Book It With Briana

This series lives in my mind as one of the most disappointing reads of 2024. The first book Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros had a lot of potential to turn into such a powerful story, but the story focused so heavily on the romance between Violet and Xaden in Iron Flame that the plot took a back seat. My least favorite trope is the miscommunication trope, and I was highly disappointed that the self proclaimed smartest person allowed herself to fall into the cycle of holding information back because she was upset that others didn’t trust her with the lives of an entire people.

Violet was one of the most frustrating FMCs I have ever been inside the head of. She was impulsive and rarely thought things out before acting, and yet we are told to think of her as the most intelligent in the room, despite us never actually getting to see her think critically. Any discovery she made ended up being a Eureka moment that had little to no build up to it, which felt like lazy writing to me. There was so much potential to her character, but she ended up being devolved to a young woman who only exists for a man, including one of the main conflicts being pitting her against another woman, which felt unnecessary considering all of the other plot points that could have been a much more impactful conflict.

I thought in Iron Flame we would be able to glean more about Violet since Xaden would be away and doing his own thing, but it’s almost as though Violet forgot to live when he wasn’t around. We stopped seeing anything outside of her thoughts of him which just disappointed me considering her character continued to be a contradiction. I lost interest in the series after finishing Iron Flame (I almost DNF’d it early on) and decided not to even try reading the last book.

I found it entertaining that a lot of the discourse around the book turned into the fanbase deciding anyone who didn’t like it wasn’t smart enough to understand the plot. I understand why people still enjoyed it despite all of its issues. I disagree though that it is high level storytelling. So far, the book Direbound by Sable Sorensen (incomplete series with the next one being released in 2026) is similar enough to the pieces of Fourth Wing that I enjoyed and I am hoping it will redeem the plot ideas in my mind. Fingers crossed the author takes the time to flesh the next book out.

I prefer to read stories where I have to think alongside the main character to discover hidden meanings and secrets, and I just didn’t get that with this series. It relied heavily on the “tell don’t show” style that prevented me from connecting with it throughout Iron Flame which was a letdown after loving Fourth Wing. I am realizing that I have to be in a specific mood to enjoy an “easy read” book (many Romantasy books at this point) so I don’t hold my opinions against the people who did enjoy the series. I know my Fiancé has enjoyed it as well as one of my best friends, I’m just disappointed I couldn’t join in on the fun.

In a lot of ways, I believe that Rebecca Yarros made the decision to lengthen the series after seeing how well Fourth Wing was doing, and didn’t compensate with substance. It felt like she added fluff pieces without thought to the actual plot, which took me out of the story. I don’t mind a healthy amount of fluff, but I started reading the series expecting a darker, more serious, story and that is not what we ended up getting. I kept asking myself “who is Violet if Xaden is not in the story to drive it forward?”

One of the things that also stood out to me was the formatting of the story, as though it is a transcript dictated by correspondences and other written records. While getting my degree in English we learned a lot about tailoring your writing to fit the template you establish, for example: telling a story as though you are just writing out a recipe. When I look at Yarros setting the expectation that the story is told by second hand accounts, there are a lot of minute details that would have been left lost to time. I’m sure the end of the series will explain the formatting, but from my perspective it did nothing to elevate the text besides providing some context for the reader.

Bottom line for me, and I know there are plenty of people who disagree, is that the Fourth Wing series should not be read if you want to be mentally challenged. I do hope that the rest of the series improves upon this, but I will not be finishing it myself. I have taken a long time to come to terms that this series that I was once so excited to read was just not written for me to truly enjoy.

I have many additional thoughts on what makes this series disappointing, but I think I will leave it here. I can elaborate more on my thoughts if it is something you would find helpful/enjoyable.

Thank you for reading!