Book Review: TikTok Sensation 'Fourth Wing' By Rebecca Yarros
Image Source: The Times of India
TikTok’s latest obsession is the first book in the Empyrean Series, Fourth Wing. If you are an avid #Booktok follower, you may have seen the collector’s edition with its foil cover and sprayed edges on your feed. It’s a very pretty book.
Fourth Wing is a strange mix of Divergent (Veronica Roth) and Eragon (Christopher Paolini) with spice thrown in for good measure. Violet Sorrengail enters Basgiath War College rather reluctantly to try to become a dragon rider. It’s a pass-or-die kind of deal.
Is This Book For Me?
Whether readers love or hate this book will greatly depend on what type of fantasy they are expecting. Anyone buying Fourth Wing seeking epic or high fantasy should prepare for disappointment. The storyline lacks the sense of quest and (overly) detailed world-building that tend to go with this genre. We don’t glimpse much into the mythical land of Navarre, at least in the first book. Gormenghast (Mervyn Peake), it is not.
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But, if you’ve spent the last year thumbing The Zodiac Academy Books (Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti), then this should be your next purchase. It fits more comfortably within the New Adult genre, despite the marketing. Think Blood And Ash (Jennifer L. Armentrout) rather than Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan)
This is not a fantasy book to buy for your child, and if your tween is bugging you for a copy, read it first, particularly the last third. Fourth Wing contains curse words, scenes of a sexual nature, and character deaths.
The Verdict
Does this book change the face of fantasy……no.
Certain aspects can be found in other fandoms. Xaden Riorson is your typical shadowy, brooding ‘thicc’ bad boy, very similar to Rhysand from ACOTAR (Sarah J. Maas). There are shades of George R.R Martin and Sarah K.L Wilson too.
But TikTok loves familiarity. It likes certain tropes like forbidden romance, love triangle, and the underdog overcoming adversity. Yarros writes them well without making them feel like they are forced into the plot with a crowbar to feed a baying audience. The romance between her main characters is full of chemistry and layered. Yarros takes her time letting it develop and doesn’t slide into early gratuity just to add extra spicey scenes. It's explosive when Yarros finally gives the reader what they’ve been waiting for.
Image Source: Rebecca Yarros
The plot is simple but not boring. It doesn’t give the reader a break; something new happens on each page. Yarros writes economically; there’s little to no info dumping. We are launched into the story in the first few pages. The side characters are the stars of Fourth Wing, more so than the slightly predictable protagonists (even with Violet’s Ehlers-Danlos syndrome). Yarros hasn’t let them become cardboard cutouts, and every reader has their favorite. This includes the quipping dragons. The amount of fan art dedicated to them on TikTok is incredible.
The mythology/magic system is currently simple and easy to understand, but there is potential for it to become complicated as things progress. Fourth Wing is the first of a five-book series, and it may stray out of new adult into high fantasy when Yarros inevitably expands out from Basgaith. The readership may rebel if they start to need tables and manuals (Brian Sanderson, anyone?) to keep track of everyone’s powers and dragons. Fans may find it difficult to jump genres. Currently, it’s an easy and pleasurable read.
The book has many nice Scottish Gaelic references, which is a pleasant change from all the Irish Gaelic-based literature. If you translate any of the names, they give you nice hints.
To summarize, if you appreciate this book for what it is, then you’ll enjoy it. It’s gratuitous fun, meant to distract us from the drear of everyday life. It does the new adult genre expertly. But if you are looking for a fantasy series with songs mid-prose and languages, you can learn to impress your D&D friends, this isn’t for you.
Rating 7/10 …..an extra point was added for Tairn and Andarna
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Source(s): Goodreads Kindle Unlimited Audible
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