New Thing #5: Fourth Wing

I’ve gotta say, so far, these new things haven’t been helping my goal to be more positive this year.

To start off with something positive, I will say that Fourth Wing is a certified page-turner. I blasted through the book and often found myself reading one or two more chapters than planned because I wanted to see what happened next.

And for 3/4’s of the book, what happened next was pretty good. Ultimately, the novel reminded me a bit of my experience watching Vampire Diaries, a show that’s fairly far out of my usual viewing preference. For the first few seasons, I was pleasantly surprised by the show and told people to give it a chance because it wasn’t what you expected. Then, eventually, it became EXACTLY what you expected. And then it just got real dumb.

Being only the first book, Fourth Wing never got a chance to be dumb but it did kind of wind up being exactly what I wasn’t looking for. In books as in film, I’m not a huge fan of overlong actions scenes or sex scenes. If you’re the same, feel free to avoid Fourth Wing. Or just read the first three quarters and conjure up your own ending.

Now, I’m sure fans of the book would quickly point out that I’m simply the wrong audience for the book and I agree. I’m not saying it was bad; I’m just saying it wasn’t something I really enjoy. Especially when the “romance” is cheap romance novel levels deep. It’s more of a story about lust than romance.

The other thing that I bumped on with the book is that it was written with a very modern voice. I know that Randy Jackson didn’t invent the phrase but when someone in the book responded with, “That’s a no from me,” it just felt odd. Granted, I’m sure the more modern voice is why the film blew up on BookTok. It was probably the correct choice for the audience, which, again, I am not part of. I was hoping for a book that might have transcended the genre and won me over but alas, it was not meant to be.

And it’s not just the romance side; I’m also not much of a fantasy fan. I enjoy grounded fantasy but once you add dragons and magic and healing and stories of mythical evil beasts, you start to lose me. And yes, I know, I know, I just shouldn’t have read the book but I wanted to give it a chance and the Something New challenge should involve some risks, not just looking for new versions of things I already know I enjoy.

To end with something positive, word is that the show has been optioned to be a TV show and this is absolutely a novel that could be improved upon when adapted. With so much focus on being a pulpy page turner, there’s not much depth to the story and there are large jumps in time that the show could live in and help explore more of the relationships and dig deeper into the world.

I probably won’t bother watching it but I wouldn’t be surprised if the show was an even bigger hit than the books.