To be completely clear: I did not like Fourth Wing… But I did enjoy it, in the way some people enjoy trashy tv or movies made purely to show off flashiness.
I didn’t think it was a good book and I have a laundry list of complaints about it, but I’m of the firm opinion that sometimes things can be so bad (in my personal opinion), that it actually becomes entertaining. Yes, I rolled my eyes every time a character excessively swore and cringed every time modern slang was used, but I also laughed out loud at a lot of those moments. It was decently fast paced and had quite a bit going on all the time. It usually wasn’t anything good (except the dragons, I liked them a lot), but there was usually at least one thing in a scene I found unintentionally funny. As a writer, I think there’s a lot of value in reading books like these and though I didn’t like the characters or the writing or the way the plot was executed, I thought it was entertaining to read.
I haven’t picked up the second book yet and I’m really hesitant to do so. While I found the first one entertaining due to its bad qualities, the story moved fast enough for me to still enjoy my time with it. I’ve heard the second one drags immensely and while I can enjoy a (in my opinion) bad book, I can’t enjoy it when it’s boring and slow paced.
Is the second book worth it at all? Even just to read for ironic entertainment value?
Side note: is violet’s hair color ever relevant? Because fourth wing kept bringing it up in a way that made me think it was foreshadowing some big reveal around the circumstances of her birth (ie: get mother’s fever was a lie/cover) but it never paid out. It just sort of ended up being another super special but inconsequential thing about her and that annoyed the hell out of me.
by shouuchan