Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - Fourth Wing

Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

47 reviews

spentcello's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I encountered the first warning sign that this book might not be for me when I turned it over and saw it described as being for fans of Fifty Shades and Hunger Games. I probably should have trusted that initial feeling - although I don't think that the description is particularly accurate. Fourth Wing was a bunch of events and relationships (which were sometimes enjoyable to be immersed in) stuck together with very poor reasoning and plot design. I know people don't read these kind of books for water-tight plots and characters full of psychological integrity, but really? I'm not going into my specific issues because I don't want to hide half of this review behind spoiler tags, but there were so many times that I was taken completely out of all of it because either a character did something that made no sense based on their long-term motivations or plot device got in the way of the internal politics of the world. The writing is poor, or I guess I should say that it. Was. Fucking. Not. Ideal. Who knew fucking was such a versatile adjective? Turns out you don't need to actually describe anything if you can just say it's fucking.

I've been very negative. Which is somewhat unfair because this is not even close to my least favourite book I've read this year. I can see why people like Fourth Wing and why it's become so popular, but for me, it's just too inconsistent, poorly-written and derivative to be more than a 2 out of 5. A better description might be Hunger Games with a few nods to Fifty Shades (but not the BDSM parts - don't get too excited), dragons almost entirely lifted from Pern, and a general vibe of grittiness from Game of Thrones.

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shinyfox's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I'm just going to spoiler tag the following because it's questions and musings and I don't want to spoil accidentally...

Why is it that riders are the ones that are considered needing to be culled out? Why is it that they are weak when they are JUST learning how to ride a dragon and they fall to their deaths. Like bro, they've never been on an -actual- dragon before. Why is it that the riders are weak and not the dragons for letting their riders die? The dragons can't protect their riders appropriately and the riders are considered weak while still in the learning stages?
Curious as to how they are going to explain Andarna's change in physicality since humans don't seem to know that feather tails are babies and they think that they are a totally different breed.
Why can't unbonded dragons fight alone or in unbonded riots?

How and when did Violet become the best knife thrower? When did she practice this while training to become a scribe and while she only had 6 months to prep for being a rider?

If marked ones aren't allowed to meet or gather in groups of 3+ how did Xaden manage to get a full squad of marked ones together for War Games?? That alone should have been a tip off/red flag that something was going wrong, that higher ups allowed that.

Plot twists were easy to spot, easy to tell which characters had 'plot armor'. Narrators were fantastic for the audiobook, though I'm confused WHY we needed two of them when the POV switch is literally in the last couple of chapters and doesn't last long...

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ceddie's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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thatswhatshanread's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I took off half of a star just because some of the world building and descriptions were a little too confusing to me and could have been done better in keeping me engaged within this fantasy world; the imagery wasn’t quite there for me. And I’ll admit the writing in general was not my favorite, though the characters and plot made up for it for the most part.

But alas!!! This was a fun one!!

You’ve got dragons, you’ve got a war college, you’ve got enemies to lovers, you’ve got mysterious happenings outside of the border that are kept hush hush, you’ve got redacted history and rebellion, you’ve got strong friendships and literal soulmates… I loved it. Our female protagonist Violet is not unlike any other leading character in these kinds of books—she’s weak and fragile, not cut out for the life she’s forced to take on, a disappointment to her mother, the least impressive of her siblings. UNTIL! She proves everyone wrong, even herself, as she is meant to do for the story to exist of course. Which isn’t a bad plot, even if it’s been done many times before, because it clearly works. Violet goes from meek little sister who prefers books over battle, to the incredible dragon rider who packs a striking punch. And Xaden—pretends he loathes her and wants to kill her, broody and closed-off, strong and intimidating to everyone else, but in reality a very kind, caring person who would do anything for Violet. Their chemistry was sizzling, and I loved learning more about their fated connection. The YOU DIE, I DIE trope to a T.

Dain—basically Gale from The Hunger Games but even worse—however, can suck a dozen eggs.

Overall, an intriguing and heart-pounding introduction to the Empyrean series! Great mix of fantasy and romance! You’ll want your own dragon and wingleader boyfriend asap.

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lia_lee's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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thisgirlreads_yay's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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_shaybiebaybee's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Throughout the entire book I wondered if Rebecca Yarros had ever even considered getting Fourth Wing professionally edited. There are about seven phrases repeated ad nauseam in this book, which I may have noticed only because I was listening to the audiobook, but I honestly think I would have noticed it in print too. This was very annoying.
Repetitive things I did not enjoy:
- mentions of gold flecks
- "good point" "fair point" "s/he has a point" (you could make a dangerous drinking game with this one)
-

Tairn is the mOsT pOwErFuL dRaGoN or any other reason why

no one really wants to mess with Violet
- mentions of brows doing things.
- Mentions of "he gave me [such and such look that makes her horny] but noooo we aren't thinking about that right now"

This book is like if someone took Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series, removed the good worldbuilding, added even more racist stereotypes, combined it with the Divergent style revolution (not the well thought out Hunger Games one), got the sex scenes written by a Gena Showalter wannabe, then threw it in the dryer on high to felt. Like yeah I guess it was entertaining but it was kind of like a train wreck. Like others have said, this feels ripped right from wattpad.

I will be reading the next book.

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