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A review by kacey7
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
3.0
My feelings about this book are very complex, and deeply personal. I avoided reading this for forever because it's all the rage on booktok and I rarely agree with that's considered good over there. The one thing I had no idea going into this though is that Violet is disabled, she deals with chronic illness - the same chronic illness I have, in fact.
And let me tell you, there are very, very few books that have ever featured EDS in this way and none have been as popular as this book has become. One thing that will always get me is representation, especially seeing myself in a way I never expected from a widely popular novel like this. I was 7% in when I went "now wait WHAT disorder does Violet have because this all sounds very familiar" and when I looked it up and saw the author confirmed she has EDS - I was shocked, and then proceeded to completely devour the rest of the book.
Fourth Wing is cliche and unoriginal. It was predictable and some of the world building was confusing and not fleshed out. The thing is.... it didn't even bother me that much. Because of the EDS rep, I can overlook all of that. I get to see a girl with my condition being badass, getting accommodations from those around her because she needs and deserves them, being told she isn't any less because of her health and body, watching her struggle through accepting that, and accepting that it's okay to have accommodations... that was beautiful, that was everything. I don't even care that the romance was boring, the love triangle predictable and dumb, the sex mediocre at best. None of that even matters to me at this point. There were many parts I did not like but I am too busy riding the high of representation to mind.
I will be reading the next one. I will be cringing through large parts of it, I'm sure. And I will be loving it all the same, because there's finally a fantasy book with a disabled heroine who talks about loose ligaments and subluxations and getting dizzy when standing too fast, and seeing yourself like that is sometimes all you really need.
And let me tell you, there are very, very few books that have ever featured EDS in this way and none have been as popular as this book has become. One thing that will always get me is representation, especially seeing myself in a way I never expected from a widely popular novel like this. I was 7% in when I went "now wait WHAT disorder does Violet have because this all sounds very familiar" and when I looked it up and saw the author confirmed she has EDS - I was shocked, and then proceeded to completely devour the rest of the book.
Fourth Wing is cliche and unoriginal. It was predictable and some of the world building was confusing and not fleshed out. The thing is.... it didn't even bother me that much. Because of the EDS rep, I can overlook all of that. I get to see a girl with my condition being badass, getting accommodations from those around her because she needs and deserves them, being told she isn't any less because of her health and body, watching her struggle through accepting that, and accepting that it's okay to have accommodations... that was beautiful, that was everything. I don't even care that the romance was boring, the love triangle predictable and dumb, the sex mediocre at best. None of that even matters to me at this point. There were many parts I did not like but I am too busy riding the high of representation to mind.
I will be reading the next one. I will be cringing through large parts of it, I'm sure. And I will be loving it all the same, because there's finally a fantasy book with a disabled heroine who talks about loose ligaments and subluxations and getting dizzy when standing too fast, and seeing yourself like that is sometimes all you really need.