Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

“This place cuts away the bullshit and the niceties, revealing whoever you are at your core.” 

Blurb:

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

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.

Review:

The kingdom of Navarre has been at war with neighboring Poromiel and its gryphon riders for centuries. As such, the need for fresh recruits keeps the Basgiath War College flooded with new cadets every year, divided into four quadrants of the school: Scribe, Healer, Infantry, and Dragon rider, which has the highest death rate. 

“A dragon without its rider is a tragedy. A rider without their dragon is dead.”

Our heroine, Violet, has studied all her life to follow in her late father’s footsteps and become a scribe, a worthy calling. But her mother, the  unfeeling and renowned general, has other plans. Become a dragon rider or die trying. The family will not be embarrassed with a lowly scribe as one of its offspring. Her fragile body, severely weakened by a fever as a baby, has brought enough shame to the family. Violet has heavy expectations to live up to after the illustrious careers of her mother, brother, and sister, not to mention overcoming the hurdles presented by her disability. But there’s more to strength than just physicality…

“You’re the smartest woman I know. Don’t forget that. Your brain is your best weapon. Outsmart them, Violet.”

Violet rises to the challenges with aplomb, twisting the rules ever so slightly to her advantage. She’s a total genius from all her years raised in the archives with her father. There’s nothing she doesn’t know, I swear. All that knowledge works in her favor time and time again. She’s such a relatable book nerd, very much like Hermione in Harry Potter. You can never have enough book nerd characters <3 

“There is nothing more sacred than the Archives. Even temples can be rebuilt, but books cannot be rewritten.”

Despite death threats from fellow cadets, plus just the sheer inevitability of death from training accidents, Violet manages to survive in spite of the odds stacked against her. And she also manages to gather a small group of loyal friends who have her back no matter what. These friendships wrap themselves around your heart and give it a gentle squeeze. You’re almost afraid to get too attached to anyone because you just never know when you’re going to have to say that final goodbye…

And then the dragons themselves are such entertaining characters with their quirky personalities adding in. I absolutely adore grumpy Tairn, and sweet innocent Andarna <3

I am the sky and the power of every storm that has ever been. I am infinite.

The magic system in here is very much like what you’d find in X-Men. No power is excluded. You have shadow magic, ice and fire, lightning, farsight, controlling the air, etc. It’s such an experience reading all of these abilities being used together in battle sequences! Makes for epic reading!

“It only takes one desperate generation to change history—even erase it…One generation chooses to teach that text. The next grows, and the lie becomes history.”

Fourth Wing covers many topics: friendship and trust, overcoming one’s perceived disabilities and inadequacies, the cost of war, what it means to be honorable, and so much more. But the underlying topic that carries through from the very beginning is trusting in blind loyalty without ever questioning the system that rules. Free thought is squashed, and blind obedience is lauded. So what happens when you dare to ask the hard questions?

This book sets up an epic stage for what is promising to be an amazing series! The ending will leave you needing the next book ASAP!