fourth wing is worse than cancer
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- I hate zodiac signs more now.
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0:00 - Intro
3:45 - Summary
22:33 - There is no conflict
30:01 - Violet is the worst protagonist ever
38:49 - The other characters aren't even blank slates
42:37 - The tropes are unearned
47:15 - The themes are just tokenism
50:01 - No one involved cared - Розваги
Hey, I'm sorry about the sound quality here. UA-cam has been acting up lately and videos will sound fine when I export them, but uploaded they sound... well, like this. I'm working on fixing it, sorry again.
That shirt is traumatizing
Please read the sequel (I only come here for very long bad reviews to listen to)
Like very long 1+ hours
Heh. I wouldn't mind sending you my story in hopes that you could review it. Not on your channel. I just want your opinion. Alas, it's about 300k words.
Ur good. Love u king
I will not be gaslit into thinking Violet scored high in agility
😂😂😂😂
Or speed. There’s a reason why sprinters are known for their strong ligament and high muscle mass…it’s to generate power that there’s just no way Violet is able to put out at that level.
Hahahahaha exactly. But she has to make it because she's the main character 🤣🤣🤣
Bro she entered the speed force 💀
Apparently Rebecca Yarros was not told that smol does not mean fast. This is especially perplexing because not only is she completely surrounded by military via both her family and her husband's family, but she actually has the same disability Violet has in real life.
I wish you'd write your own "bad on purpose" young-adult series. Have a shitty vapid main character named Hornita Wanabaang whos a half-goddess fairy human elf magic princess who falls for Dour McBroodlord the hot edgy half vampire demon werewolf goth destined to break her heart. Just go all in and make it the literal worst. I think you could really do it justice. :3
I’d pay to read that.
maybe repurpose the edgelord from the story he wrote :O
If he played it 100% straight maybe he'd get on NYT bestsellers
Or like Read it and weep's YA mummy romance Unwrap my heart.
can't wait until this is a thing
The author of Fourth Wing seriously deserves some kind of award; they somehow managed to make ACTUAL GODDAMN DRAGONS boring.
I Completely agree but You mean Dragons aren't boring? Like... They are done to death at this point, at least to me their roar sounds like having s€x with a corpse.
Todd won that award last decade
@@minerman60101 At least the dragons in Skyrim are supposed to be independent, godlike creatures that are referred to as the children of Akatosh(I think they were called that. It's been a while since I completed the main quest).
These are just regular dragons that have an uncomfortable bond with their riders.
I thought the dragons were the more interesting part of the book 💀
@@minerman60101 Who's Todd?
In my day we were happy with two wings
This is weirdly poetic.
back in my day, we didn't even had wings
Why would you make a school where murder is allowed, filled with your children *and the children of your enemies?* These people just don't like their kids.
Especially the protagonist's mother. She is so stuck on her pride that she is forcing her disabled daughter into doing something that could kill her more easily than the usual.
At least Violet's sister tried to help get her out of it at the start.
@@britt6184 Honestly that's actually believable, considering some parents ultimately just see their kids as extensions of themselves and see any deviance from expected norms as an incitement of themselves rather than their kids (although Violet choosing to be a scribe wouldn't be bad, just bad in the eyes of her culture)
And allowing your candidates die/kill one another off when they desperately need more dragon riders. None of what they're doing makes any sense.
@britt6184 Weirdly enough, the second book actually shows why, and that her mother cares. There are secrets going on and if she had joined the scribes she would have been executed for not keeping them. The love interest was allowed his position of leadership in the cadets by her mom specifically in trade to keep her safe.
@@blueshard4632 I am dying to know. Why did they jam their kids into murder high with the kids of their enemies?
as a fanfiction reader/writer i sincerely apologise for the crowd that demands that all original fiction "panders" to them
This. It is legitimately mind blowing how defensive booktok gets over things like this.
dont, i wish booktok would be confident enough to admit they like smutty fanfic, and not false advertice. like futoshi, nothing wrong to like that, just , dont false advertise and take over others genre for it.
@@chickenapplepie3141 ong bro. i haven't been on booktok for over a year because those people are insane
But my slow burn enemies to lovers chosen one bad boy love interest love triangle romance with a fantasy backdrop MUST be a slow burn enemies to lovers chosen one bad boy love interest love triangle romance with a fantasy backdrop or I'm NOT reading fantasy!!1!1!
I know you meant fujoshi but I'm just imagining futoshi shimano from yakuza reading shitty YA novels now and I want you to know you're responsible
one thing that made me roll my eyes was the fact that violet was "disabled." it would've been nice to see her generally deal with chronic pain and things like that because as a person with a chronic disease... yeah that stuff isnt the easiest to ignore LOL
one of my closest friends has a similar disease, and while she lives a more or less normal life thanks to medical intervention, the axe hanging over her head of being unlikely to live past 60 is debilitating on its own, even before you consider the actual physical pain and limitations she has to put up with.
so yeah, really poorly written disabled character. might as well have just deleted any mention of the disability, would have improved the book.
I very likely have EDS, and it is a disorder that causes chronic pain, and nearly constant injuries, and a ton of conditions that regularly go with it like fainting, digestive issues, and you are more likely to have it if you are autistic. All of that is super interesting and could be used to motivate a story, or just explored in a story. instead they made it pointless
I have a hyper mobility disorder - most likely EDS - and I was very disappointed in how little her disability was shown to affect her day to day life, ESPECIALLY the s*x scenes which were very physical and would almost certainly have resulted in at least a subluxation if not a full on dislocation. Like I sublux my hips often during far less physical intimacy or day to day activities. Also her refusal to let Tairn lash her to the saddle at all after the first few flights was annoying because it was her refusing a mobility aid that she needed that they never fully explained the ramifications to. I get that it uses some of his power, but the first time he does it the book literally says that it would be a problem for OTHER dragons, but Tairn is so powerful that even with that loss he is still one of the most powerful dragons... I appreciated the use of an actual mobility aid later but it would have been nicer if it had been a replacement for Tairn lashing her down and not an alternative for her almost falling to her death constantly.
@@arcanealchemist3190ist the author and her two sons both have EDS, the sickness her chronic illness is inspired by, so I'd believe it was a realistic experience to THEM? I have adhd and it's debilitating to me but I know there's other people with the same condition who thrive with it? I wouldn't generalise to think that because one is really struggling, everyone else has to be too.. 😅
My fiance and some of his family has EDS and none of the symptoms are properly explored. Chronic pain, muscle cramps, POTS, fainting, dietary issues, getting sick easily, lower lifespan, bones that constantly crack/pop, dislocation, just to name a few. There are certain things they can and cannot do and it all depends on the day and how much they're affected at that time. It's too unpredictable, which would make for some good conflict say if she was struggling one day but still overcame obstacles by using her wits, but instead it's just treated as a non-probelmatic quirk
This book portrays Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome so badly. It's mentioned and then just forgotten about. Theres no further exploration into Violet overcoming her disability, experiencing symptoms, having to deal with chronic pain (or muscle cramps at inconvenient times), etc. As someone who read the book because my fiance and a lot of his family has EDS, I was really disappointed with the representation. It feels like the author added in a disability for brownie points rather than letting it affect the character or plot in any way.
Same! I have EDS (or something similar to it), and it's so stupid how easily it's ignored.
the author HERSELF has EDS, so idk what ya'll are talking about...
@@katgreer6113Someone can have an illness or disability and be completely uneducated about it and portray it absurdly wrong.
The author may be one of the lucky ones who has a ‘lighter’ version of the disability. However, this does not excuse Violet’s representation; the author lives in the comfortable modern world and is hella rich now and can just sit and vomit out bad books behind a desk, whereas Violet has to fight in the military every day. Even if Violet also has the ‘lighter’ version, she would still suffer infinitely more pain and injuries than the author just because of the difference in lifestyle.
If the author had been educated about her disability, she would know how the same condition affects different people and different lifestyles, well, differently. If she doesn’t even care to portray her own disability in a meaningful manner, what part of her book does she care about? 🤑
To what you said about brownie points, there's a video interview of Yarros where you can see her explaining how "in a hero's journey, you can only overcome where your weaknesses are,” and “if you're going to have a dragon rider academy, you have to have someone who the odds are absolutely against in order for you to root for them.” She also goes on immediately to say that she then pitched the idea of including chronic illness rep to her editor. Linking these two together, the narrative that creates in my mind is one in which Yarros potentially gives her main character a disability in order to get us to root for them, rather from a "I want to represent people like me" perspective. She uses disability at least in part so elicit sympathy, which feels… not great? There’s obviously the added context of Yarros herself and her sons having EDS, but the framing of her conversation just felt off to me. And as others have said, just because she is disabled doesn't mean she can't accidentally perpetuate ableism/represent things in ways that are potentially harmful or just not that great.
Also one issue I personally had with the book is that Violet is seen as weak and in need of help because of her disability, and is ultimately 'admired' because she overcomes her symptoms. You can't overcome your disability, and it's unhealthy and ableist to encourage people to do that. For that reason, this book just feels a bit harmful in the sense that it is perpetuating force-of-will and teeth-gritting overcoming of her disability, as if that's in any way realistic or healthy. That kills people. Recently, a woman with EDS died because of this narrative. It's such insidious ableism that most people miss it. But I've seen fans of this book tout it as "super inspiring".
Yarros has said that she "can’t get out there and climb mountains", but wrote a book in which someone with EDS is doing the equivalent of climbing a mountain every other week.
She also has stated that she thinks she "can do justice to what it’s like living with EDS", but wrote a book in which the daily life experiences of having EDS don’t seem to really factor in or reflect in the character’s choices beyond plot injuries.
I just didn't like the disability conversation or depiction in this book, and it's because at almost every turn it feels shallow and steeped in ableist rhetoric (that i don't think even Yarros is aware of).
Empowerment shouldn't be sold to us through the message of "just try harder". This is obviously my subjective experience of the book, and personally, I found it to be a really uncomfortable read.
@@aquarium8650 omg don't get me started on how we're told everything was supposedly so hard for Violet, but then the author chose to empower her through making things even harder (like doing double the training, and Tairn making her training harder than the flight instructor), and the author also chose to not have Violet do things to manage her pain, so some of the odds being stacked against Violet also feel like they’re partially Violet’s fault 😅 She chooses the path of suffering in not going to the mender, not searching out pain relieving herbs, not taking steps to accommodate her body and protect it from harm. Calling this inspiring/empowering/"good" rep makes no sense to me, i just don't see it 😭
If Violet is fragile as glass, how the f*ck can she survive having sex with her love interest!? DEATH BY SNU SNU!!!
i guess the same way people with the actual disorder have sex with their partners
He was gentle with her 😏
Unlike you, some men don't jackhammer the entire time.
@@jojogodtier Considering the nature of this book, I bet your ass he wasn't lmao
@@BeansRiceCornandSpiceYou can't bet someone else's ass...
What's also absurd is that new recruits have to climb a rock face, without any previous climbing training. Alpine climbing is a learned skill that takes a ton of training to do it safely. So a total newbie falling to their death trying to climb something beyond their experience has zero to do with their lack of talent and ability, just with their lack of training. So when applying to a military school the new students are killed because they lack the training that the military school is supposed to give them. How dumb is that!
It would make so much more sense if they were coming out of previous military training. They keep talking about the infantry but nobody does basic training around here? Wtf?
@@hedgers2005 Yeah, like real world military airplanes dragonriders have to fight aerial threats in air to air combat and they have to do close air support for friendly troops, possibly bombing enemy targets, reconnaissance and possibly rescue and transport of high ranking officers to where they are needed. They need in depth knowledge about the troops on the ground they are supposed to support. They even need to have a means of communicating with the ground troops, like maybe with signal flags or something.
There’s no climbing a rock face… what are you talking about lmao
I think divergend pulled the same shit and it was just as stupid. Before any kind of military training training, you forced teenagers who have never exercised in their lives to jump of moving trains onto rooftops that were many meters away. One kid died in an instant, and I thought great, this dude could have been the best fighter of his generation and you just threw him of a cliff. Good job, everyone
@@hedgers2005That reminds me of the game Valkyria Chronicles, it mentions and goes into more detail in a codex entry that regular schools have military classes including tank courses. Why? Since the story takes place in a small nation that borders larger military powers, this helps prepare citizens for times of war in which many of them would be drafted into the Gallian Militia to help back up the regular military. That right there is far more interesting and logical with a fantastic cast of characters who make it up.
Anyway I better get back to driving these Imperials out of Gallia.
SQUAD 7 MOVE OUT!
Me, naive: I love dragons! I wish a dragon book would be mainstream and super popular
Monkey’s paw: *finger curls*
Books like this are hardly mainstream.
How to train your Dragon is more likely to come up than this.
@@scarletsilveriron HtTYD is mainstream because of the Dreamworks movies. In terms of fantasy fiction that has yet to be adapted... I have never seen a book take off like this before. It has been number one on the NYT Bestseller's list for the last three weeks. The sequel was up there he previous three weeks. Fourth Wing has been up there for at least 18 weeks (non-consecutively) since release. Stephen King and Brandon Sanderson usually get one week for their big release, IF that.
I have seen this book everywhere, both IRL and online. It takes up a significant amount of shelf space both at Target and Costco. UA-camrs who have never talked about books before are talking about this book.
I mean, wings of fire is pretty popular, and I heard it's good
@@BeansRiceCornandSpice It's okay, I've read most of them, but it's written by one of the authors who wrote the warrior cats books and it's aimed at the same audience and has a lot of the same issues. Still not as bad as fourth wing tho lol
Best part about the whole "students kill each other" thing is that we have somewhat of a historic precedent. Originally, the officer corps came from the nobility and/or upper class. Which were the same people who liked to settle their disputes with duels, often to the death. Which they of course continued to do while in the army.
The militaries eventually had to clamp down on this because *obviously* they realized how stupid it was to let their best officers kill each other over some bullshit.
And those were proper, formal duels, not people attacking each other randomly.
Actually a place where young military trainees were not beyond being killed in training was ancient Sparta. Very brutal society that on the long run wasn't successful because of that trait.
it seemed to happen like in Casinovas menoiors and in war and peace but they were kinda illegal by then and not nescessaily about killing your oponent. Some people just avoided it like Anatole Kuragin running away from Andrei
This sounds like the author watched Terrible Writing Advice and took all of the “advice” to heart without realizing it was satire. Super-special awesome protagonist that’s the bestest there ever was, a love triangle (square? Hexagon?), the entire plot just being a thin excuse for the author’s power fantasy, worldbuilding that actively tries to avoid believability and consistency, it’s got it all!
SUPER LOVE HEXAGON
THE LOVE TRIANGLE!!
After seeing the words "Terrible Writing Advice," I imagined everything else in your comment being said in JP's voice.
violet definitely is not the ‘bestest there ever was’ it’s so obviously stated she is never the best fighter out of the riders, never the best dragon rider (actually she’s the worst), never gets the fastest times in any of the challenges, never gets offered leadership roles etc. the whole IDEA of the book is that she isn’t the most awesome most powerful at all. she’s the opposite. sure, she needs to have something going for her (namely, the two dragons) because otherwise she would be an incredibly boring main character.
as for the love ‘triangle square hexagon,’ there’s barely any instances where we even view Dain as a solid love interest. She stops being remotely interested in him about 10% into the book. it’s extremely clear Xaden is the only love interest.
To be polite, how do you build an army if everyone's murdering each other?
You don't 😂
You recruit a necromancer.
😂@@dustrose8101 💀💀🏺
@@dustrose8101 That would actually be kind of hilarious. Some poor, overworked necromancer running around and reanimating all of these idiots to try and fashion them into a semi-functional army.
@@natesamadhi33Terrible writing advice reference!?
That ending rant spoke to my soul, as a writer shitty books getting popular used to encourage me because I thought a good book would do twice as well. I’m not so sure anymore and it’s depressing
As a writer myself as well, same, unfortunately...
It’s really not that big of a deal. The publishing industry is gigantic. Just because tropey books like this get popular doesn’t mean that a good book (whatever the hell that means. Good is subjective) won’t get popular alongside it. Perhaps if you look around harder you’ll find them.
@@Moony1568 I don’t think Booktok is completely bad, as much as I don’t like their ‘reading aesthetic’ videos, they have done a tremendously great job at getting people interested in reading again. However, their choices in books are repetitive, and they do not expand their horizons. And here’s the thing, they don’t like books for their plots, characters, or worldbuilding, they just like them for their troupes. And there’s nothing wrong with liking troupes, but troupes are supposed to be tools for stories, not the main selling point in your books.
That’s why you see ‘Enemies to Lovers’ in the titles of so many fantasy YA books. These authors are not confident in their stories to grasp the attention of readers, so they heavily rely on what they their readers find hot, and Booktok only encourages this type of thinking. My mental state with my own writing was influenced by Booktok, I thought I needed to severely change my writing style in order to have people see my book. Admittedly, this does boil down to insecurities, but it is also an example on how trends negatively affect the creativity of young writers, who think that their books won’t be popular unless they pander to a certain troupe. Yes, a good book may be as popular as the generic white girl protag YA, but it will always be overshadowed by Booktokers hyping up a book that in all honesty does not deserve it.
@Moony1568 I think the point was that you have to "look harder" in the first place. This book exploded over the fantasy scene, and if you write in the same genre, it's easy to be discouraged when something with so many flaws has a rabid fan base. (Who literally only read the same handful of tropes in various formats over and over.) It's incredibly disheartening, and I don't think it's an exaggeration or over dramatic to feel so.
Even if your book isn't popular with the masses upon release, trust, if it's good, the right audience will still find it. Most great art isn't appreciated until long after it has been published.
That end rant was so cathartic to hear! I agree so much. I've always read fantasy, romance, and dabbled in paranormal romance, but this new "romantasy" genre is so awful. It shows absolutely no respect for fantasy as a genre and what really boils my blood is ppl saying "oh well it's a good introduction to fantasy for ppl who read romance". No it's not! Bc when those ppl go to pick up a real fantasy book (IF they ever do) they're all "ugh why does it have [feature common in fantasy]".
I recently ran into this looking at reviews for the Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri. Ppl reading it bc it's sapphic were complaining about the slow pacing and I was like?? Yeah it's a 550 pg fantasy novel. It's building a world and complex characters. It takes time.
Not counting that if you're used to air-sandwich romances like fourth wing then I can imagine how excruciating it would feel to read actual character development and detailed relationships between characters
You're so right. It's doing absolutely nothing to improve the fantasy genre or introduce people to it properly.
Air-sandwich is such a good way of describing these stories. They're just complete nothingburgers
Jasmine throne isssooo good!!!
Imagine these people reading something like Franksenstein and wondering why there's no slow burn enemies-to-lovers love dodecahedron.
you know what WAS slow? 700 pages of violet and xdude (cant remember his name) thirsting for each other. mf i cant believe i read this
The thing that’s crazy about the EDS (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome) rep is that the author actually has it so it looking like tokenism is just her being bad at writing. And also I’m fairly sure she’s pro American military, so that’s why none of the interesting war topics were explored.
It’s gotta be on the milder side of the spectrum because if Violet genuinely is supposed to have EDS there’s no fucking way she wouldn’t be subluxing the entire time (and I do really mean the entire time as neither I or any of the other EDS havers I know would have been able to do any of those stunts without a joint popping out of place). She’d be fully dislocating a bunch as well and that’s really not the sort of thing you can just “push through” since you have to be so careful putting joints back and whatever you’ve dislocated is pretty useless until it’s back where it should be. And that’s just the joint stuff. I’m not accusing the author of faking whatsoever but what I am saying is that there’s no way she’s actually educated on EDS and there’s no way she ever engages with the wider zebra community at length. It’s a frankly offensive portrayal at best
Her being a military woman makes everything make so much more sense. Also, nice Viktor pfp!
@@sunscreenhoarder6558She probably has the same mild kind I do. I rarely experience dislocations or subluxations as long as I am careful. Instead I'm floppy, tired, sore, and general struggle to not be a couch potato. But I can do basically every variation of the splits, pull my pinkie flat to the back of my hand, and a disturbing number of people in my family died of aneurysms. Hooray.
What's wrong with being pro American military?
I've read, or I guess I should say, tried to read Yarros' other books years ago, long before she wrote Fourth Wing and was discovered by Booktok. Both those books were just contemporary romance books where the male LI was in the military, so that kind of subject is her thing (I think her husband/some other family member of hers is in the military), though it wasn't really about war in general. It was your run of the mill, crappy contemporary romance with an annoying douchey love interest, which is why I DNF'd both books I read. That being said, they weren't the worst thing I ever read. They sucked, but I've read much worse. I think that explains why Fourth Wing is just a boring romance with war haphazardly mixed in. The author's other books weren't giving her a ton of attention (though she still had pretty good ratings on GR), so maybe she decided to switch it up and do fantasy? Honestly, it's the wrong move. Sure, her contemporary books aren't good either but they're a lot less sloppy than Fourth Wing and it showed that she actually gave a shit about what she's writing about.
I'm still trying to figure out why dragon riders, who are basically air bound cavalry, learning to engage in hand to hand fighting techniques. If you're on the ground, it's probably because you fell - and if you fell - chances are you were high enough to have reached terminal velocity. Why are we not learning ranged weapons, better magic control, or like do we not have magical firearms? We have "magelights" - not sure if the dragon riders make those or if there's an external group of mages.
And wouldn't it make more sense to send the children of your enemies to the front line of the infantry?
This book was made for thirst and not for thought.
Regardless of the role in the field, it doesn't hurt for troops of any kind to have multidisciplinarity. Specializing in one role doesn't hinder the utility of knowing how to do multiple things. That's why IT guys who go to the military-at least in my country-must also go through survival training.
@@dethragm2171 While I can appreciate the need to have well rounded soldiers, I'd probably point out that the book doesn't really cover other essential skills for their basic function to the same degree as it does the sparring.
The sparring is literally here because it's expected in the genre, adds cheap action, and an excuse for her to get close to Xaden.
It's not like they are actually getting formative basic training or survival training with a variety of weapons regularly. It might get mentioned in passing, but I'd argue skills related to riding, acrobatics, ranged weapon options, cartography, meteorology, and aerial combat tactics would be priorities over unbarred hand to hand combat or knife skills in fights where you are literally not punished for killing your sparring partner.
@_@ Like there is no reason or logic to the world building.
the reason the rebels are sent to the riders quadrant is because they want to kill them off indirectly. riders die more often than infantry students
That kind of reminds me of the book Skyborn, where that was the actual mindset they took. The flying army are given swords as part of their standard equipment, but that is more just a formality because it is far easier, safer, and more effective to use elemental magic during arial combat (especially when inertia is actually referenced, making high speed collisions a very real danger).
The main character ended up being a sword specialist, but that was only because she initially sucked at magic (she blows all of her reserve on one attack, every time; and when she doesn’t, it’s because she wrapped the magic around her swords) but was really skilled at flying (allowing her to narrowly avoid collisions if she gets in close enough for melee weapons).
When the mentioned the black dragon I instantly said: “She’s going to bond to him, isn’t she?” So many tropes that I wasn’t surprised at all
I actually expected her to bond with the smaller dragon, which I thought "hey, that'd match, she gets a smaller yet faster dragon which will aid her use her wi-" nope she bonds with the two of them. I agree, it's a tiresome read if you've read anything of actual substance before.
So I basically read this book without realising she had a disability?!?!?! *sigh* i think its mainly due to her special needs being named and then FORGOTTEN as the book goes by.
Except magic white hair ends.
The saddle is also a thing and I thought that was a genuinely nice moment.
I survived a heart attack this year. I'm currently reading Fourth Wing. Reading this book physically hurts me more than my heart attack did.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
How's your recovery going? Did the fourth wing do you in?
@@ianbailey4213 Thanks for asking. It's not going as great as I hoped, but hanging in there. I have to admit that I yielded to Fourth Wing and dnf it. My life might be too short for bad books. I'm currently reading The Mirror Visitor and it's really good, I'm sad not more people are talking about it.
If i had a nickel for every book James read in the lasy year with a female lead who has an affinity for lightning I'd have three nickels, which isn't a lot but its weird that it happened three times
wait I only know about red queen and fourth wing, there's THREE? 😭
What's the name of the third one?😮
I think it's because Red Queen gets ripped off so frequently.
Things I've gotten from the summary:
-The author clearly wanted to write a character who uses her wits instead of her physical strength, but the problem is that she faces no real challenges. As a result, the story falls flat because the author focused on making the protagonist look cool. There have to be real stakes for the plot to matter.
-The names of the characters bother me because they sound like names American parents give their children in 2023. Coming up with names is hard, but it breaks the immersion.
-I knew exactly what Zayden was as soon as James said his name. Make your love interests more than love interests, people! Or write a story without a love interest.
Edit: I hate the amnesia trope. Literally nobody in literature writes it correctly. The fix is a simple Google search.
Zayden is spelled with an X 😭
@@jasminv8653as if it could get worse... Jesus
I heard that some of the names are supposed to be Gaelic but that the author doesn't know how to pronounce their names because in multiple interviews/tiktoks she has said them differently for the same name... 💀 take that as you will. A writer took it so personally they wrote an article about it.
the knife-wall climbing thing feels like the author tried to give the protagonist a mulan moment, like the one where she climbed a pole using the rope on the weights, except in this case it wasn't actually clever and just... embarrassing
Not only does this author make dragons boring, but they somehow made a fairly interesting idea for Wyverns if it wasn't for the fact that you don't even fucking see them on the page
I’ve heard that she’s gunna put them in the second book. But that’s just word of mouth, and I honestly don’t care to find out because the book is just trashy. Straight trashy…
There were wyverns in the end tho
They were given no description other than having two legs and being slightly bigger than dragons.
Yeah, so boring that she's been on the best seller's list for how many weeks? duh
@@amythompson6431 and guess what, so was Alex Aster and you know how people reacted to her, this is no different
And if you look at Iron Flame, its literally the same book yet with lower ratings
Selling points don't mean shit if you can't make something good with it
so glad you agree, i absolutely hated this book and how everyone dickrides it. it was unbearable. the romance is lacking, the world building is lacking, and honestly half the plot makes no sense and i just don’t like the main character considering she’s like half a mary sue archetype. booktok never has good taste genuinely disappoints me when terrible or cliche books get the hype when there are so many incredible authors and books that forever fly under the radar.
also, her use of “modern slang” or the dashes in a fantasy book made me cringe. and the sentences where the main character was like “HE. IS. SO. FUCKING. HOT.” or the famous, “Get you in trouble level of sexy fucking hot.” whatever bullshit she wrote. the tacky nickname “violence” and the whole “he’s my enemy, he wants to kill me” even though xaden (stupid ass name) has only tried to protect her. i don’t know why everyone loves this book and calls it “fun” which i think is because it’s a dragon book. just go read eragon?
@@nazhoni and dragonriders of pern, and any how to train your dragon?! tamriel series. thereare enough.
It's all a matter of opinion, though, and this author succeeded and has been on the best seller's list for weeks and is still on there! So, many people loved it; I suggest you get over it.
@@amythompson6431 lol u get over it. js cos a majority of the fantasy-romance demographic like this book does not invalidate any opinions or critique made about the book. dunno y u thought this was a valid contribution to the conversation
@@blaiseywaiseyriot Actually, it does! LOL
This book and it’s marketing tactics need to be studied. Absolutely blows my mind how people love this book.
You must be new to humanity.
Ever heard of the Twilight movies, or 50 shades, or Happily Ever, or Fast and Furious...need I proceed?
@@dr.j7542there's some new stuff going on here ... At least in Germany people went feral over Limited Editions of 4th wing. Willing to pay 300 Euros (almost the same as 300 Dollars) for copies with sprayed edges. Twilight wasn't that wild in sense of Limited Editions and different editions of the same book. It's insane what 4th wing did on the German book market and it had a huge impact. Authors speak about how books without sprayed edges won't sell any more and so on.
The marketing regarding 4th wing went to "how do we make as much money as possible with the same book over and over again." Not even twilight went this path.
@@dr.j7542😂
@@dr.j7542 “YoU mUsT bE nEw To HuMaNiTy” not everybody reads, dipshit. Twilight and 50 Shades are actually well written, but with a questionable story line. I personally believe that good writing is what makes a story work. But with Fourth Wing, the righting itself is just downright terrible. The story is attractive, I guess, but I’m an English major and I’ve read a TON of books and it’s just crazy to me how such a terribly written book gets THIS much traction.
So stop being an asshole, and maybe educate and help those who don’t understand. Dick.
@@Felarof245 I think the prettiness of the book is a factor. Certainly drew me in. Plus I'm a sucker for dragons.
They also ruined the ROMANCE GENRE. Because of TikTok, all we have is BDSM. You can't even mention a book without mentioning the "spice level." 🙄 At this point, it's virtually impossible to find a true love story/genuine romance. All we have is porn skits to read.
It's not even good bdsm, it's just 'rough' missionary for no reason...
@@jasminv8653😂 it's bad
OK, but what are you complaining about. All the books that were written before this new trend, still exist. There are lists of fantasy, romance or both even on Wikipedia. Recommendations are all over the internet. The books that are 5 or 15 or 35 years old are not disintegrated, they are in shops, libraries, illegal sites, all over.
@@Spiderkote Sure, and then what happens when we're done or tired of combing through all of that? I go to used book stores all the time (which have a lot more old and lesser known fiction than my library does), hunt through recommendations, and search around on the web, and do you know how often I actually find something I want to read? I've tried exactly 3 new book series this year, one of them barely counts because it's in the same world with some of the same characters as a different series I've read, and another one was written for children.
I'm an admittedly picky reader in some ways. My standards for quality might be considered high by some, and I don't like reading stuff that's too identical to something else I've read before, but I'm particular about the types of stories I want to read. It can't be too grim, the characters have to be interesting, and if it's not fantasy there's a significantly lower chance that I will be interested, though it's not impossible.
Whether or not there's an old book out there that you would really love, if it wasn't very popular, good luck finding it or even learning about its existence in the first place. New stuff is the stuff that's the easiest to find, it's the stuff that businesses are shoving in your face, and everyone else is always talking about. While old books shouldn't be forgotten, we should give a shit about the new stuff too, the quality of it (or lack thereof), and the fact that a lot of the writers who are actually putting out quality work these days don't get the recognition they deserve.
I can't tell you how many times I've been in conversations with other readers where they ask me who my favorite authors are, and they don't recognize a single name on my list, be they old or new authors. Sometimes I'll throw in some more well known writers that I like, and there are still more people than I expect who don't recognize them.
You should try "Where the River Meets the Soul" by S. Nicole! It's an ace romance with plenty of fantasy, action, and emotional based romance. It's a story about a woman on a mission to restore a magical flower to save her dying sister.
That shirt is so evil lmao
I have that shirt as well and it's caused multiple people to walk up to me just to tell me I've ruined their day XD
Can someone explain to me what it is
What do y- pffffhahahahahaha!
@@KromiballJust watch fullmetal alchemist brotherhood. It's a spoiler for that
@@Kromiball in the anime/manga Fullmetal Alchemist / FMA Brotherhood, one of the most well known and most tragic parts is one early in the first parts of the story.
The little girl, Nina, her dad was often busy studying his alchemy, and her mom was dead. So until the main characters Ed and Al came along, she was a really lonely 4-5 year old girl who only had her dog Alexander to play with.
Anyway, her father, Shou, had more than a few screws loose, and alchemists who work for the State must get recertified each year. Her father was panicked about his certification maybe not being renewed due to lack of progress in his alchemical experiments. His goal: creating chimeras.
So, at first things are so sweet and the kids have fun together, but after a few days, Ed and Al come back to find the girl gone. They find Shou in his lab, and he shows them a dog-like beast with human hair around it's head.
Shou had used alchemy to fuse Alexander and Nina into a dog-beast. The cruellest part is that Nina retained her sapience as the creature. She even tried to defend her father when Ed realized the horror he'd done, and she got Ed and Al to leave.
But the tragedy wasn't over yet, of course. Ed reports Shou, and Shou and Nina go under house arrest until the legal system can try to figure shit out. But... An assassin who has been killing State Alchemists comes and kills Shou. And when he sees Nina, he kills her as well, though from his perspective killing her was an act of mercy for her since she was suffering a lot in her new fucked up body.
So, back to the shirt. The shirt is a dark joke, as it shows Nina and Alexander doing what I think is a Dragon Ball Z fusion pose.
Hence why I said it's an evil shirt lol
One thing that makes no sense is how Dragons are super powerful and they give them to the children of the rebels. That is like giving the 6th Jan rioters the nuclear codes. It is so stupidly dumb.
I also loved how you had some over the top fantasy names and then you've got Jack Barlowe
Why do Americans have to shoehorn their politics into EVERYTHING. We're all just vibing having laughs and sharing thoughts on a work of fiction and you just had to interject your divisive bullshit. The world doesn't revolve around your country or its social issues.
@@remus4283my brother in christ we're not the only ones with nukes or a shitty government, nothing is special over here
@@arkkon2740 Here we go...
ikr they put the rebels kids in the riders program thing to kill them off, but did they seriously not consider what would happen if some of them past? And their plan is literally backfiring on them, Xaden and his friends are literally part of a rebellion
Lmao they think Jan 6 was a riot 💀
I dont even mind people enjoying these type of books but it really pissses me off when they think these books are the best *fantasy* books out there, this is not fantasy its plain romance with a dash of fantasy elements that has nothing to do with the plot of the book.
This reads like someone who exclusively read HTTYD smut fanfic that didn’t understand the themes or what makes Hiccup a compelling protagonist
"Dragons in this book are all given Scottish-Gaelic names, which is... kinda neat, I guess. I wish more people spoke Scottish-Gaelic - then you would know my last name is pronounced *TAHL-IS!* "
34:34 I feel like Ranger’s Apprentice is really good because of how it utilizes this concept. With how Will is initially denied becoming a knight since he is small and is instead recruited as a ranger taking into account his skills with being sneaky and good at climbing.
That series is amazing.
@@gavinsmith9871 on god. it started a lifelong addiction.
nahhh that series was my fucking JAM when i was a lil disabled menace 😭😭
I really think it would have been more interesting if Violet started out as a Scribe, was chosen by her dragons, and had to jump into becoming a Rider. Admittedly, that’s a more clichéd opening plot, but it would have allowed for more fleshing out of the academy. I think it would also give her classmates clearer motivations to kill her. And if Dain(?) were made a fellow Scribe, he’d be a sharper contrast to Xenon. (Or whatever his name is.) Right now the main difference between Dain and Xenon is that Dain fusses over Violet and Xenon does not.
Imagine the actual banger this book could have been if it had been about an actually disabled character being constantly looked down upon that bonded with a disabled dragon that everyone also looks down upon and they found a way to use their size and skill to their advantage in a unique way. The dragon could have a particularly powerful or unique kind of magic that they have to train and learn to use without it being self destructive. There were so many options.
no offence god literally described the plot. this is basically what happens? everyone hates violet because she’s weak, she bonds the smallest dragon (and yeah sure Tairn too) and has to accommodate for her disability by using a saddle?
@@izzytrainor2390 Nono I think you misunderstood what I meant here. Violet is disabled but she's not ACTUALLY disabled. She's a token character, probably for marketing, that doesn't have to actually deal with her disability except for with a saddle, which, the fact that saddles aren't used for riding dragons in this universe anyway is so dumb to me. She's weak and yet she's extremely agile which is not realistic for EDS since it affects the joints so much. If she was a character who actually wanted to be a dragon rider but everyone was trying to force her to be a scribe because of her disability, bonded to a dragon which was similarly looked down upon and didn't get a crazy buff from another dragon, and because of their shared experience of being considered disabled their bond became super powerful or something, they'd have to fight with an entirely different strategy than everyone else which could become very important to the battle plans over all. It could have been actual rep for a disability and been an interesting take on the idea of dragon riders.
The Ascendant Series by Micheal Miller. The MC isn't disabled, the dragon is but the MC is from a lower class and broke laws and bonded the dragon ( he sort of didn't mean to though). Its a good fantasy read.
@@arawin25 oh thank you for the recommendation, I'll look into it!
So, How to Train Your Dragon?
"If people are hyping up a book on TikTok, that inevitably means that it is shit."
Liked. Subscribed. Nothing further, your honour.
The reveal that Tullos is not a Hispanic last name is greater than anything in the novel.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that
I always thought it was Greek,
I thought it was Greek as well and my country has shared a government with Scotland of three hundred years.
i thought its a roman or itslian name
Omg that shirt! We will never escape one of anime’s most upsetting plot lines.
FMA fans have one joke and it's always funny.
TRULY, i audibly groaned when i saw it
@@tbotalpha8133Damn, you're right
I honestly think that this book was AI, listening to this review. Then they had a couple editors move through it. I really don't know if people are capable of this.
One aspect that shocks me is most people who liked Fourthwing's concept have never heard of the Dragonriders of Pern series.... And, I don't like that series, but every time I hear about Fourthwing it makes me realize how much BETTER the Pern books are by comparison.
they went into it for the romance, not the fantasy. trust me.
Yes, listening the description of the plot, I couldn’t help thinking that this was a very creepy Pern fanfic. It literally rips out elements from McCaffrey's series, like the dragon's mating flight, and uses them incredibly poorly.
There was also this other, lesser known series, by some Naomi Hunt I think that was about dragon riders during the napoleonic wars. Never read it but once got the book in a used lot.
@@felipedasilveira5808 Naomi Novik, 1st is His Majesty's Dragon. They are very good! Good author in general. Saw her do a reading once at a con.
@@minngael that's the one!
I believe (from your description, not reading it) that she has Ehlers-Danlos; ‘better’ forms of it (like mine) basically make you stretchy and flexible but you best watch those joints because they tear easily. Like, I’m not allowed to play baseball because of the unnatural arm motion easily.
Yes! Hello fellow zebra 😊 I read an interview with the author and apparently she has it too. It’s baffling that she did such a bad job in representing it. But I guess she would have needed some magical healing , because every hypermobile person I know wouldn’t excel in such a school. But magical healing is frowned upon by the tick-tock crowd, so now authors just use “it’s barely an inconvenience” for their disability rep. For me this is so much more infuriating. I recently read a book where a leg amputee character could walk for weeks without getting bothered by their premodern prosthesis, and another was a street urchin in a wheelchair and became a master smith just by watching some forging. I was just 🤷♀️ seeing it everywhere praised for its disability representation, because I know people with this and our modern help and they wouldn’t be able to achieve this. Like here Violet with a bad case of Ehler Danlos but is just powering through.
I also (very likely, it takes forever to get anything confirmed as a zebra) have it and i have a pretty mild case. I still face regular injuries from just normal activities where it's painful to walk or move for days. No way could I ever do any kind of fighting school.
Another hypermobile person here! My health hasn't deteriorated that much yet but while I don't dislocate joints usually, I experience lots of chronic and also random pain. As a child it was only being flexible and, looking back, some more "benign" symptoms, but in my 20s I began to experience the pain and hyperextension on a daily. I can no longer use coloured pencils for colouring art because the way I hold and apply pressure pencils causes too much pain, (though I haven't tried out any of these soft grip extensions that are supposedly good for the joints) and even with compression gloves it puts a hard limit on how long I can draw - which sucks because my focus gets so deep sometimes and when I was younger I could draw for hours and hours on my tablet. I can no longer run up stairs without pain, and before the pain started I loved taking stairs (I know, weird preferred form of exercise lol). I'm putting off finding physical therapists because it's such a tedious thing,even with insurance. Tissue disorders can be so different from person to person, but what we can all agree on is that Violet is not great representation for what we go through lol even with fluctuating symptoms - like using mobility aids some days - there is just no way for someone, fictional or not, to experience these limitations in that way unless they're on some magical medication or PT regime for movement,strength and pain management. It's such a wasted opportunity for readers who might want representation for themselves
@@Flareontoast it’s totally different for everyone, I agree. And I could do a lot of sports although running is unfortunately not possible anymore. Of course you shouldn’t take medical advice from a stranger, but as someone who also loves to draw: there are other techniques how to hold a pen, google it. The way they teach us at school is unfortunately the worst for hypermobile fingers… it takes a while to learn it, but it’s so worth it, when you still can do your favorite hobby. About the therapist: try to look for someone who is a specialist or has it too. Common ones can give the total wrong advice! I got so much better with my current one, still no dagger sparring and dragon riding 😅but stairs are no problem anymore and they used to be for me. Best of luck! 🤗
The only reason i know about this book is because i googled my own name and this was a result and the fact that i share the same god damn name as Xaden makes me want the sweet release of death
Have you tried legally changing your name?
Another thing that was incredibly annoying about the story is that at one point, Violet finds out that they *have* to recruit the kids of the traitors because they're running out of people to conscript to the army.
And yet at no point do they consider that perhaps they should stop doing things that kill off their incoming cadets every damn day. It's mind boggling.
@@jojobookish9529and MAYBE JUST MAYBE not make it so that the FIRST task is climbing with ZERO experience
God, thank you, you've been saying what I've been thinking about for months.
I want to be a fantasy writer, and I've been working on a project for 7 years, and the fact that this is the shit that goes popular mortifies me. I've been putting so much care and so much time into my world and all of my characters that I'm terrified my books will get overshadowed by superficial, shallow, passion lacking, unloved by their own authors sagas that just get sellings because an algorithm that rewards consumerism and brain rot decides that it deserves more attention, despite the lack of EVERYTHING that they offer.
I might not be an excellent writer, but hell, i would never be so careless about any of my projects. These authors are just beating the cash machine with poorly written and edited books so people that have never gone out of their Wattpad phase can waste their money on them.
Since June, I've been trying to fill the huge gaps on my shelves from not reading in some years (depressive episodes and school and crap like that), and whenever I tried to go and find new fantasy/sci-fy/terror/thriller books, all I got recommended is the equivalent of literary fast food, and its taken me MONTHS not only to find your channel (after hundreds of other channels that love these kinds of books like Fourth Wing), but also actually find good book recommendations.
I believe that, the more you read about other people's fantasy projects, the more you can improve your own, and as an author, it doesn't help that everything that's in the market right now is shitty YA romantasy.
I fully agree with you on that.
I remember when I was a kid, how people encouraged me to read more in hopes of me learning new things and improving my grammar and overall language. I thought authors were highly intelligent people (professors, one-in-a-generation geniuses), the chosen few with loads of talent
Now, every shmock sitting in front of a laptop can become a legend overnight, aided by a brain-dead algorithm on a platform for people who don't actually care about books.
Book-tok is such a joke. The amount of cheesy shorts, where the story of a 500 pages long novel can be summarised in 3 sentences, is insane.
AND THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME
Huge complex topics that literally shape humanity as a whole are condensed into cheap entertainment because no one cares to actually explore them.
War, rebellion, human cruelty. Ugly topics that do not revolve around the protagonist's sex drive and her lovers.
I have thrown away so many first drafts thinking they had no actual market value, but behold people. THE BOOK WITH NO CONFLICT.
How is that even possible. Why does this exist. Nothing is important in this shit
Wtf
@@user-kb6st1qo6o That's why I've always tried to aim for my books to have minimal romance and only use it for subplots that could actually aid the main plot and bring a bit of drama, but never center a whole story just around it.
I'm tired of, because I'm a woman people assume I like romantasy and I write it, when it's the contrary. Romantasy as a concept is not bad on itself, but these writers are ruining it.
As nother youtuber said, when writing a book that has two different genres (let's say romantasy cause it's the most popular rn), you have to bring the same level of attention to both aspects of the story. What most nowadays romantasy writers are doing is writing a shitty romance story with a fantasy world that makes no sense or contradicts itself, basically because they just wanna write a romance but use some new stuff that they have no idea how to handle and call it a day cause its gonna sell anyways.
They don't care about literature, they don't care about writing a meaningful story, they just care about the cash that it brings. And I'm so deeply saddened that so many people are starting to read for all the wrong reasons.
Does it keep the industry alive? Yeah. Would it make it more difficult for writers that don't wanna do romantasy to publish their projects and have them be as marketed as Fourth Wing? Absolutely.
Romantasy is ruining the genre, I'm tired of buying a book that seems interesting and be fucking jumpscared by a whole ass romance between two walking stereotypes.
As someone who used to read on Wattpad, I have read books far _far_ better than whatever the fuck booktok loves at any given moment. Authors who love their work, who edit and re-edit and then edit that even more. Authors who love their characters or love the plot or both. Authors who make you clutch your seat when the character is in trouble, who make you laugh, cry or be angry alongside the characters. Authors who make you feel like you were in the battle with the characters or make you feel like you are in love with the character the protag is in love with. Authors who make you care for the side characters as much as you care for the main character. Authors who have been let down time and again by the publishing industry just to see this garbage get >4.5 stars overall on goodreads.
Listen, I'm not against simple and easy-to-read works. Mediocre Wattpad novels, Greek Mythology, Fairy Tales and Moral Stories are what taught me English and made me fall in love with fiction and especially, fantasy. I cannot be against what has given me one of my greatest loves. I am also not against romance or even romance in fantasy. I am a sucker for well-done and healthy romance in any genre even though I wouldn't mind not having romance in well, any genre other than romance. Romance executed well makes me giddy, happy, hopeful and makes me fall in love with the world yet again, even if it's just for a few days. I cannot possibly be against what gives me so many positive emotions.
That being said however, booktok's choices are generally, shit. The writing is poor, the plot non-existent and characters unlikable at best. There is no prose to fawn over, no plot to get lost in and no characters you feel for. They call it romantasy when neither the romance nor the fantasy is done well. You choose to mash two well-loved genre and can't even begin to do justice to one of them? If you want to write romantasy, why not set a romance in a world different from ours but without war? I swear, at this point, I think both booktok writers and readers are ashamed to admit they like to read or write smut and just want to hide their love for it under the veil of other genre.
God, tiktok books infuriate me. Idk what infuriates me more: booktok acting like these books are the greatest piece of literature to ever exist or these authors and publishers having no desire to write or publish something of quality. I hate that booktok infuriates me so much because I don't like to be a hater. I love mediocre/shitty/mindless books as much as I love well-written books because those are a great way to keep reading while giving myself time to heal from a book/series I loved (albeit, I don't read shitty/mediocre/mindless books as often nowadays because life rarely allows me to read). But the thing is, the shitty/mediocre/mindless books I love to read are stuff written by random internet people and shared for free on the internet (i.e. stuff on Wattpad and sometimes, AO3), not stuff that not only costs money but also is published by an actual publishing company. I expect quality when I see something that is traditionally published, not whatever disgrace authors like SJM, Rebecca Yarros, CoHo and their many clones write. And these books aren't even in the category of "so bad it's good". Sigh.
I'm pretty sure I have missed some great books written by present-day authors because I actively avoid reading anythingrecommended by booktok or by people who have likedbooks booktok loves. Or even something that sounds like something booktok would love. And that sucks. But I almost read SJM and CoHo before I watched reviews of their books because of booktok hype*. Never again do I want to make that mistake.
*The reason I didn't read them after the reviews was because I realized those books were not the type of books I would read, not even for free. Reading them would've been a waste of my time.
Sorry, that turned out to be a _long_ rant.
P.S. A similar-ish concept done wayyy better imo is "Celeste Academy" series by MyLovelyWriter (R.A. Gil). She's on Wattpad, Tapas and idk where else. I recommend her works. While it's been a couple years since I last went on Wattpad, she used to regularly edit her books so they must be even better now than back then.
@@Saphia_ I've personally never been into Wattpad, mostly because all I heard from it are what my friend reads, and she ain't got the best literary tastes (I love her to pieces and she's been my best friend for 12 years, but the books she reads are quite shitty and most of them from booktok). Which is a shame, considering I've been thinking about posting some fanfic in there to gain an audience for my bigger (eventually to be written and translated, my first language is Spanish) projects that I've been developing for so long.
I don't have anything against people who read from Wattpad, what pisses me off is that the booktok books are written around the infamous model of bad Wattpad fanfic, but done even worse than that because these authors don't really give a shit about their stories because they'll sell anyway.
The thing is that nowadays, there is no middle ground when it comes to literature.
It's either deep shit or high prose. You have to read old classics like Tolstoy or Dostojewskii to make sure your brain is still alive and working and not rotting away in your skull or anything. Which is a shame honestly.
I occasionally read high literature, but I would prefer a style or genre that keeps the balance between introducing unimaginably complex themes and still making it understanble/ accessible to everyone.
Example.War isn't dodgeball you can't just pick a side and call it a day, but on the other hand I still don't want to read about every tactical maneuver in minute detail or the entire two thousand year history of the place I'm at.
Light entertainment doesn't mean it has to be brainless. Just break it down for us commoners ^^
There must be a thousand other bad things to mention but for some reason, I zeroed in on the children of rebels being forced to go to the military school that trains dragon riders. Would you seriously consider training the direct descendants of the violent insurgency alongside your top military units? Many of which no doubt still have parents deeply resentful of the current government and the punishment heaped upon their children? That has to result in tons and tons of insubordination, weapons and equipment going 'missing' and long AWOL periods at best and a second insurrection at worst. Only now they will have trained alongside your military and have infiltrated the entire thing as well as have access to dragons.
Yeah. I guess they should let the rebels run the country and sack the incompetent government.
100% agreed. And if they were really serious about letting those children join, why antagonize them further by branding them with tattoos and treating them differently? Thats just going to make them more resentful. The entire concept of like half the students dying during their time in the school is ridiculous, how can they afford to lose so many potential officers WHEN THERE IS A WAR GOING ON
Tiktok stop having shit taste challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
Throwing pocket orange shred at your opponent is the funniest thing I have ever heard
As a former TikTok user, I can confirm that site is cancerous, and that's without ever having ventured into the Booktok subculture on the site. The people in that fandom sound like the type who were gushing over Twilight back in the day.
As a non-TikTok user, all I know is that it ruins your attention span and is the most prolific source of racism, antisemitism, and conspiratorial missinformation for kids to immerse themselves in since Twitter.
It also pays creators poorly because most of them get a following there, then migrate to UA-cam with a catalogue of shorts and start making long form content instead. 😂
In other words:
TikTok is a mistake I have no wish to partake in. 🤮
it’s disgusting, they’re all a hivemind of shitty books
And that’s fine. People can like what they like.
@@Moony1568 No! *Your fun is wrong and I'm calling the fun-police on you right now!* How dare people enjoy what I don't! 🤣
Edit: Yes, this is sarcasm. Best make that clear. People should be free to enjoy what they want as long as no one unwilling gets hurt or endangered.
@@Moony1568They can, but people can also dislike what they dislike. And there is plenty on TikTok that merits disliking.
Even as cliqued as the book was, I could forgive it until Violet and Xaden started having whole SMUT scenes at the end, with barely any discussion of maybe WHY they felt that attraction to each other. Like maybe because their dragons are in deep deep love so they're being manipulated into liking each other. I think it would have been a lot cooler if they had to fight against that attraction rather than give into it. My favorite review of the book on Goodreads is the one that mentions that the author is somewhat connected to LDS and then all the cursing like a highschooler suddenly made sense 😂
Wait... LDS?
Why is it always LDS?
Fourth wing got recommended to me by some of my friends. All I have to say WTF it was boring and bad. Be fun bad, be interesting bad, etc but never be boring and bad.
Those sound like bad friends
You're absolutely right, J: the BookTok gurlies have only ever led me vapid places teeming with clichés, truly creepy/incest-adjacent romances and straight-up poor writing.
And then somehow they genuinely think all three would he great in a single book
Totally not Colleen Hoover
@arkkon2740 Colleen Hoover whomst? 😁😂
@@interferonGuy lets say she's notorious for making thriller/horror stories while calling it romantic
Like its Jeff the Killer x YN but he's actively killing people in her face for no reason
@arkkon2740 Oh, trust me, I am familiar: I just wouldn't admit it publicly, haha! I was promised that it ends with us. The promise was not kept.
Its so weird coming back to this channel after like a year or two of not seeing anything from it and learning that James is magically hot all of a sudden
No kidding, the boy's all grown up!
Ewww, what??
He looks like Marco Verratti now. It's cute
EDS can be really bad. I’ve got a few friends with it. One is in a wheelchair because his knees just. Don’t work.
i also have EDS, and it's severely disabling and limits my life. that's the whole reason i even read this, and now there's an immensely popular book promoting the HORRIBLE idea that we can just "push through" and then suddenly be exceptional. that it doesn't affect our lives very much. that we're just fragile and weak pussies. the mc was so fucking insufferable and the representation was so bad like i'm fucking fuming bro 😭😭
I have not read Fourth Wing past the first chapter, but from what I hear the most stupid part to me is not the internal murders being allowed. The most stupid part is that dragons bond with their riders, and are supposed to be these fiercely protective creatures, but no saddles and murdering their rider for control is a thing?????
Say what you want about the Novik's Temeraire series, but no matter how dull the last books were, she NAILED the dynamics of the rider being the most important person for military strategy because without them the dragons would not cooperate. Also protecting them at all costs, since danger to the rider would make the dragon frantic in battle. It just does not make sense otherwise.
You can also just don't explain and let readers make assumptions and observations about the nature and mechanics of the bond, like in A Song of Ice and Fire, or you can get inspiration on other animal's behaviors like felines or even use existing lore on dragons that is pretty extensive.
The staff name error you pointed out upsets me so much as someone who has yet to start writing her own novel but deep dives into wormholes of worldbuilding content, conlangs, character archs and foreshadowing, to an excessive point. I guess this is exactly why Violet is such an obvious Mary Sue, usually the author can pull if off when they are IN LOVE with their characters. But I guess the author didn't care as much and it shows. Also you were the first youtuber/reviewer I've seen to catch that one!
Great video, love seeing you getting mad. The end there gave me Chris Evans in Knives Out vibe "Eat shit, eat shit, eat shit." love it
I think you may have misinterpreted the dragons. They're insanely prideful, have a quick temper, and care little for human life, especially weak ones.
The book also takes the Eragorn life bond but switches it around, if the dragon dies, the human dies, but if the rider dies, the dragon can find another. Humans are picked because a bonded rider is granted powers specific to that person, which the dragons use to be better in combat.
The only thing is that this is never expanded upon, dragons are dangerous, but why don't they have a hand on politics but stay in their home, what's the point of fighting if they have a barrier? I love the idea of dragons defending the kingdom to keep their humans vassals but that isn't really used.
The murders are supposed to be explained because there's far fewer dragons willing to bond than riders wanting to, but if strength is the mark of a dragon wanting to bond, why not teach the students grit and get them fully ready for the bond instead of having them figure it out
"I heard your cries and decided to answer / Fourth Wing is worse even than cancer"
~James Tullios, slam poet
To be fair about the second book, since it takes a while to get a book published, it's more likely that she was contracted for two books and she started writing it while the first one was in production. Given that the first book did so well, they probably still wanted to get the second book out as quickly as possible to keep that momentum so they likely still didn't give it the attention it needed to be good or better than the first.
I feel like this book is some weird fever dream of an ao3 crossover fanfic where OOC Astrid Hofferson ends up in the pseudo-medieval equivalent of Dauntless and gets shipped with Kylo Ren for some reason
Thank you so much for making this video. I’m so sick of booktok and readers who demand pandering over genuine good storytelling 🥶
Reasons why TikTok shouldn’t exist: One more for the list!
It's honestly astounding how the entire platform is catered almost solely towards the absolute worst people that even all the other social media sites won't take.
They're too self-righteous for Twitter, too vapid for Instagram, too smug for Reddit and too hive-minded for even UA-cam.
Are there any viral TikTok books that are good or at least solid?
@@Vangluss No.
@@Vangluss Did _This Is How You Lose The Time War_ go viral on TikTok at any point?
Like, it didn't do so originally, and it didn't get its big boost specifically from TikTok. But it could have done so as a side effect. That would count. Though really the issue is more that if a book's hype _only_ comes from TikTok.
Edit: Wait, no, I lied. What TikTok likes in general is bad. I thought about it for like 2 seconds and re-evaluated my position. Not universally. But like 99% of the time. (Gonna just vent about how much I hate R F Kuang again.)
@@najawin8348 Wait, why do you hate her? She wrote Poppy War and I've heard a lot of great things about that. More mixed reviews on Babel, but not really bad.
I found the book to be really engaging despite it's numerous flaws and lack of believability. I also found it was easy to read. But I also agree with everything you have said so far in the video. It was a 3 star for me, mostly because of how enjoyable I found reading it despite not liking many aspects of it, the further away I get from the trashy fun I had reading it, the less I like it tbf. It was nostalgic fluff that I needed at the time. I haven't been able to read in almost a year due to a disability that has caused me to struggle with focus and most cognitive tasks, but this book was clear, easy, and engaging enough for me to read and now I am getting back into it! I've read 10 books so far this month! So even though I have a lot lot lot of problems with the book I am also really thankful for what it gave back to me
I will say, basically after the first s*x scene it went sharply downhill for me, in plot, in characters, and in my enjoyment.
Sometimes you can still have fun with media that's bad. Don't beat yourself up over it.@@aficklefangirl2566
I have fibromyalgia, and the notion of just “pushing through” a disability irritates me to no end.
And even though chronic pain doesn’t reflect any actual damage happening in my body, it’s awful and distracting and exhausting, to the point where its genuinely difficult for me to, say, read a book. Chairs are uncomfortable, can’t sit up. Laying on my back, I have to hold the book up and my arms hurt. Laying on my stomach, my back hurts. And if I’m in pain, I can’t focus.
My point is, purely neurological symptoms are severely impairing. I can’t even imagine what disabilities are like in other systems of the body. There’s no “powering through”, no “pulling yourself up by the bootstraps”.
Having seen the name of Violet’s disability in the comments, I gave it a quick google. EDS could be a really interesting challenge for a character that rides on DRAGONBACK. Just imagine her shoulder dislocating mid-flight, and she has to shove it back into place in order to keep herself from falling. That’d be badass.
People really need to stop writing disability as “it’s hard for character to do x” because it so easily turns into “powering through”. A disability is a conflict with one’s own body that never ceases. And yeah, that conflict gets in the way of some things.
Edit: after the thing with the shoulder, her shoulder would be damaged for the rest of the series because she had to shove it back haphazardly.
NO BC THIS SORT OF THING HAPPENS IN THE BOOK!!!! if u have eds, frequent dislocations cause LASTING DAMAGE!!! the kind of shit she goes through would KILL someone with eds, or at the very least she would have extreme mobility limitations by the end of the book. but nooooo she's perfectly fine bc she's so mentally tough and brave 😩😩 (edited: i have eds. that's the only reason i read this stupid book. i'm a normal fucking person who doesn't fall off dragons, and i've been told it'll likely progress to where i can't walk by my late 20s.
My Mum and Grandmother have fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, and while I read the book for funsies and enjoyed it for what it was, this did really annoy me (I finished it only a couple hours ago). Like, my family is not big but doctors constantly saying it would hurt less if you exercised, lose weight if you exercised, and be in less pain if you exercised like Violet in the book do not understand. If everyone could just lift weights and they’d be fine why are people on really harmful medications just to be able to move??? Yes, sometimes pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is great but these sorts of things are DEBILITATING for a reason.
Learning the author has the disability in the book feels more like she wishes she could just put in some effort and be fine and that’s not how it works, and this being so mainstream just furthers the absolutely awful ‘well have you thought about just exercising’ stereotypes
Her brother is mender and there's also a mender on campus 🤷 she also has magical powers.
The ending "fuck you" to booktok rant just gained you a subscriber because you are SOOOO right and it is so sad to see where things are going in the literature world.
Every other shitty part of the book aside, I don't understand why in so many of these terrible young adult books, death is utilized so carelessly. The author either goes the Lightlark route and tries to make the story around some "high-stakes killing game" that makes no sense/is poorly thought out, or something like this where characters are dying left and right and you couldn't give less of a shit about any of them (but the book tries to insist you feel something anyway).
I can only think this some leftover symptom of the Hunger Games hype and its slew of bad clone books. "People have to die to really sell the fact that we're dealing with some serious, world-changing stuff" kind of shit. Now for whatever reason, EVERY SINGLE young adult (or "new adult") book needs to follow suit. The issue being that the sheer volume of death in the Hunger Games (at least in the first two books) had an actual purpose in universe and was a major thing pushing the plot forward. None of these books can say the same, and none of them view death with the same respect.
And even then, it feels so uncreative. A character messes up somehow, they immediately die. No matter how minor. Like, there are so many other ways to show how dire the situations being described are without killing someone. Like, becoming permanently disabled, bringing shame onto their family, public humiliation and ridicule, planting seeds of doubt and betrayal, being exiled/expelled from whatever institution they're in, or even having the mistakes pile up and fall like dominoes that *eventually* lead to someone's death. And that's just off the top of my head. It's such a lazy and frankly, incredibly wasteful, way of writing conflict and drama. Death, at least in the good books I've read, is serious and impactful and feels like a turning point or a halt in the story. And the characters are written to recognize the finality of death and have different reactions to it that help further develop them. Here in the Fourth Wing? You just get numb to it. The characters don't give a shit about it, so why should you?
I'm (unfortunately) reminded how in the book The Testing, the government gets all the smartest students in the nation together to decide who gets good jobs or something, and puts them through deadly trials to accomplish... what exactly? In that book, it makes absolutely zero sense to kill off the brightest minds of the generation essentially at random and no explanation is given in order to sow ✨️tension✨️. It's exactly the same here. Except we're all intelligent and perceptive readers here, so we *know* from the get-go that Violet is a Mary-Sue who can't be harmed through conventional means so the risk of dying bounces off of her like light on a mirror.
(Forgive me if I got a detail about the testing wrong somewhere I literally don't care about that book enough to justify fact checking it.)
Oh, right. I especially despised that part.
What kind of an idiot do you have to be to do that to your main elite fighting force. There is rivalry between branches and there is people just constantly trying to murder each other over whatever the fuck it is this time, all the while the enemy watches in confusion if they have to actually do fucking anything or just wait until everyone kills each other.
Most I can think of is that there is just a handful dragons, so the riders are all disposable, but that is clearly not the case.
If you want an example of this trope done well, I'd read Red Rising. Character deaths matter and reverberate in later books.
I'd blame bad CW shows than the Hunger Games.
Why does TikTok make so many bad quality books popular 🤦🏾♂️
I just want a dragon rider book that acts like am encyclopedia as well because we're learning about the different types of dragons, why certain riders/dragons are used for certain jobs or skills, the relationship b/w rider & dragon, the world around them, fighting styles, dragonian people, etc.
There's so much to write about in this category, yet so many authors rarely do anything besides cheap romance.
I think the Temeraire series done it pretty well even though the alternative history part needs some refining.
Violet: "WAAAAAH! I DON'T WANT TO BE A DRAGON RIDER!"
Me: "It's like watching someone drown while you're dying of thirst."
so, around 50:00 you mention the use of the bo staff and our normal, Julian calendar as world building failures. I don't agree. i think its totally fine to describe to your reader what kind of weapon someone is using in terms the reader would understand, even if the world itself wouldn't have the locations and history necessary for that term to originate.
same with months and days. if you don't want to get into inventing and then explaining a calendar for you fantasy setting, or really would prefer just to say "its a bo staff" instead of describing its length in specific terms, i think that's a perfectly acceptable choice to make as an author. most readers aren't going to ask "wait does that mean Japan exists?" and even if they do, most wont be bothered much if they never get an answer. and I'm willing to bet even fewer will notice the use of the Julian calendar and then ask if the Greeks exist.
now, if you want to spend 3 pages explaining how your fantasy calendar works just so you can say "its Frebsday" without your readers asking "is Frebsday like Friday?", more power to you, but i dont expect that of authors at all. if you want to say "we've been traveling for weeks." and not get into the weeds of "how long is a week in this setting?", I as a reader would welcome that. I want plot to move forward and things to be communicated to me clearly, i personally dont really care to go on tangents teaching me about how a made up world's calendar system works. if it can become an interesting plot point or even an anecdote useful for world building, (like how months were added to the Julian calendar in our real world) im sure i'd love that, but i dont think its a fair or reasonable expectation to put on EVERY book written in a non-earth setting. i think readers should be perfectly willing to suspend their disbelief when it comes to those sorts of details.
those editors should be ashamed they didnt catch "bao staff" though, lol.
Yeah if nothing is mentioned you should and also would just assume earth years imo
The author literally could've just said "staff" and the reader would've gotten the idea. The word alone is descriptive enough without throwing in potential questionable worldbuilding implications. There was zero need to specify it as a "bo" staff.
@dustrose8101 ...did you listen to the video? he clearly states he was curious what the length of the staff they were using was.
saying "bo staff" not only describes the length, but also a general style of staff. there are MANY kinds of staff, from police batons to shepherds hooks, magic staffs and more. it makes sense to describe what kind of staff a character is using.
@@arcanealchemist3190 I did hear that and I maintain my point.
Just saying "staff" without any modifiers gives the reader the general enough idea on top of the context of how it's used. If they're slamming their staffs together me as a reader can use my two braincells to figure out it's def not a magic staff. And if you want them to have a clearer picture, then a short description without stumbling into the worldbuilding implications of "bo staff" would've been fine. Bo staffs aren't particularly fancy, it wouldn't have been hard.
we’ve been waiting for this one James thank you for blessing us
wake up bae James posted
I've been waiting for you to talk about this one! Hyped!
I've listened to a ton of videos about awful books like Lightlark and Save the pearls, and I think this is worst out of all of them simply because of how unimaginative it is.
Sounds like this book is all edge and thirst. This is for 12-year-olds.
This was painstaking to watch not just because of how bad it is, its also the fact the name and even some parts of the background (being involved in the military) reminds me of Violet Evergarden, a far better LN (and even far better anime) about post-war life, PTSD, and the acceptance in the futility of war. Made me genuinely cry the first time in an anime and changed my views gradually and shaped me to who I am today. The name being mentioned for such a piss creation just hurts, especially since the other is just a far superior media in regarding war.
It's because the author of Fourth Wing is almost comically pro-military. Her critiquing war in any way would undermine most of her principles
@@taliarosesWait really?! 💀 sorry it’s just hilarious thinking about the comedic potential of a booktok x military industrial complex collab
So I work stocking books at a store, and out of curiosity I opened up Iron Flame, and the first thing I saw was a paragraph with 5 uses of "Fuck" practically back to back. I've got no qualms with swearing, but there's also a point where it's used as a crutch for bad writing. I think overall swearing in media is cringe unless it's done right. I saw ONE paragraph and immediately hated the book. I don't think that's ever happened before.
I don't understand why these new adult books are part of fantasy, as opposed to paranormal romance or something.
Paranormal romance would be part of urban fantasy, i.e. taking place in what's basically our world but with the eponymous paranormal elements. *Fantasy* generally takes place in a world other than our own. The (in my opinion quite stupid) label of new adult doesn't have anything to do with that, it's just naming the targeted age group
@@eldara3
My thinking is that if we are broadening the scope of fantasy to include new adult, then why not para romance?
@@leehunts4327 it's not a broadening, really - these two labels aren't mutually exclusive. Fantasy is a work with magical elements, typically set in a world other than our own, so you can have YA within the wider label of Fantasy, as well as NA and any other. But paranormal romance is a part of specifically urban fantasy, and here, again, you can have works targeted at both YA and NA.
@@eldara3
I guess I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone who works at a book store. We put Fourth Wing in fantasy/scifi, rather than paranormal romance. So my thinking is more rigid in that way.
@@leehunts4327 But it... is fantasy? Being shit and having more explicit content than typical fantasy doesn't make it not fantasy. It's not paranormal romance by virtue of not being set in a modern, semi real-life setting. YA/NA are a different sliding scale and stories can have both labels attached to them
I'm not that far into the video, but the whole "they're all just allowed to kill each other for no reason" could potentially work as absurdist comedy in a better series. Like that genuinely made me laugh, whether it was the concept itself or your delivery of it, I don't know.
7:52 fictional training regimes that regularly result in candidates dying and being injured are dumb. Like at best you get some especially lucky or determined people in the special program but you also lose a lot of potential regular soldiers who even if they didn't make the special team are already rather motivated soldiers
Another issue with these hyper competitive cut throat training programs is that they don't create team players. War is organized violence. The way to get people to participate and to do so well is to create esprit de corps. You want to be hyped about your unit and respect your officers and trust your fellow soldiers. This academy does the opposite. How do you get out or school where you actively sabotage and kill your fellows and then go off to war and be willing to kill for your fellows or the people that put you through that hell?
The selection for Navy SEAL training is about the hardest thing a human being can endure and it's still designed not to kill people and hardly ever does anyone die there by accident. So if you want to select for hardiness, stamina and sheer willpower, there is zero need to endager people's lives. Just use harsh weather, forced marches with a heavy backpack and other physically hard activities with little food and sleep. Plus, you have to encourage and reward team spirit, because all military tasks require a high level of team work. That's the reason why in a real military so much emphasis is put on the "band of brothers" idea of comraderie, because a unit fighting together is supposed to die for each other, if someone gets hurt he is to be rescued under threat of life. How do you want to get this type of unit cohesion if the military academy allows students to murder each other.
@@petrairene and yeah I wouldn't trust somebody in this academy to get me coffee or refill my canteen. I can't imagine trusting them during combat.
This would be enough to make me drop the book. It's beyond stupid. It's being harsh for the sake of being harsh. No rewards, just pain.
Thank you so much for this review! I was heavily contemplating purchasing it because EVERYONE was hyping up the book but many reviews on goodreads seamed basic or off. I'm so glad I didn't. You just save me so much time and money. Thank you again.
I am here for that rant at the end
the amount of times i misheard Zaden as Satan
Your rant at the end made me finally subscribe
i was waiting for you to review this one!
great video as always!! I really appreciate how in detail you go into deconstructing the book/its themes (or lack thereof) your reviews have legitimately saved me from suffering through dozens of bad book recs, and your videos themselves are really enjoyable
it's REALLY depressing to see YA/NA fantasy romances have almost the exact same story structures and character archtypes and their world building is just "we have magically/fantastical thing in this world. ok now on to the romance between this heterosexual couple."
Fantasy settings make romance plots seem more dull. Get to the interesting stuff!!! (Unless the romance is well-written.)
Me and my dad read the book for our family book club. Its just okay. Predictable in every way, nothing special. Nothing really bad, just okay.
holy shit family book club sounds amazing i am going to introduce that idea to my sibling gc!!!! and y'all were merciful lmfao
the sex scenes must of made for interesting discussions lmao
You knew Brennan was alive ????
As an aspiring writer myself, I have to admit that it's extremely discouraging to hear of books like this and Lightlark getting tons of sales while I don't want anything to do with TikTok whatsoever. It's as if new authors are doomed from the start if they don't have a social media presence. =/
6:22 if a character is hot they're a love interest or a rival.
Or just be Robert Jordan and make litterally everybody hot
"Women!"
-Every Robert Jordan male character
"Men!"
-Every Robert Jordan female character
Loved your point about horizon shrieking books and media in general. It's ok to want to zone out some time. Yet when that's all you can do, you're actively hurting yourself, and the world around you by extension. When everything is a market and everybody's survival depends on their ability to market themselves, then the forces that shape and move market demand become of paramount importance. And when these forces are also burnt out by the markets they must participate in, they don't have much energy to be interested in anything BUT the mind-numbing repetition and predictability... and that sounds like a never ending circle of desperation....
Awesome, now I've made myself sad 😢
The killing of the cadets irritates me. That's not how you train your future army. That's not how anyone has ever trained a military.
This sounds like if someone read the poppy war and put it through chatgpt a few hundred times and then had a newly started a fanfic writer 3 days to make it look not like chatgpt
.... wait so was the Mother just trying to kill the main character?
Basically
No actually
I could excuse the mention of October and May as a translation convention. My local bookseller asked me what I thought about this book and actually described its mixed review.s. A strange way to try to sell one to me.
Not to mention that the catholic church would also probably need to exist in the book because they brought the Gregorian Calendar into popular use. Does the church exist in this universe? Is it only in Navarre and nowhere else? This book makes no sense.
I feel like hand to hand combat would be very impractical of you've got bad hand and finger joints. At least from personal experience - I cannot give massages because my finger joints, even when using my knuckles, dont stay in place and or hurt. Sometimes my wrist suddenly hurts as I pick up the kettle. My shoulder feels like it moves out of place when taking off a sports bra. Using force or asserting pressure on some sort of weapon sounds very very inconvenient for Violet. Ouch
Thats why she poisons first lol
Short version: This was a Priory of the Orange Tree fanfic in the vein of Twilight/50 Shades. Utter waste of time if you have more neurons than fingers.
I thought for sure you were Greek...
Most darkfriends like this kind of shlock. There's always hope.
Walk in the Light.
I really liked priory but the worst thing you could do to it was mix it with bad porn also the neuron joke was great
How could you make a priory fanfic and make it straight? It being a gay epic fantasy is like 50% of its appeal.
@@dabwiso784Just like some fanfics that make straight characters gay or bi. A unhealthy amount of wishful thinking is enough 😂
The beacons are lit ! James made a Fourth Wing video !
32:14 actually that parts pretty believable. Using mobility aids and the like can be very embarrassing especially if your disability isn’t ver visible. People will say you’re faking or make snide comments until you don’t want to use it at all just to get away from that even at the cost of your body. I know I’ve felt that.
I mean yeah but it's more the fact that this is never challenged throughout the book. It's one thing to have a character refuse aids and later realise they're not any less cool or capable for using one. It's another entirely to do the whole "I'm not using one because I'm not a loser" type bullshit routine and then just... Leave it at that. It's internalised ableism and if it's not challenged in the book it's just perpetuating ableism further.
@@sunscreenhoarder6558 yeahhh
This is such a cringe book. I could barely finish the first chapter and every new page was worse than the last.