I went into Fourth Wing pretty blind about what it was actually about. I only knew that it featured dragons, which is always a huge plus for me. I enjoyed the story and, in hindsight, think that it should have actually been one of the first books that I picked up when I was trying to get back into reading physical books again.

I have to admit that I had sort of… fallen out of love with reading a little time after entering university. I was constantly doing theory readings, and so I had no actual will or want to read for joy. I think I forgot how fun it was to escape into a completely unknown and new world. At the time, actual books were a struggle for me to focus on.

As a child, I remember losing myself in worlds of sci-fi and fantasy all the time, and I found that reading Fourth Wing had me feeling this eager and excited, whimsical way again. It was an easy and entertaining read and fully got me back into the swing of reading physical books again.

It was certainly an easier read than Dracula, that’s for sure.

I was quick to finish this book as the story grabbed my attention and kept it, and I found myself eagerly coming back for more every evening. Violet’s world is a fun one – for the reader at least – filled with dragons and magic and a world entirely unlike our own. It wasn’t hard to escape in to.

I found myself rooting for the key characters and I was eager to see the connections between them blossom and grow into keen friendships and, in some cases, in to something even more. It’s always fun to see the bullies get knocked down a peg as well, and to watch as a form of defence is assembled by everyone else around the victim. I love that hurt/comfort trope.

The caring and considerate nature of Tairn, especially where Violet was concerned, for example, meant that he was quick to become my favourite character in the book, and I always thoroughly enjoyed whenever he made an appearance. An infamous, fierce and dangerous dragon, Tairn’s loyal and kind attitude towards Violet, coupled with his deadpan humour and snide comments, really created an amusing dynamic between the two, and I definitely preferred reading about him the most. And when sweet and mysterious Andarna was added to make the team a trio, their shared interactions became all the more endearing and enjoyable to read.

Having said that, I did occasionally find myself feeling a bit exasperated at this book, not least because of the lack of communication between characters: so often things could have been sorted out far quicker and easier if everyone had just talked to each other. This sentiment rings true not only for imagined worlds, but for real life as well.

That aside, however, I found many’a’common cliche within Fourth Wing as I was reading, which I sometimes allowed myself a small eyeroll over as the story progressed.

There were a fair few cliches that were evident that I had seen across other mediums, such as in films, and in other books that I’d read as a kid. This meant I anticipated and expected certain outcomes to happen long before they did, but that didn’t make me set aside the story for something a bit more dynamic and adventurous to read instead. And, really, many stories these days hold inspirations from other works – even Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was inspired by other writings before it.

Though the fact that Violet, of course, managed to bond with not only one dragon, but two, did incite a rather resigned snort.

I tend to enjoy individuals that are smarter than others, especially if they are seemingly disadvantaged to other characters in other ways, and in Fourth Wing, it was Violet who used her intelligence and intuition to her advantage to outwit others and pull ahead in the ranks. But a bit more less believable, and rather frustrating to read, was the fact that Violet, who had trained for years as a Scribe, with little battle training and exercise to back her up, quite suddenly became very physically capable, muscular and powerful after her militant mother forced her into the Rider’s quadrant. She fast achieved a level of athleticism that rivaled that of her peers – individuals who had been trained to be Dragon Rider’s since birth.

This work of character ‘plot armour’ was rather off-putting to read, especially as one of Violet’s earliest concerns was her lack of fitness and the fact that she hadn’t done exercise in years. This was one of the more notable aspects that didn’t help the book’s case on the ‘cliche narrative and plot’ front, and I couldn’t help likening Violet to that of a Mary-Sue in my head.

Another thing that I had a bit of trouble with, was that sometimes I felt that I was being taken rather abruptly out of the world that was being created by the tone used throughout the book – the writing was rather modern and seemed quite out of place in the environment of the world. I found that it clashed a bit too abruptly with my expectations of what a fantasy book should be, and I felt a bit wrong-footed until I got more familiar with the tone.

I also felt that there wasn’t an obvious distinction in how characters talked, which meant that they all sounded the same in my head: the lack of apparent variation meant that, without the chapter titles signaling the point-of-view change, I would not have noticed that we were following a different character. To me, even the dragon’s were talking tonally similar to the humans amongst them, which really took me out of the story. I guess I expected them to sound a bit more stately and wise, and a little less like gossiping girls at break time.

Despite some of the issues that I had with this book, I really did enjoy reading it. It was fun to learn about a new and fantastical, magical world. And where I had started to worry that I’d lost my attention span for books – no thanks to technology and social media – it was good to find out that this wasn’t the case. Sometimes, all that you’re up for, and all that you need, is an easy and unchallenging read for the evening.