Fourth Wing novel gaining striking popularity
Red special edition Fourth Wing novel. Justine Baginski/Lariat
Romance, dragons, fantasy … so many things to pick from! The newly released novel “Fourth Wing” came out May 2023 and has already begun to take over many shelves. If you’re looking for a new fantasy book series to add to your collection, this novel is a popular choice.
Written by Rebecca Yarros, “Fourth Wing” was released May 2, 2023. Since then, it’s sold over two million copies and earned the number one title on the New York Times bestseller list.
The adult novel features countless powerful dragons, the thrill of battle, the stress of betrayal and a tense “enemies to lovers” style relationship.
Violet Sorrengail, the main character, joins Basgiath War College despite her dreams of becoming a peaceful scribe. The story follows her progress as she learns how to overcome hurdles and grasp how powerful she can be when faced with challenges; especially on top of a massive dragon.
Dubbed a ‘romantasy’ series, a mix between fantasy and romance, by readers on Tiktok, the tag “fourthwing” has over 200 thousand posts. Many of those posts feature audio made specifically with lines from the book.
“It was very interesting but I was a bit jarred by all the smut and adult content of the book,” said Elizabetha Romanova, a frequent Barnes and Noble visitor.
Another book store reader, Veronica Wagner, loved the book.
“All I can say is its hot,” she said. “I appreciate the lovers trope … and the deeper emotional intelligence she has that make the dragons go out of their way to save her, cause obviously dragons are more intelligent than people in every department so they would notice that in her right away.”
And yet another reader, Olivia Rohan, found the book to have both good and bad.
“It’s really good, but there’s a lot of overused tropes,” she said. “The main character has cool powers, she falls in love with her enemy, there’s lots of sex-related stuff … but it might be boring to people who’ve read a lot of stories like it.”
Creators on YouTube have also given varied reviews about the novel, such as Daniel Greene (@DanielGreeneReviews) and Lexi (@NewlyNova).
“… If you have a soft spot for fan fiction and tropes and you read a lot of romance and you think that not everything has to be that serious to be enjoyable, then I really believe you’re going to absolutely love this,” Lexi said.
The Fourth Wing series, also named the Empyrean series, is two books long as of February, 2024. The second book in the timeline is titled “Iron Flame” and is set directly after the events in the first book.
Despite many differing reviews, it has gained a striking level of popularity. Yarros has announced that there will be a total of five books, so stay tuned for the rest of the Empyrean series to be released.
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