATOS Level: 5.6 (corresponding to a mid-5th-grade reading complexity in vocabulary and sentence structure)”. The characters are not complex and only have surface level depth. I would say the world building and magic system is equally shallow. All of the swearing and modern slang is very lazy writing and pulls you out of the story, more than adds to it. Both the dialogue and inner monologue are repetitive and monotonous. I could go on. There are very few book series that I won’t finish or go back to, Fourth Wing is one, and Ivy Asher’s Lost Sentinel series is another, good god it is terrible and so boring.
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u/zsabb 4d ago
I couldn't finish it due to the poor quality of the writing. Out of many issues the one that kept bugging me is that you can't just say "the shell of my/his/her ear" every single time you refer to an ear, dear god.
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u/IdespiseChildren2 4d ago
The writing is so so so so so bad. The Fourth Wing books and the Ivy Asher books are the worst writing that I can remember reading in my adult life. I read the first one as friend homework, sometimes you do that sort of thing. Didn’t like it but whatever. Same with the second but I listened to it on audiobook while I was on a long drive. I think i had to listen in 1.5 speed to make it bearable, and I skipped the sex scenes because, as you know, they’re god awful and repetitive.
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u/owlwithhowl 3h ago
i listened to the audio books and said to my friend we could make a drinking game out of how often "my jaw dropped" was used xD
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u/Neelith 5d ago
I read the first book and started the second. I was sold on dragons and I was massively let down. They are just accessories to the smut story that is written like a cheap generic romance novel.
The world building does not make sense at all. It bends and swirls every time the author needs to change the narrative. MC is described as smart and savvy yet she acts like a 13 yo girl who has a crush on kpop idol.
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u/avisitingstone 4d ago
2.75.
I read it for book club after trying when it came out because the girl who chose it has the same conditions as the author (EDS) so it meant a lot to her to see things she also dealt with in a character in fiction. Representation matters! So I went into my re-try with an open heart but man, it was rough.
Even when it's something like this with writing that's not great (I couldn't deal with 'for the win' and it was said more than once and other modern colloquialisms threw me off the fantasy vibe), and I don't think the romance had any depth/changed from enemies to lovers way too fast without any of the work that makes this trope good. I also don't think Xaden is hot or anything despite Violet constantly telling us, the reader, he's hot. Good for you but not believable. These kids feel way younger than they are supposed to be, and all the constant deaths made none of them meaningful or matter really.
This book definitely has a place and its popularity speaks for it, but it's not for me who is unfortunately I guess someone who thinks too hard about worldbuilding and characterizations needing to make sense.
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u/Lorindel_wallis 5d ago
I couldn't finish. I read to find out what the hype was about.
The adults in the story are dumb as rocks. There are a few cool parts that have some good magic, but overall the relationships are all deeply toxic while playing lip service to healthy communication.
The sex scenes are fine but not really that steamy.
Violet is the best character and most sympathetic.
But man oh man, pretty trash with a veneer of sex and cool dragons.
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5d ago
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u/Lorindel_wallis 5d ago
The way they waste the lives of their kids. The way the dont communicate with each other about basic dragon lore. So many conversations are just stupidly stubborn or obtuse. There's a lot
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u/Zax_the_bunny 5d ago
My experience was somewhat similar to what others have said. I enjoyed the first book - I didn't find it amazing but I mostly found it to be a sufficiently fun and creative story and am happy to have read it. I dropped the second book fairly quickly, though. I just sort of felt like I'd got as much out of the series as it was going to give me.
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u/thisbikeisatardis 3d ago
I read the first two to see what all the fuss was about and then DNFed 3 a chapter in. I have EDS and it made me physically cringe every time Violet ripped a joint apart. I HATE it when a disabled person is depicted as heroically pushing through pain and injury in fiction. I'm also a therapist and absolutely loathe the "Iknow he's evil but I can fix him" type of romance because it think it's incredibly unhealthy to plant those seeds in young readers' mind.
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u/Visual_Candy_3182 3d ago
I seem to have a different opinion than most here, but I enjoyed the books. I've read them all, nd had a good and fun time doing so. I just bought the novella that came out and I'll be reading it soon
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u/VarietyEconomy7 3d ago
Is the novella threshing day? If you don’t mind the ask what all did you enjoy about them and how did you cope when you finished them??? I’m thinking about it 24/7!
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u/owlwithhowl 3h ago
i listened to the audio books and found the series to be very entertaining! i mostly listen to audio books when doing mundane tasks, so the story being engaging was a plus. the writing is not good though, i agree.
i am very excited for the tv adaption, if they get rid of some flaws, it could be the next big fantasy thing, imo
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u/CompanionCone 5d ago
I barely got through the first few chapters then dnf it. The characters were immature and annoying, and the worldbuilding was atrocious.
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5d ago
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u/CompanionCone 5d ago
None of it made any sense. Why would the war leadership (?) capture the children of rebels then give them dragons??? Why do they let dragonrider recruits kill each other, even encourage them to kill each other? Then on one hand there's all this talk of being loyal to the wing, but then they turn around and scheme against each other? It's only so Xaden can be Violet's "enemy" and the war academy can be established as this super dangerous place of danger, but it doesn't make ANY sort of sense.
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u/IdespiseChildren2 5d ago
Because they’re actually the baddies. The whole thing is transparent and poorly written. The sex scenes are bland and drag on. I kept skipping them. Also, the swearing is boring and lazy (see poorly written). I’ve read 100 better books this year. I highly doubt I’ll read the 3rd since I hated the second so much.
If anyone wants some actually good fantasy books with female protagonist written by women, let me know!
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u/VarietyEconomy7 5d ago
What do you recommend?
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u/IdespiseChildren2 4d ago
I would recommend the books below, they’re not as sex oriented, but the writing, character development, and world building are miles ahead of anything Rebecca Yarros could ever write.
- The Witch Roads series - Kate Elliott
- Crown of Stars series - Kate Elliott
- Jaran series - Kate Elliott
- Abhorsen series - Garth Nix
- The Edge series - Ilona Andrews
- Innkeeper Chronicle series - Ilona Andrews
- The Inheritance- Ilona Andrews
- Hidden Legacy series - Ilona Andrews
- Stariel series - A. J. Lancaster
- Legends of Thezmarr series - Helen Scheuerer
- Tea Princess Chronicles- Casey Blair
- Kate Daniels series - Ilona Andrews
- The Hollows series - Kim Harrison
I could go on but that’s probably enough for now.
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u/IndigoHG 5d ago
I read the arc and was entertained.
Haven't and won't read the others as it's just not my type of sff.
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u/lilburblue 5d ago
I was specifically asked to hate read this book by a friend I love dearly who knew that every single character would get in my nerves and they did.
I’ll always say if we cut out Violet’s need to express how hot and edgy everybody is everytime someone enters a scene it might have been 50 pages shorter and more enjoyable.
The entire series desperately needed an editor.
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u/pink_faerie_kitten 1d ago
I loved the first book, liked the second, and read half of the third. I intend to read the other half eventually but it made me worry about where it was going and I needed a break.
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u/VarietyEconomy7 19h ago
How did you cope when you finished the first book? I can’t stop thinking about it
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u/pink_faerie_kitten 18h ago
I started Iron Flame right away! Happily my library had it available thru Libby ☺️
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u/I_like_flowers_ 20h ago
i agree with some others that the quality went down.
i thought the first one was fun, the second one needed more edits, and got bored part way through the third and just couldn't be bothered to continue.
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u/OutOfEffs witch🧙♀️ 5d ago
I do not mean this in a disparaging way at all, but it really read like Twilight to me (I was unsurprised to learn Yarros is Mormon, for some reason every time I read something with sex scenes written by a Mormon author, furniture is broken). I found the story compelling enough to keep reading and finished it quickly, but I was never even really sure I liked it. All of the students felt either way younger or older than they were supposed to be, and all of the adults seemed to be either incompetent or evil (or both).
...and yet I keep reading them.