Is Fourth Wing the most addictive book I’ve ever read?

11 reasons for its page-turning appeal.

Romantasy burst onto the publishing scene in recent years with Rebecca Yarros bossing it in the bestseller charts. Picking up Fourth Wing at the airport, the cover demanded I “discover the thrilling must-read global phenomenon.” So I bought it.

The hype is justified: I can’t remember reading a book so addictive. It ought to come with a health warning: do not pick up this book if the next day you have work / handle machinery / supervise small children. I got to the stage when I had to put it in a separate room, so I could get on with my work.

Violet Sorrengail is required to train for the army’s elite dragon-riding squad. Her sister tells her to avoid Xaden Riorson at all costs: he will kill her at his first chance.

I felt I was inside the story, like I had stepped inside a film – but it was more powerful than anything on a screen. I was there, living it with Violet.

So, as a writer, I have tried to unpick the technicalities of its page-turning appeal.

1. 1. It’s written in first person. This gives the book an immediacy. We see everything through Violet’s eyes. First person challenges an author: we can only be where Violet is present, and don’t have access to other people’s thoughts. Yarros handles this with ease.

1. 1. It’s written in the present tense. So, for example: “I tighten the straps of my heavy canvas rucksack”, not “I tightened…” This makes the reader stay in the moment, from beginning to end.

1. 1. The vulnerability of the main character. Violet has weak joints, brittle bones, and is smaller than her peers. Yarros drew on her own medical experience for some of this. It means I’m rooting for Violet.

1. 1. The strength of the main character. If she were constantly needing help, she would be a poor contemporary heroine. But Violet is determined, brave, and smart. It’s this combination of strength and vulnerability that works so well. Don’t we all feel we have weaknesses? And don’t we hope we will win through despite them?

1. 1. The characterisation of Xaden. He’s pure alpha male – at first. He broods, he scowls, he stares. Of course, he’s tall, dark and handsome, and the best at everything he does. But as the story progresses, we learn he has taken on physical punishment in order to keep others safe, and that he is protecting people unable to fight for themselves. Again, it’s the combination that is attractive.

1. 1. The plotting. Yarros takes the cadets from one traumatic training experience to the next. First its Conscription Day, then the Gauntlet, Threshing, War Games. However, Yarros only concentrates on the immediate plot point – not the one three steps ahead, and this makes each chapter contribute to the story. It’s a masterclass in how to hit your ‘beats’.

1. 1. The overall arc of the story. The story starts close up on Violet, and gradually opens out across the training academy, the immediate area, and eventually to the border. The ‘dark night of the soul’ happens at the right moment, as Violet rejects Xaden. Then there’s a climactic battle, and an ending that draws you on to the next book.

1. 1. The threat of death. There’s the specific threat to Violet, as well as the constant risk of death from the training. It’s frankly ridiculous that a society would have a training system where half the cadets don’t make it to the end: what a waste of young people! But that’s not what matters: the threat level ups the tension and the excitement. This is a romantasy, so no one dies in a gory way. They fall off parapets, get incinerated by dragons, have their necks broken by fellow cadets. All quick and un-messy.

1. 1. The romance. The story is all about Violet and Xaden; all the dragon-training stuff is a vehicle for the classic enemies-to-lovers trope – probably the strongest romance trope of them all.

1. 1. The sexiness. A reason why enemies-to-lovers works so well is because the sexual attraction has to be suppressed and denied. When it finally breaks free, it has more power. One of the sexiest things in a romance book is an alpha-male who is consumed by desire, but keeps it in check in order to be honourable.

1. 1. The language: the word choice and some sentence structures are contemporary. Characters swear regularly; they use US constructions and you can almost hear the American accents. This makes the characters feel immediate.

This book has its imperfections. The cardinal sin for contemporary books is if the author “tells” instead of “showing.” There’s a good reason: seeing how someone feels is much more powerful than being told about it. However, this brings the danger of cliché because there are only so many ways authors can describe the physical responses their characters are experiencing in order to convey what they are thinking and feeling. In Fourth Wing there are endless frowns, or hearts beating faster, or smiles curling. I get it: I struggle with this myself. My editor will sometimes gently request that I come up with something more original in my own writing! And the truth is, although this annoyed me for the first few chapters, after a while I was so engrossed in the story I didn’t care about the cliches anymore. I didn’t care about anything: I just wanted to read the next chapter.

Do I recommend you read it? If you’re not keen on young adult fiction, quasi-military training, fantasy settings with dragons, romance, then give it a miss. Likewise, some of the sex (when Violet and Xaden finally get it together) is fairly explicit, so if that bothers you, move on. I’ll definitely be buying the next in the series – but when I’ve got holiday booked and it’s not a problem if I sit and read all day.