So I believe most of you are aware of the hype around this fantasy book called Fourth Wing about an academy that has dragon riders for war.
I went into this book without much expectation and still left feeling nothing. Honestly, if the writing was better I could get pass it but it felt so lazy the amount of “fucking” “shit” “ass” “fucker” in the description and dialogues it got me away from the fantasy aspect of it all.
I also thought the world building and relationships building was lacking and dialogues were repetitive. The amount of mental gymnastics I had to do to enjoy certain things was too much.
The tropes are also something I’ve seen before and it bothers me so much that the characters are always “too hot to handle” but for me they look like those guys who are addicted to plastic surgery.
And omg… the decision being made around being HORNY. No. Nooo. Big no for me.
And yet I catch myself wondering if I want to read the second book or not.
If you read it I’d like to know your opinions!
by SIsForSad
3 Comments
You put me feelings into words, thank you!
I haven’t read the second book yet, so I can’t help you out. Curious to see what everyone’s opinion is.
If you didn’t like book 1, I don’t imagine book 2 would improve your opinion. It’s more of the same except Violent (in what seems to be a trend for horny girl heroines in this genre) and her bo (in what seems to be a trend for horny guy heroes in this genre) loses some of their admirable qualities from book one to become more angsty and insecure.
I still like the premise, but the quality of the characters, worldbuilding, and plot don’t really improve. Violent in my eyes even loses some of her more likeable qualities from the first book to become more angsty (and the narrations constant reminder that ‘I know I’m not being rational’ becomes more annoying than understandable for how much it’s repeated).
So yeah. If you didn’t like Fourth Wing, nothing in Iron Flame is going to improve your experience.
I only stuck around out of curiosity for how Yarros would tackle plot holes the ending of the first book opened up, and meh. Worldbuilding isn’t a strength for this series and it seems to struggle to define any sort of rational motivation for most of the secondary and tertiary characters that don’t revolve around Violet or Xaden (Zaden? Xander? I’ve already forgotten his name).
I ignore the bad parts and enjoy the story. I liked Fourth Wing, but it’ll be only read from the library book because it’s not worth sitting in my own small library.