Elizabeth's Reviews > Fourth Wing

DNF at 10%.

I gave this book a rating even tho I dnf'd because people like me need to know this book is not for them.

1. Confusing world building that makes no sense.
Why in the world would you waste the lives of your potential military when you are actively at war? About 20% of the candidates die "crossing the parapet" and many more die before they get a chance to be riders. If someone can't be a green beret, there are a LOT of ways that they can be used in the military. If a soldier is going to be "cannon fodder", you still got to keep them alive long enough to send them to war. The way this world just throws people to be killed... BEFORE they are at war... makes absolutely no sense.

Also, everyone should be aware that "crossing the parapet" is dangerous. Why would it be a thing that they are all wearing smooth soled boots if it's known to be slippery?

WHY ARE PEOPLE KILLING EACH OTHER WHEN THEY'RE IN THE SAME MILITARY!? It makes absolutely no sense to encourage (or even tolerate) murderers in a military. You need to build trust in a unit, so the idea that a dude can murder a fellow candidate and attempt the murder of another... in front of superior officers!? Absurd. The author includes this for tension but it made me want to hit my head against the wall.

Why aren't people crawling across the parapet if it's so slippery? Why stand up and let your body act as a sail for high winds?

2. Brainless/naive main female character.

So, we just talked about how dangerous it is to cross the parapet. Violets sister helps her repack and gives her better clothing, including grippy boots. At the first moment she can, she swaps A BOOT with another candidate because "your boots are too slippery. You need the grip of these boots to have a chance".

First of all, she didn't know this until 5 min ago. All of the sudden, she's an expert? Second of all, they ARENT THE SAME SIZE! Maybe that chick could get her bigger foot into the smaller boot. But to have a bigger boot on the heroine's smaller foot would have been a recipe for disaster. But no mention of a sloshy boot. She's just perfectly fine going across the parapet with a boot that's too big for her.

I can see the author saying "look! My FMC is special. She's compassionate and kind". Ya. All I saw was an idiot who was perfectly willing to get herself killed. The idea that having mismatched boots would help anyone is ludicrous.

3. Obvious and overblown enemy love interest and "not right for her" childhood love interest.

The way the FMC swoons over these two was 🤢. She sees her "enemy" while she's about to cross the deadly parapet and thinks he's so attractive, blah blah blah. Gag me.

Ugh. This setup was so ridiculous I could see it from a mile away. Her first interaction (in the book) with her childhood love interest is for him to try to send her off to the scribes quadrant. If it was that easy to leave, why the F are people dying to get there by crossing a stupid deadly bridge!?

Also, it was just so obvious.

This author, so far, doesn't do subtle. Everything is "club the reader over the head" obvious. The hints are shouts.

A really good friend loved this book and I have no idea why. I cringed at 4%. And keep on cringing. This books feels like immature writing about immature people.