Author: Rebecca Yarros · Published: 2023 · Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Fourth Wing‘s biggest strength is momentum: deadly trials, dragons and a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance make it extremely hard to put down. Its biggest weakness is craft, with history delivered in lectures, side characters who blur together and a romance assembled from very familiar parts. Read it if you want an addictive romantasy binge; look elsewhere if you want fantasy with depth.
What it’s about
Violet Sorrengail, 20, has trained to become a scribe, like her late father. Her mother, General Lilith Sorrengail, who commands Basgiath War College in the kingdom of Navarre, has other plans. She forces Violet into the Riders Quadrant, where cadets compete to bond with dragons, and where many die before graduation, killed by training, by dragons or by each other.
Violet is small and physically fragile, and Yarros has said her condition reflects the author’s own experience of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. She survives on her wits, her skill with daggers and advice from her older siblings. Her childhood friend, Dain Aetos, is a squad leader who wants to protect her. Xaden Riorson, a powerful rider and the leader of Fourth Wing, has every reason to want her dead: his father was executed as a rebel on her mother’s orders. Violet is assigned to his wing anyway, alongside other “marked” cadets, children of the rebellion who blame her family. Beneath the training, there are hints that Navarre’s official history is not the whole truth.
What’s great
- Pace. Yarros strings together set piece after set piece, from a terrifying first-day crossing to sparring challenges and the moment dragons choose their riders. Deaths are frequent and sudden, so the stakes feel real.
- The dragons. They are huge, ill-tempered and opinionated characters, not pets, and every scene with them is fun.
- The romance. The banter between Violet and Xaden is sharp, and the slow burn is paced well enough that the payoff lands. Be aware that the book includes explicit sex scenes.
- A different heroine. A fantasy lead whose body is a constant limitation, who must plan around injury and pain, is rare, and it gives the action a different texture.
The controversy
Fourth Wing became a BookTok phenomenon and a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, and it is widely credited with helping make “romantasy” a publishing phenomenon. That success sparked a running debate about whether it is good fantasy or simply a well-marketed romance with dragons.
The critical complaints are consistent. Kirkus found Violet oddly passive, carried along by the plot more than driving it, and the love triangle with Dain unconvincing. Others point to world history dumped on the reader through classroom lectures, a war college whose logic falls apart if you think about it, thinly sketched friends, and a hero who is more brooding cliché than mystery. The modern slang and profanity jar with the setting for some readers.
The genre question matters, too. Many teenagers read it, but it is an adult or new adult novel, and School Library Journal flagged its profanity and sex scenes as better suited to older teens. Defenders reply that sneering at a hugely popular, women-led genre is its own kind of snobbery, and that the book never pretends to be Tolkien. Both points are fair: it delivers exactly what it promises, and not much more.
Who should read it
Readers who want fast, romantic, high-stakes fantasy and enjoy tropes rather than mind them, especially fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses. The story continues in Iron Flame (2023) and Onyx Storm (2025). If you want intricate worldbuilding or elegant prose, this is not your book.
Rating: 3/5
Image credits — Featured image: Photo by Elin Melaas on Unsplash. In-article images: Photo by Karly Jones on Unsplash; Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash.
