Title: Fourth Wing (The Empyrean #1)
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Genre: Fantasy, fantasy romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing LLC
Publication Date: 2023
Format: Hardcover
Length: 528 pages

Rating:

Fourth Wing is my favourite read of 2023 so far. I’m always a little hesitant when it comes to a book that’s been hyped up as much as this one has, but I quickly found that the hype was 100% warranted.

Yarros took an incredibly unique premise of a murderous war college of dragon riders and created what might be the most addictive and accessible fantasy I’ve read in a long time. The world-building was seamless and understandable, the characters were memorable and loveable, and the plot itself had enough twists and turns that I was gasping and kicking my feet in excitement. Combine this with the incredible slow-burn romance aspects and exceptional diversity representation and I literally could not put this book down.

This is the most promising start to a series that I’ve read in a long time, and I’m already counting the days until the sequel arrives in bookstores. If you’ve been on the fence about whether to jump on the Fourth Wing train, I cannot emphasize enough how much I would recommend doing it. This book was immensely enjoyable and skyrocketed to the top of my favourites list.

The Book: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Fourth Wing follows female protagonist Violet Sorrengail as she’s forced into the most dangerous sector of Basgaith War College: the dragon riders quadrant. Her mother, who is a decorated war hero and leader of Basgaith, determined that despite Violet’s fragile nature, chronic pain, and lifelong training for the Scribe quadrant, no daughter of hers would be allowed to be anything other than a rider. As a result, Violet is forced to begin rider initiation feeling completely overwhelmed and unprepared.

The journey to becoming a rider is gruelling and dangerous, and from the very beginning, Violet is targeted by the other cadets for her relation to her mother. Only the strongest survive to even have the chance to bond with dragons, which means from the first challenge, which entails walking a parapet 200 meters in the air, other cadets are seeking ways to kill Violet. She’s always known that she’d need to work harder than everyone else in her year to make up for her body’s weaknesses, but this becomes exceptionally apparent when cadet Jack Barlowe publicly announces that he will stop at nothing to be the one to kill her. She’s also immediately faced with the person who has the biggest reason in the kingdom to hate her mother: Xaden Riorson, the son of the leader of the separatist movement, who died as the rebellion was quashed by General Sorrengail. Every child of a separatist is forced into conscription into the rider’s quadrant as a result of the betrayal of Xaden’s father and his followers. His grudge against Sorrengail logically falls to her daughter as well.

Despite Violet’s physical challenges, she’s the smartest cadet in her year, which leads her to different methods of learning to survive, and eventually, thrive. Violet trains to increase her strength and uses her exceptional knowledge of poisons to ensure she wins every sparring match she’s a part of. She’s also aided by advice provided by her sister Mira, a decorated and currently serving rider, and her brother Brennan, who died tragically in battle but left a book behind that was passed down by Mira on how to survive Basgaith.

As the Threshing approaches, which is the event where dragons will decide which riders they’re willing to bond with, Violet’s determination to be a rider continues to grow. She decides that no physical or emotional weakness will keep her from becoming a true rider and she barrels into the challenge using every ounce of physical and intellectual strength that she can.

To avoid any significant spoilers, I’ll end this summary a little prematurely and just say that Violet does survive the Threshing, but it proves to only be the beginning of the challenges that she’ll face as her time at Basgaith continues and her relationships with those around her, including Xaden, continue to evolve. To survive both Basgaith and the world beyond it, Violet will need to learn who and when to trust, and will need to push her physical and emotional capacity beyond any limits she’s ever known.

The Review

This book was an incredible ride. From the very first chapter, I felt like the action came fast and furious and I was almost constantly on edge.

I loved the premise and felt like it was well executed. Magic schools are some of my favourite settings, but adding in the war college feel and the connection to dragons elevated the plot beyond a basic school setting into a truly action-packed realm. I was constantly guessing at what would come next as crescendo after crescendo fell, and I loved the way that the world-building took place so organically through Violet’s use of storytelling as a means of calming herself.

Speaking of Violet, what an incredibly powerful FMC. I felt like her experience with chronic pain and illness was authentically told, and I appreciated that Yarros chose to make her strong because of her challenges. The choice to have her maintain her issues and find accommodations for her was a particularly powerful device because, while this is clearly fantasy, it was a lot more indicative of a real experience. As much as we’d like to be able to solve issues like chronic pain with a bit of magic, that’s not how real life works, and I appreciated her dedication to ensuring Violet succeeded without losing who she was and what had made her.

The slow-burn romance between Violet and Xaden was also perfection. I loved getting to know Xaden in bits and pieces, only ever learning small aspects of who he was at a time, which made the major twist at the end all the more powerful as you begin to question what you thought you knew. I feel like Yarros has barely scratched the surface of Xaden and who he is, so I’m excited to hopefully see more of his perspective or personality unfold in Iron Flame.

Fourth Wing was a wild ride from start to finish and probably one of the most accessible fantasies I’ve read, comparable to the A Court of Thorns and Roses series in its reach and understandability. Before I’d even finished the book I was already sad that it would inevitably be over, and the explosive ending only made me more so. 

This was easily one of my favourite books of the year, and you’ll catch me constantly pining for the second book, Iron Flame, until release day comes.