[book post] Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Feb. 4th, 2026 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queenluaI managed to miss the explosion of "romantasy" as a genre so entirely that, when I went to a writer's workshop a year and a half ago, and a fellow workshopper read one of my stories and was like "yo, you could totally make this into a romantasy and make bank," I was like "oh cool, thanks! what's romantasy, again?" And when another workshopper sidled up to me afterwards and said, hey, this is good but it is absolutely not romantasy, do NOT take that other person's advice," I was like "oh cool, thanks! uh, what's romantasy, exactly?"
I then proceeded to spend all my time post-workshop frittering around writing a bunch of Exactly What I Want To Write without bothering to learn a single damn thing about The State Of Modern Publishing or researching the market at all, so, y'know, thank you kindly fellow students & sorry that your thoughts were so wasted upon me...!
But even so, I managed to vaguely glean a couple factoids and takes about this whole "romantasy" thing. Y'know, the sorts of takes you see on Tumblrs and in Substacks and such—"let women enjoy things" vs "they're pornographic trash" or whatever. Which sure rhymed with some stuff I remember hearing when Twilight was a hit, so when I finally got around to reading Fourth Wing, I was expecting... something like Twilight, right? Something not-really-to-my-tastes but nonetheless satisfying and pulpy? Like, I read the whole series back then, and while I didn't love them and wouldn't have read them if they weren't a popular phenomenon, like... they were in fact a pretty good time! I remember the third book in particular having a very satisfying progression and a cool final battle! I liked the weird Americana backstory stuff with that Jasper guy! The vampire baseball shit was legitimately charming! It was very easy for me to read those books, even as a judgy know-it-all teenager, and see what the appeal was.
I say this to establish some non-snob credentials because I worry I come off like a dragon here sometimes. "I can enjoy fun and normal and kinda trashy things," I say, persuasively and convincingly.
But like... Fourth Wing... really...?
Even in the depths of my virus-induced delirium, I found myself cringing at so much of the language—every instance of "for the win" was like nails on the chalkboard of my soul; so much of the language was just stupid or self-contradictory on a line-by-line level. And by God it repeats itself, often, as though it's worried you're... only barely skimming the text? only half-paying attention? so you need basic stuff repeated to you over and over? but it managed to do this so much it annoyed me even in the depths of my virus-induced delirium! Ahhh!!! (I commented on Tumblr that part of this might just be a "house style" thing? I guess?? if so I hate it???)
And there's so many logical/plausibility inconsistencies—each minor in their own right, each which might be easy to overlook on their own—but they pile up so much I was just left wondering what the stakes were or what basic facts were or who or what I was supposed to care about, so often, that I was just confused and annoyed most of the time.
Like:
This section is literally me just scrolling through my Kindle notes and rambling on everything I marked with a "???". It gets so long oh my God.
* In the opening we establish that our protagonist has some kind of Ehlers-Danlos-kinda-thing that makes her prone to injury, BUT she gets livid if anyone points out "you are more prone to injury," except her internal monologue is constantly telling us she is convinced she is in fact going to die due to being more prone to injury, and this tension would make sense if she were like "look I really WANT this I am just WILLFULLY IGNORING this problem," except she doesn't even WANT to be a dragon rider—she's doing it because her mom is forcing (???) her to, even though she's a twenty-fucking-year-old woman who could surely make her own damn choices (???)
* ALSO, even though her mom and older brother and sister are all decorated skilled dragon riders she somehow misses the memo on "wear the right boots on day one or you will fucking die" & thus has to get bailed out of that situation (??? h-how? do they not. send. an equipment list. or something)...
* Also being a dragon rider is prestigious and cool so it's the ONLY part of the military that only takes volunteers.. EXCEPT for the dangerous traitors' kids, who are in fact forced into it (book forgets about the "facts" it tells us halfway through SO many times I stg), and also left unanswered is "how is this in fact so popular and prestigious if canonically something like ~50% of kids die before they even get to ride a dragon," like come on I do not think people would be clamoring to be a Navy Seal with that kind of death rate yaknow, and also how is this an efficient use of military resources; at some point they start complaining about how there's "fewer dragon riders than there used to be" but also it's legal (???) to murder your classmates whenever; perhaps you would have more dragon riders if you didn't just let them kill each other whenever? EXCEPT, of course, sometimes you CAN'T murder each other, and you find out the exceptions 0.8 seconds before a murder attempt when our protag quotes the "codex" at us...
* Speaking of which, classic case of "the narration keeps telling us our protag is So Super Smart but the only way they know to *show* us she's smart is Having Her Read And/Or Quote A Book," so when I'm waiting THE ENTIRE BOOK for her to figure out she's being lied to about something that has been OBVIOUS since at least 20% in & the hunky romantic lead is like "WOW YOU'RE SO BRILLIANT, I LOVE YOUR MIND," I'm just like. I do not believe you sir.
* Also it's trying to say something (?) about disability, which actually would be cool and interesting, except it's like, "Everyone has to learn to ride their dragon BAREBACK," and when she's not strong enough to do it, they make a saddle for her dragon, and we're left mostly thinking "...why the fuck isn't everyone else using a saddle then? are they fucking stupid?" and also her whole Ehlers-Danlos-kinda-thing isn't ever a major plot point; it's just there to give her extra sympathy/pity points when the narrator wants you to and to be conveniently ignored when it's not, so like, who the fuck knows there...
* There's a whole Thing about how the humans only exist at the dragons' mercy, because they need humans to channel their magic, and if the dragons didn't need that they'd have no need for humans at all... but later on, when she learns about the Hidden Magical Powers of baby dragons, the dragons are like "please don't tell anyone; the humans will hunt them/experiment on them if they know," and I'm like... didn't we establish Dragons Have All The Power Here? Can't they just torch anyone who touches their kids? Sure feels like you just needed a contrived excuse for why Only Our Protagonist can have this information!
* Our protagonist is constantly getting horribly injured and constantly refusing to let healers heal her because it will make her look "weak." What. Huh. How. Why. Who the fuck is running this army. I'm pretty sure even Sparta wasn't this fucking stupid with their resources
Okay good God that's enough of that you get the point.
I think the author knows on some level how dumb this is, and is even leaning into that in parts. (Lol @ the bit where we get one paragraph of the character going "wow, it's eerie how fast we get inured to death around here," followed by an IMMEDIATE NEXT PARAGRAPH of "wow my love interest sure is looking hot 'n' hunky today teehee.")
But characters seem to remember or forget about stakes and motivations so randomly that it was kind of impossible for me to enjoy on a dumb trash level? It's a hard thing to put a finger on because everything's so wordy and vague, just—gaheilghaelig.
There was a moment of promise, actually, when I remember perking up and thinking it was about to get interesting. It's when they're first getting assessed by the dragons they're going to bond with, and one of the dragons approaches her and, they like, kinda feel her up a little? and I was like oh WOW okay I thought this was too vanilla of a book for this, but if we have some kind of weird monsterfucking or like weird psychic bond stuff or whatever, that could be a little juicy at least—
—and, okay, no, that turned out to be platonic and normal (and yeah sorry I don't know why my brain's built like that either), but then we're intro'd to the dragon she's actually bonded to and he has an actual personality and shit so I'm like maybe she at least gets Weird Vibes with him? and a big No on that front; We Must Focus On Her Boring Human Dude Love Interest. Sigh.
(How do you fuck up the Sasuke-alike character, by the way. "Edgy bad boy" is a trope as old as time, and I'm brave enough to admit I am in fact basic enough to be into it. I liked Kylo Ren, for fuck's sake. I am not complicated to please on this front. And yet it bored me here?)
I was reading on Kindle so it took me a while to notice out how long this thing is. (I could tell I was starting to recover from said virus when I started getting pissed about "how am I STILL reading this thing good God.") And holy Jesus fucking christ, it's 200k words??? Barely anything happens! I could've read FOUR Bel-Amis in that time. FOUR. And Bel-Ami was such a banger!
...in conclusion I do not think I am the right person to aim to try and write anything in the category of "romantasy" anytime soon.
I then proceeded to spend all my time post-workshop frittering around writing a bunch of Exactly What I Want To Write without bothering to learn a single damn thing about The State Of Modern Publishing or researching the market at all, so, y'know, thank you kindly fellow students & sorry that your thoughts were so wasted upon me...!
But even so, I managed to vaguely glean a couple factoids and takes about this whole "romantasy" thing. Y'know, the sorts of takes you see on Tumblrs and in Substacks and such—"let women enjoy things" vs "they're pornographic trash" or whatever. Which sure rhymed with some stuff I remember hearing when Twilight was a hit, so when I finally got around to reading Fourth Wing, I was expecting... something like Twilight, right? Something not-really-to-my-tastes but nonetheless satisfying and pulpy? Like, I read the whole series back then, and while I didn't love them and wouldn't have read them if they weren't a popular phenomenon, like... they were in fact a pretty good time! I remember the third book in particular having a very satisfying progression and a cool final battle! I liked the weird Americana backstory stuff with that Jasper guy! The vampire baseball shit was legitimately charming! It was very easy for me to read those books, even as a judgy know-it-all teenager, and see what the appeal was.
I say this to establish some non-snob credentials because I worry I come off like a dragon here sometimes. "I can enjoy fun and normal and kinda trashy things," I say, persuasively and convincingly.
But like... Fourth Wing... really...?
Even in the depths of my virus-induced delirium, I found myself cringing at so much of the language—every instance of "for the win" was like nails on the chalkboard of my soul; so much of the language was just stupid or self-contradictory on a line-by-line level. And by God it repeats itself, often, as though it's worried you're... only barely skimming the text? only half-paying attention? so you need basic stuff repeated to you over and over? but it managed to do this so much it annoyed me even in the depths of my virus-induced delirium! Ahhh!!! (I commented on Tumblr that part of this might just be a "house style" thing? I guess?? if so I hate it???)
And there's so many logical/plausibility inconsistencies—each minor in their own right, each which might be easy to overlook on their own—but they pile up so much I was just left wondering what the stakes were or what basic facts were or who or what I was supposed to care about, so often, that I was just confused and annoyed most of the time.
Like:
This section is literally me just scrolling through my Kindle notes and rambling on everything I marked with a "???". It gets so long oh my God.
* In the opening we establish that our protagonist has some kind of Ehlers-Danlos-kinda-thing that makes her prone to injury, BUT she gets livid if anyone points out "you are more prone to injury," except her internal monologue is constantly telling us she is convinced she is in fact going to die due to being more prone to injury, and this tension would make sense if she were like "look I really WANT this I am just WILLFULLY IGNORING this problem," except she doesn't even WANT to be a dragon rider—she's doing it because her mom is forcing (???) her to, even though she's a twenty-fucking-year-old woman who could surely make her own damn choices (???)
* ALSO, even though her mom and older brother and sister are all decorated skilled dragon riders she somehow misses the memo on "wear the right boots on day one or you will fucking die" & thus has to get bailed out of that situation (??? h-how? do they not. send. an equipment list. or something)...
* Also being a dragon rider is prestigious and cool so it's the ONLY part of the military that only takes volunteers.. EXCEPT for the dangerous traitors' kids, who are in fact forced into it (book forgets about the "facts" it tells us halfway through SO many times I stg), and also left unanswered is "how is this in fact so popular and prestigious if canonically something like ~50% of kids die before they even get to ride a dragon," like come on I do not think people would be clamoring to be a Navy Seal with that kind of death rate yaknow, and also how is this an efficient use of military resources; at some point they start complaining about how there's "fewer dragon riders than there used to be" but also it's legal (???) to murder your classmates whenever; perhaps you would have more dragon riders if you didn't just let them kill each other whenever? EXCEPT, of course, sometimes you CAN'T murder each other, and you find out the exceptions 0.8 seconds before a murder attempt when our protag quotes the "codex" at us...
* Speaking of which, classic case of "the narration keeps telling us our protag is So Super Smart but the only way they know to *show* us she's smart is Having Her Read And/Or Quote A Book," so when I'm waiting THE ENTIRE BOOK for her to figure out she's being lied to about something that has been OBVIOUS since at least 20% in & the hunky romantic lead is like "WOW YOU'RE SO BRILLIANT, I LOVE YOUR MIND," I'm just like. I do not believe you sir.
* Also it's trying to say something (?) about disability, which actually would be cool and interesting, except it's like, "Everyone has to learn to ride their dragon BAREBACK," and when she's not strong enough to do it, they make a saddle for her dragon, and we're left mostly thinking "...why the fuck isn't everyone else using a saddle then? are they fucking stupid?" and also her whole Ehlers-Danlos-kinda-thing isn't ever a major plot point; it's just there to give her extra sympathy/pity points when the narrator wants you to and to be conveniently ignored when it's not, so like, who the fuck knows there...
* There's a whole Thing about how the humans only exist at the dragons' mercy, because they need humans to channel their magic, and if the dragons didn't need that they'd have no need for humans at all... but later on, when she learns about the Hidden Magical Powers of baby dragons, the dragons are like "please don't tell anyone; the humans will hunt them/experiment on them if they know," and I'm like... didn't we establish Dragons Have All The Power Here? Can't they just torch anyone who touches their kids? Sure feels like you just needed a contrived excuse for why Only Our Protagonist can have this information!
* Our protagonist is constantly getting horribly injured and constantly refusing to let healers heal her because it will make her look "weak." What. Huh. How. Why. Who the fuck is running this army. I'm pretty sure even Sparta wasn't this fucking stupid with their resources
Okay good God that's enough of that you get the point.
I think the author knows on some level how dumb this is, and is even leaning into that in parts. (Lol @ the bit where we get one paragraph of the character going "wow, it's eerie how fast we get inured to death around here," followed by an IMMEDIATE NEXT PARAGRAPH of "wow my love interest sure is looking hot 'n' hunky today teehee.")
But characters seem to remember or forget about stakes and motivations so randomly that it was kind of impossible for me to enjoy on a dumb trash level? It's a hard thing to put a finger on because everything's so wordy and vague, just—gaheilghaelig.
There was a moment of promise, actually, when I remember perking up and thinking it was about to get interesting. It's when they're first getting assessed by the dragons they're going to bond with, and one of the dragons approaches her and, they like, kinda feel her up a little? and I was like oh WOW okay I thought this was too vanilla of a book for this, but if we have some kind of weird monsterfucking or like weird psychic bond stuff or whatever, that could be a little juicy at least—
—and, okay, no, that turned out to be platonic and normal (and yeah sorry I don't know why my brain's built like that either), but then we're intro'd to the dragon she's actually bonded to and he has an actual personality and shit so I'm like maybe she at least gets Weird Vibes with him? and a big No on that front; We Must Focus On Her Boring Human Dude Love Interest. Sigh.
(How do you fuck up the Sasuke-alike character, by the way. "Edgy bad boy" is a trope as old as time, and I'm brave enough to admit I am in fact basic enough to be into it. I liked Kylo Ren, for fuck's sake. I am not complicated to please on this front. And yet it bored me here?)
I was reading on Kindle so it took me a while to notice out how long this thing is. (I could tell I was starting to recover from said virus when I started getting pissed about "how am I STILL reading this thing good God.") And holy Jesus fucking christ, it's 200k words??? Barely anything happens! I could've read FOUR Bel-Amis in that time. FOUR. And Bel-Ami was such a banger!
...in conclusion I do not think I am the right person to aim to try and write anything in the category of "romantasy" anytime soon.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-05 02:10 am (UTC)i'm kinda coming to the conclusion that there's Something a lot of books sold under the "romance" category are doing that is just not for me... it's weird in that i can name romcom movies i've enjoyed, and certainly there are romantic plots in things-that-are-not-marketed-as-romance that i've really enjoyed, but e.g. i picked up four different reasonably-well-reviewed paperback romances last year b/c i was aiming to steal tricks i'd been told they did well, and, while none of them drove me as crazy as Fourth Wing, everyone one of them was a DNF, just felt very blah and boring!