Okay, not really, Iām making stew for dinner, but I love Shrek.
Grace wakes up mid-way through the morning because she is skipping school again today. This time she didnāt even decide on it; Macy and her dad decided and just failed to wake her up. A simple sprained ankle is enough to get her out of class, somehow. Itās like this book set in a board school is allergic to having the main character actually go to school.
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While getting ready, Grace lets slip that sheās talked to Jaxon a few times and Macy flips out because Jaxon is so reclusiveā¦but also popular? Presumably something to do with weird vampire power hierarchies, I mean later we find out thereās a vampire King and Queen. Of course, thatās all we find out, which is really annoying. Oh the things we could have learned if this book didnāt spend 300 pages pointlessly hiding things from Grace!
After Lia making a dramatic statement only to completely undermine it a second later, we carry on with our complete lack of drama. Because we are 100 pages into this beast, thatās clearly far too soon for an actual plot to emerge.
Back at her dorm room, Grace wakes up Macy and they talk about what just happened. Itāsā¦what just happened. But for three more pages. To be fair, at least Macy seems outraged on her cousinās behalf.
Jaxon leaves and Graceās uncle arrives. Because weāre playing musical characters in this random hallway for some reason. They make small-talk for abut two pages before Uncle Finn just bounces. Wow, super important.
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Once upon a time, a woman named Lynne Freeman wrote a book. Like many authors before her, she shopped this book around looking for an agent, and eventually signed with Emily Sylvan Kim. Kim then proceeded to (ALLEGEDLY) take that manuscript and hand it off to her friend, Tracy Wolff. Kim also, (ALLEGEDLY) pressed Freeman into continually revising the manuscript so that Wolff could (ALLEGEDLY) use that material in her own working manuscript, which (ALLEGEDLY) became the best-selling series Crave.
I'm having trouble getting my hands on a copy of either of my unfinished review books (Diviners and Aurora Rising) so I'm debating if I should move on to a new book or wait for the mail to deliver.
I have to admit, I donāt have much to say about the fight scenes in this book. But thatās mostly because itās magic people fighting other magic people with magic. When you get to make up every aspect of the rules and physics, who am I to naysay?
Except for throwing the daggers. THOSE FUCKING DAGGERS.
Violet, Xaden, and their headquarters group take a break on the way to their new base.
My thighs are sore and cramping, but itās not quite as bad as it was Montserrat. The extra hours in the saddle this last month have helped.
I swear to god, this book would be exactly the same if you took Violetās EDS completely out of it. She spent her whole life as a bookworm and got thrown into the cavalry and that, by itself, explains all of her problems as depicted in the text.
Violet decides to walk out to the middle of the parapet to be with Xaden becauseā¦.???? He seems fine out there. Just moping. Sitting there, chillin. Some of his friends are at the end of the bridge keeping an eye on him and they donāt seem concerned. Itās the anniversary of when his parents died; let him be dramatic!
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Well. āA breakā wasnāt supposed to last that long. But here we go again.
Violet is in shock over killing Jack, because while you can intellectually know that itās inevitable, actually doing it is something else. Theyāve won the little war game and everyone runs around being happy and congratulating Violet on getting a signet while she stands there just thinking āIāve killed someoneā over and over.
The domain ReadingWithAVengeance.com now points to the new blog instead of the tumblr. Yes, that's right, I'm moving my content to be mainly hosted on a dedicated blog. New posts will still be posted here, but they will be a link to RWAV.com.
I'll be posting a few Fourth Wing posts per day over there until I'm all caught up, and then it'll be one new post a day as usual. Or...as un-usual. >.>
This is it, yāall. This is the chapter Iāve been waiting for. This is the chapter that made me so mad I had to temporarily stop reading.
BUT FIRST! Each chapter opens with a little bit of in-universe flavor text, something from an in-universe book or from Brennanās diary. Mostly itās just worldbuilding nuggets that are fine but not relevant. This time we get:
Winning the War Games isnāt about strength. Itās about cunning. [ā¦] No one stays friends forever, Mira. Eventually those closest to us become our enemies in some way, even if itās through will-intentioned love or apathy, or if we live long enough to become their villains.
Esprit de corps, motherfucker, ever heard of it?
I canāt even claim that the school, as we have seen so far, actually does this, but if thatās the intention (the authorās intention/the schoolās intention/whatever) then itās dumb as fuck because theyāre a military. You want them to work together. Hell, last chapter we had Mira pointing out that unit cohesion is important! This book just has no sense of consistency in what kind of vibe it wants these riders to have.
Anyway, War Games is basically Squad Battle on ten shots of espresso and itās coming up soon.
Itās two days after the events of last chapter and Violet is pestering one of her teachers for news of Mira and her squad. Xaden is hanging around with her, for support and also for bantering opportunities. They pounce on the teacher as soon as he comes out of his office and ask for information. The teacher says the whole incident is classified, but after some pestering at least tells Violet that no one died. Her sister is safe.
Thereās a bunch of summary and then we skip ahead to the first day of War Games. Itās wing vs wing and one side is defending while another attacks. There are certain items in play that are worth points. The defending wing has a valuable dragon egg (fake) and the attacking wing has a less valuable flag and theyāre going to go out and try to steal from each other. Finally, an exercise in this nonsense college that makes some amount of sense.
They walk out to the flight field to mount up and Tairn shows up in a saddle.
A fucking saddle.
A FUCKING SADDLE.
āI canāt use that.ā I shake my head. āItās not allowed.ā
āI decide whatās allowed and whatās not,ā Tairn growls
WHY IS IT NOW ALLOWED, BOOK? WHY? WHY DO YOU HATE SENSE THIS MUCH? WHO DISALLOWED IT?
Clearly the dragons donāt mind because Tairn is right here like āfuck it, this makes more sense and itās not even uncomfortable and Iām find with itā and yet FOR SOME REASON itās ānot allowedā????
SAYS FUCKING WHO?
I have never been so mad at a FUCKING SADDLE before in my life, not because the saddle is bad but because itās existence here means ITāS POSSIBLE AND YāALL KNOW ITāS POSSIBLE AND YOU DIDNāT DO IT BEFORE NOW AND JUST FUCKING WHY?
But I know why. Itās because the author wanted to write in a scene about disability accommodations. Itās clear in this interview she gives.
I can only speak for myself here, but there are plenty of times I donāt want to accept accommodations. I want to be capable of accomplishing the same feats as my peersālike signing thousands of books a day when necessaryāwithout complaint or injury. But I also recognize that itās not possible. My wrist simply wonāt hold out and thereās every chance my hip will slide out when I sit incorrectly, or Iāll pass out when my heart races due to POTS.
Violet accepts the accommodations she absolutely has to in order to be a dragon rider. She can definitely get in her own way and put her body through too much at times because of her stubbornness, which Iāve found to be a personal theme in my life. Accepting and asking for appropriate accommodations is a very personal journey, and it was important for me to show that in Fourth Wing for readers who may or may not struggle with the same choices.
And that is a noble goal. In fact, throughout this scene Violet is furious about being presented with an accommodation has to be talked into it, with other people and her dragons pointing out that this isnāt a failing and her life will be better and stronger if she takes it and she has complex feelings about it but ultimately accepts. And itās good. On an emotional level, at least. Itās written with some strong emotion that comes through clearly and thatās great!
But why is about a fucking saddle?
PEOPLE HAVE DIED, BOOK.
CHARACTERS HAVE FALLEN OFF THEIR SEAT AND DIED MULTIPLE TIMES SO FAR.
WHY DONāT THEY GET A SADDLE?
WHY IS THE ONE FUCKING ACCOMMODATION THIS????
I am so absolutely furious because itās an āaccommodationā that makes sense to an abled person because we all know what saddles are itās just too fucking obvious. Itās something everyone already uses. There is going to be zero need to change any minds or thoughts when a character is given a saddle because itās just āoh, yeah, of courseā and also IT MAKES NO SENSE THAT THEY DIDNāT ALREADY HAVE ONE.
Look at that quote above. The author talks about how her hip slips out if she just sits for too long. Why not use that? Why not have saddles that she canāt use because theyāre too wide and prolonged sitting messes up her joints? Why not have to modify her saddle into something that makes people go āwow, princess, you need a chaise lounge there?ā Because in this book itās a normal saddle and exactly zero other characters in the story have a problem with it.
Why doesnāt this book challenge literally anything about ableist ideas?
AND WHO IN-UNIVERSE SAID THAT RIDERS CANāT HAVE SADDLES IāM STILL MAD ABOUT THAT ONE.
Also itās dumb as shit that this comes up the same day as their field exercise because she has no chance to practice with it or get used to it or find out if, IDK, having her legs tied in place just pulls her hip joint out while theyāre making hard turns. Feels like thatās something you need to safety test before you go into a battle with it, mock or not.
But this book cares shit all about safety procedures so off we go to have a little battle. Andarna decides she wants to come to. Sure, we havenāt seen her much this book, come on along.
Violet finds out she really loves flying when sheās not terrified of falling off all the time and her magic starts getting all sparky, implying she was too tense to manifest a signet before.
Violetās group comes across another bunch of dragons and itās quickly clear that this group is guarding the fake egg. Also this book still doesnāt understand what ātrainingā is and has the kids go after each other with full on magic and live weapons because sure, why the fuck not. Letās burn some students to death. Thatāll help things.
One of the egg defenders is Jack, who is being his usual dumbass self and picks Liam to grapple with. The dragons are fighting very close together in midair because sure, why not, and Jack jumps onto Liamās dragon so he can go do a stabbity-stab.
Violet and Tairn go into a desperate dive to catch Liam after he falls off his dragon, and Violet has to stop time again for a second so they can catch up and save him. Afterwards, Violet is furious and looks around for Jack to enact some revenge. Surprising herself and everyone else, she finally manifests her special powers and fries him to death with lightning.
Today we cover the fabled Squad Battle. Everyone engages in an obstacle course run, a sparring tournament, and a secret third thing.
Iām so tired of the sparing-but-with-knives in this book. Itās likeā¦the only thing that happens. Thereās a vague mention of weapon proficiency tests, but we donāt see anything like that, nor do we see them do any training except one-on-one on the mats here. (Well, not training, but you know.) Are they expected to do all of their fighting solo? Is there no training on how to work as a unit? The only thing we know they do with dragons is fly, occasionally in formation, but that isnāt covered well either. Itās just odd to me how individual everything in this school is.
All the better to make sure Violet gets to be special but also never a liability, I guess. We can cry about her shortcomings in abstract, but thatās it.
Fortunately we skip straight to the secret third thing, which is to have all of the squads identify and obtain something āadvantageous to our enemies regarding the war effort.ā Our kids huddle up and start tossing around ideas, until Violet realizes that the best option is to steal information from her momās office. (I like it because someone else said āinformationā first, and Violet is uniquely knowledgeable in her momās office, so itās not quite as special snowflake as sheās been thus far in the book.)
They make plans off page and we come back to them sneaking through the fortress. Sneaking loudly, because they canāt stop bantering. Sure would be nice if theyād had some classes in squad movements, or mission planning, or literally anything. Fortunately, this college is also as nonsense as the kids are so they donāt get caught. One of the squad members lures the only guard out of the way using an astral projection, they break into the poor lock on the door, and they start searching the office.
They end up stealing a giant map that has the current location and strength of every military unit the nation has, and after a brief skirmish with the guard again, they get back to the judges and win game. Overall a pretty competent chapter.
Of course, their āprizeā for winning is a trip to the front lines which isā¦confusing. If this is something thatās supposed to be useful, then everyone should be getting it. However itās not a pleasant outing so itās not a prize in that regard. Whatās so prize-ful about this? Feels like the author just wanted the book to go here and thereās the only reason.
They head to a fort called Montserrat, which it turns out is very close to Rhiannanās home. She and Violet immediately make plans to sneak out. While the squad is touring the place, we find out that one of the riders stationed there is Mira. Oops, sorry, no time for a sisterly reunion here, we immediately skip to two days later.
Violet and Rhiannon are going to sneak out to visit her family, and they get caught by Mira. They hastily convince Mira not to tattle, and then convince her to join them. A whole paragraph later, Rhiannon is happily reunited with her family and meeting her newborn nephew for the first time, and Violet and Mira sit outside and chitchat.
That was a lot of shuffling around for a sisterly chat that could have happened several pages earlier.
The sisterly chat involvesā¦tactical discussions. So loving. Mira relays some of the places sheās seen action, and Violet notices again that thereās a lot of things going on that donāt get covered in battle brief. Iām annoyed that this foreshadowing comes up again, because Mira gives the same excuse we had last time: youāre in school, you donāt need to know every single detail of the tactical situation, some of which is above your clearance level. Because, thatās legit! The way it comes up, the book wants us to think this is something suspicious, but itās not!
Also, Mira has the book of fables that Violet loves and couldnāt find at the library.
And then, low and behold, Xaden shows up. Turns out that about three days is the max time that bonded dragons will put up with being separated. Xaden takes to chilling in the background while the squad goes about theirā¦uh, āprize.ā (It occurs to me that family visits could have been the prize and this all would have played out exactly the same.)
Today they are talking through battle scenarios and the kids are doing my favorite trick of āIām going to ruin this game by taking everything you say literally.ā
āThereās a new fort here on this map and-ā
āThey built it in a day?ā
āUgh, fine, they took over an existing one and-ā
āThe locals didnāt notice and warn us?ā
āI hate all of you.ā
No really, it is my favorite game, lol. Even if it is unhelpful. Miraās attempts to lead this little thought exercise are even more hindered by Dain sniping at Xaden every chance he gets and Xaden finding that amusing.
Once they finally struggle their way through how to retake the fictional outpost, Mira calls an end to the class so she can chew out Dain in relative privacy. She rightfully points out that heās being an ass, destroying his squadās cohesion, and ruining any chance at being a wingleader.
Then she moves on to yelling at Violet and Xaden saying they need to figure out a better fix for this whole ācanāt be separatedā thing, because next year Xaden will no longer be in school. She intimates that forcing Violet out of her training and preventing her from being successful might be Xadenās plan of retribution. Canāt believe weāre still on this. It would help if Xaden had literally done anything mean ever.
Mid-fight, they get news that a bunch of gryphons on the way. This book uses the collective noun ādrift of gryphonsā which I really like. And also āriot of dragons.ā Okay, enough linguistics. Violet insists on staying to help, but fortunately for my sanity literally everyone in the book is against that idea. They point out that not only is she untrained, but so are all of her friends and theyād probably die in a real fight. Even given that, she has to be practically dragged out and shoved on to Tairn in order to escape.
Violet and Rhiannon discuss the make-out in the way that best friends have always discussed embarrassing make-outs. Much wailing, teasing, and gossip. Rhiannon reveals that she got her special magic, which is to summon/teleport things. Any rider can use the lesser magic to telekinetic things, but teleporting is special. Apparently itās rare and uber special, just like every other power a main character has. Go figure.
On the way to their class, Dain stops Violet and wants to talk. Heās very hurt that she wouldnāt share her memory of the attack with him, but she would share it with everyone. Violet has to point out that he never asked her to share, he just reached out to grab her head.
She also unloads on him about the way heās treated her thus far, trying to get her out of the college and trying to protect her. Which makes sense if the main hangup was sexism or something, or if task wasnāt something very physically dangerous that she didnāt want. But she has EDS and is in a murder college that doesnāt take basic safety seriously and also bodily throws people around, which as far as Dain knows she doesnāt and never did want to be part of. Getting her out is the most logical response in the world.
Emotionally, as a mostly able-bodied reader, Violetās reaction to him makes sense to me. I feel it. Itās well done. Until I back out a scootch and then remember Violet is very different and, idk, probably shouldnāt be reacting in the same way that I would?
But the Riderās Quadrant stripped away the fear and even the anger about being thrown into this quadrant, and it revealed who I really am. At my core, Dain, Iām a rider.
ā¦when? How? Weāve been in this chickās head the entire time and nothing about her thoughts has changed. I would say nothing about her feelings, as well, but outside of fear and horny her feelings mostly arenāt described. She can be a very distant narrator when good things are going on.
We get a quick summary of the next month or so, including the news that Violet won two of her sparing-with-a-chance-of-murder matches.
I did a quick look for EDS people doing martial arts and found several redit posts of people talking about their experience. Thereās some jargon I donāt get, but the overall consensus seems to be: plenty of people do it, but you have to be really careful, inform all of your partners ahead of time, and even then people usually quit or scale back within a couple of years. And these are people doing it as a sport, so they can come up with work-arounds when necessary, not people going to a class and saying āyeah, just fuck me up, coach.ā
Violet finds out that her next match is against Jack, and she talks to Liam about it. Theyāre both worried about Jackās hard-on for murdering her. Funny enough, no one has ever mentioned that Jack is good at anything. She beat two other people (without poisoning them first) and itās brushed over, but Jack prompts a whole conversation. During which, at no point, does anyone say āoh no, but heās so good at fighting!ā Just saying.
Violetās narration slyly hints that sheās got something up her slee- itās orange juice. Come on, youāre not sly there, book. Itās so obviously orange juice. You bungled your chance to try and be secret with that one.
They get to the gym and find out who is challenging who and everyone is all GASP about Jack/Violet and Iām still not convinced Jack is even good at anything.
They fight, itās kind of standard. Jack gets her in an arm lock and tries to stab her.
āHeās using death blows!ā Ridoc shouts. āThatās not allowed!ā
āPull it back, Barlowe!ā [Professor] Emetterio bellows.
It is? Since when? Also, why do they have knives if not allowed to stab each other? And if you really donāt want kids to stab each other, thatās a pretty weak response.
There is more fighting, more non-lethal stabbing (which is fine?), until finally Jack gets the upper hand by using some sort of magic thatā¦hurts? Itās described as āpouring energy into her body and that causes agonyā so his signet is literally just hurting people? Bit on the nose, book.
Violet keeps herself together long enough to dump her vial of orange juice in his mouth and send him into allergy shock that way, and then she tells the teacher what she did and passes out.
She wakes up in the infirmary with Xaden watching over her. Since she told the staff what she gave Jack, they were able to treat him in time and heās alive, which Xaden is unhappy about.
So go kill him or whatever. This book cannot decide if it wants to be a real murder college or not.
Violet wants to talk about the kiss from a month ago that he still hasnāt addressed, and Xaden brushes it off. Heās all āweāre going to be stuck together because of our dragons, letās not make it even more awkward by getting involved.ā And then he decides heās going to take over her hand-to-hand training because oh no she almost got killed thatās scary he definitely hasnāt already caught feelings.
Which they start doing the next day.
She still has stitches. She passed out.
āThe enemy doesnāt give a shit if youāre wounded. Theyāll use it to their advantage. If you donāt know how to fight in pain, then youāll get us both killed.ā
Being a solider is going to age a person, because actually you canāt just take damage over and over again and keep trucking. Thatās why I have a bum leg. Thatās why my best army friend has a shitty back. Another of my friends is missing half the muscles in this arm. Thereās a whole slew of us that that took metaphorical hits until we couldnāt anymore and then retired.
Few of those hits came in training. A few did, sure, but most came from doing the job. And thatās because thereās only so many you can take before youāre down for good so better put them to good use. Wrecking yourself during training isnāt helpful, it just ups the odds that youāll never make it to active duty and shortens the amount of time youāre useful while active. That is why training is simulated and has safety rails.
An able-bodied person would already be retired from how much damage the characters in this book have been through.
But no, gotta keep on trucking, becauseā¦reasons. Rule of cool. Shit.
Getting hurt doesnāt train you; it just hurts.
Xaden claims that sheās good with daggers but itās too easy to take them from her because theyāre not ⦠made for her body type? No clue what this means. He unveils a bunch of daggers that he had made just for her. They are apparently very pretty and have special carvings, but we donāt find out what would make them more body-type-appropriate. Possibly heās making shit up in order to not say that theyāve got special magic that will be important later, but I feel like Violet should call him out if itās meant to be a lie and sheās meant to be soooo smart. Ā
Because the nonsense rules of this school say you can only have a weapon if you brought it with you or won it in a fight, sheās got to fight him for them. He makes it absurdly easy, they flirt a lot, and now Violet has 12 new daggers.
Another month goes by, and we come to again with the friends talking about signet powers. Apparently one kid died because his fire powers manifested too strongly and he burned himself. Oops. (See? There are plenty of ways for kids to die here without also making things unsafe on purpose!) Violet is nervous about her own special powers not showing up.
Iām proving to be the one thing my mother hates ā average.
What the ever-loving fuck? You have TWO dragons, one of which is the biggest ever! The dragons claim youāre the smartest kid in the year! Youāve poisoned multiple people! Also, powers never showing up is rare so even in that case you wouldnāt be average at all! Dead, but not average!
Sorry, book, but youāve put too much time into making her special to pull this off now.
They talk some about this Squad Games thing thatās coming up, and then Violet gets pulled out of classes to go have a meeting with the brass. Her mom is there, too. Thereās some tension between mother and daughter, the group asks for permission to study Andarna (no), and thereās little nuggets dropped in about future plot points. Relevant nuggets dropped naturally, not like the oranges thing, which makes that bit even weirder. The book can do this right, so why was that one so wrong?
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Violet now has to go about her day with Liam playing bodyguard, including when she goes to do her library chores. Fortunately, heās pretty chill to get along with. Unfortunately, heās very dedicated to being a bodyguard.
While at the library and waiting for requests to be pulled, they chat about Xaden. Specifically, how Liam and Xaden know each other, other than just the general āwe are the kids of traitors and taking on collective punishment for it.ā Liam and Xaden went to the same foster house, when all the kids were divvied up among loyal families. Violet is surprised to hear about the extra cruelties heaped on this group, such as both of Liamās parents being killed and not just the traitor parents, or how his sister was sent to a different house. There are 107 of these kids ranging in age from 23 to 6.
And thatās as much as Liam wants to make small talk about his traumatic past. Understandable.
Jesinia comes back to hand over the books, make doe eyes at Liam, and deliver a report for one of the teachers. On the way out, they drop the scroll report and catch a bit of news about a village being attacked, but they donāt read deeply because they figure theyāll be going over it in class.
This chapter has a lot of random little bits in it, small talk that goes nowhere, but itās cool. I like it. Theyāre trying to establish rapport between Violet and Liam and I like that best when itās done through small and calm moments. Just doesnāt make for good summarizing.
Later the kids are chatting and teasing before their battle brief class. Violet is upset about Xaden, the others poke at her for having a crush on him, itās all very friendly. But two pages earlier we had:
āSympathyā isnāt a word found in our quadrant. Thereās rage, wrath, and indignationā¦but no sympathy.
And yet a lot of the downtime in this book is Violet hanging out with her friends and having, I will admit, pretty well written banter and small talk. Itās chill and shows good friendship, and Rhiannon consistently cares about Violetās wellbeing. This book feels like the writer couldnāt commit to brutality so figured that Violetās thoughts could patch the holes, but it comes off disjointed instead.
āOh, are we telling dick jokes now?ā Ridoc asks from Liamās side. āBecause my entire life has led up to this very moment.ā
Heh. I laughed.
We get our first mention of something called Squad Battle, which is pretty self-explanatory. Winners this year get a trip to the front lines. Because�?? Plot?
But then class starts in earnest and thereās no mention of the village that Violet read about earlier. She finds that odd, then dismisses it. Sheās a student, after all, of course she doesnāt know everything that the teachers are told.
A whole month goes by. We rejoin the characters during a sparring practice.
Per [Dainās] recent orders, Tuesday nights are for squad hand-to-hand combat practice, because the full academic load weāre carrying, coupled with flight lessons and now wielding instructions for some of us isnāt leaving much time for the mat.
Butā¦why is it not one of your classes? Even West Point makes you take PT and combatives and maneuvers and all that shit. Or is it one of the classes and we just never find out? Weāve had mention of a history class and a physics class, and lord knows I donāt want to sit in on them, but some sort of mention of what her day-to-day looks like would be really helpful. Especially since fighting and flying is all that this school seems to care about, but all it gives instruction about isā¦not those things.
The weekly fights start again in a month, because we have to give time for Violet to heal from the various things that have tried to kill her recently. Wait, no, thatās not the reason, itās becauseā¦.uhā¦.reasons?
We get distracted for a full two pages because Xaden takes his shirt off to practice sparring. In case you were curious, heās still hot.
Jack pipes up from his own practice to mock Violet for being short and weak. Again. And then mid-rant this happens:
[Jackās] friend from First Wing offers him something ā a slice of the orange heās eating ā and Jack shoves his hand away at the wrist. āGet that noxious shit away from me. Do you want me to end up in the infirmary?ā
So, pretty clearly Jack is allergic to oranges and this becomes relevant later. And also pretty clearly, this fact had to be established in the editing stage. But why did it get shoved into THIS scene? There have been so many scenes in the chow hall where it would have much far more natural, but no, thereās just a guy randomly shoving oranges in his face during a workout?
Violet taunts Jack back and then her various bodyguards have to remove him from the gym because he flies into a rage about it. This kidā¦is not good military material. I mean, lord knows Iāve seen tons of people who werenāt suited for it back when the army was in recruitment mode, so Iām not saying he canāt be here. I just felt like pointed it out. If they werenāt hard-up for bodies in this military I would seriously be questioning why heās allowed to stay.
Violet, Dain, and Xaden get in an angry sniping match at each other, but because Violet doesnātā¦idk, stab someone, the dragons decide that counts as controlling her temper and that sheās ready to channel some magic now. Weird criteria, since a short temper has been part of her character thus far.
Later that night, Violet is suddenly overcome with power. Because the dragons decided to start channeling to her but also waited several hours? It knocks her over pretty good until she gets used to it, but afterwards sheās excited to go tell her friends. When she leaves her room, Liam is there standing guard in the hallway, and sheās suddenly overcome by how hot he is and how much she wants to jump his bones.
Thankfully, she figures out pretty quickly that Tairn is getting his dragon bones on and the lusty thoughts are a spillover effect. To avoid doing something regrettable with/to Liam, she beats a hasty retreat and then sneaks outside to be alone in the cold. Itās not as helpful as hoped.
Also Xaden is out there for the same reason. Smoking a fantasy cigarette. Because we can have November and December in this fantasy world, but we canāt have tobacco. (No really, they use the same weekday names and month names.)
Xaden laughs at her going through this the first time, until he realizes sheās getting it worse because she hasnāt been taught how to block out the dragonās thoughts/feelings yet.
āYouāre actually going to help me?ā
āIāve been helping you for months.ā [ā¦]
āNo, you sent Liam to help. [ā¦]ā
āIām the one who burst through your door and killed everyone who attacked you, and then I removed the other threat to your life with a very public, very polarizing display of vengeance. Liam didnāt do that. I did.ā
I mean, yeah all that but also heās been giving her advice throughout the book so far and also HASNāT EVER TRIED TO HURT HER. So bored with this.
āHave you always been this tall?ā I blurt the first thing that comes to mind.
Itās just Violetās reactions to him that are sooooooo overdone and annoying.
Violet herself isnāt that bad either. Sheās just in the wrong story, so she doesnāt make sense. Thereās a version of all this that could have been so much better. Let Violet be a scribe. Let her deal with her disability there. Let her and Xaden have some real danger between them, which goes unrealized because they rarely meet being in different quadrants. Let her then bond to Tairn anyway, probably through some shenanigans. Then we can skip the nonsense danger school, we can have a whole thing about how humans have been imposing their own standards on dragons, Xaden can honestly struggle with his life being tied to a mortal enemy, etc etc.
Alas, we donāt have that, we have Nonsense Murder School and Toxic Perseverance instead.
Xaden teaches her to block out the dragons usingā¦imagination. Itās all just visualizing stuff. She takes to it immediately, despite all this supposedly being very hard to do. I guess she has āextreme motivationā on her side, what with all the dragon lust.
Shielding canāt block out your dragon completely, though, so Violet is still horny. Conveniently, so is Xaden. Also conveniently, heās still super hot. Much make-out ensues. This author comes from the romance genre, and it shows. This is not a complaint, the make-out is perfectly fine, itās just a particular style, lol.
Xaden breaks it off first, realizing that theyāll never be able to tell how much of that lust is genuine and therefore carrying on could be a big mistake. Violet ends the chapter going home and feeling horribly embarrassed.
So the little gold dragon has managed to stop time to save Violet from getting stabbed.
Xaden, alerted by the dragons, kicked in the door right before the time freeze, so Violet stumbles over to his side right before time starts up again. Poor Andarna canāt hold frozen time for long. Xaden is furious, and a short bit of begging from Oren and the others doesnāt help.
Xadenās shadows grab every assailant but Oren by the throat, then constrict. They struggle, but it doesnāt matter. Their faces turn purple, the shadows holding tight as they sag to their knees, falling in an arc in front of me like lifeless puppets.
Soā¦not shadows? Basically his power is just some sort of demon forcefield thatās dark like shadows? Who knows, because this book has zero care for the fact that shadows donāt have mass.
Itās a shame because someoneās powers being legitimately just shadows would be interesting. Thereās lots of limitations there, but limitations is where creativity thrives. I read someone once describe liking The Flash as like āheās only got one power and he has to figure out how to use it to solve every problem, whereas Superman has every power but uses all of them to just punch.ā (And yeah, Superman has other interesting things, but his powers aināt one of them.)
Oren, being the only named character in the room, gets to be murdered by more conventional, knifey means.
Garrick and Bodhi, two marked kids that are part of Xadenās general friend group, show up out of nowhere and basically go āaw, we missed it all, bummer.ā They get started on cleanup duty like theyāve done this a million times before. Hmmmmā¦.
Violet is currently freaking the fuck out, due to the murder attempt, the display of murderous power, and the fact that she has broken ribs. So naturally Xaden has to tend to her wounds. Which mostly consists of trying to get her to calm down and looking very mad at her bruises.
Oh, and taking off her armor to get a better look at her injuries. Of course. Canāt forget that.
Once all the bodies are removed from her room, Xaden gets Violet out and practically drags her up to the flight field, bickering all the way. Mostly about random stuff. Violet points out that heās fully dressed at 2am and so were all of his marked buddies, but Xaden declines to explain.
At the field, all three dragons are waiting for them. Her two dragons and his one. And Xaden starts yelling and scolding at house-sized Mr. Tairn, which is kind of funny.
Turns out they can all talk to each other. Thanks to Tairn and Sgaeyl being mates, those two dragons and the two humans are all telepathic with each other. Andarna is out of the loop, but meh.
Xaden wants to know what kind of magic happened back there in the room because from his viewpoint it looks like Violet teleported.
The dragons explain that what happened wasnāt a signet. Andarna is too young to do the mixing between dragon and human that produces a signet, but she can directly give her own magic to Violet and let Violet wield it. Itās risky to do because a rider taking too much could kill the dragon. Also we find out that Andarna is only two years old and will get bigger, and it seems that yes feathertail is a baby thing not a breed thing.
There is much bickering among the group, mostly the humans yelling at the dragons for letting essentially a child bond and the dragons being like āeh, sheās very willful.ā They all agree to keep this time-stopping thing a secret, since itās way too powerful and also a baby dragon thing and the dragons donāt want humans to know what their babies can do.
We also find out that Violet recognized someone in the murder group, someone who got away. A rider who let the others into the room and then bounced.
The next morning at formation, Violet and Rhiannon talk about how surprising it is that they tried to kill her.
āEven worse, I think Iām getting used to it.ā Either I have kick-ass compartmentalization skills or I really yam acclimating to always being a target.
This book has talked about her always being a target far more than it has actually targeted her. The only two times anyone has actually tried to do a murder before this, itās been Jack, and the rest of the āthreatā has been people standing still while Violet goes āaaah!ā
To be honest, I feel like thereās a perfectly fine amount of murder in this school if you take out them talking about it. The lack-of-safety-based deaths are completely absurd, but other than that itās just one severely disturbed kid and a bunch of dragons. Without Violet getting spooked at shadows, the rest is fine and the night time murder attempt is appropriately shocking.
Oh and also letās take some time to muse about how sexy Xaden is, why not.
Xaden switches a kid named Liam into Violetās squad. Liam is a first year in Xadenās inner circle and Violet immediately groks onto the fact that heās there to bodyguard her. Violet is particularly pissed about this and insists that she doesnāt need a bodyguard, which makes sense if we follow what actually happens in the school and doesnāt make sense if we follow what Violet tells us about the school.
Well, I mean, it makes sense if Violet considers the previous night to be an aberration that is unlikely to happen again. It makes sense as a stupid thing that a character might do because people are illogical. But following her pages and pages of āoh no, this place is so dangerous, everyone wants me dead, Iām a target if I take crutchesā talk, itās out of step.
And itās a disconnect thatās been present throughout. The author maybe just didnāt have time to add in all the personal danger she wanted, or maybe just didnāt feel it necessary, or just lost the thread while writing, but something got dropped probably in the editing stage. Because through the whole thing the book wants us to think that Violet is in danger but canāt bear to have her react appropriately to such becauseā¦idk, probably for the same ableist reason that Violet refuses medical care. Because thereās a strict view of what a strong and tough character looks like and the protagonist isnāt allowed to deviate from it.
Anyway, the kids donāt have time to argue too much about the bodyguard thing, because formation isnāt over. Side note, why do they have the time and space to chat incessantly during morning formations? Eh, nothing else this military has done has shown decent discipline, I guess. The command announces that someone has been accused of breaking one of the Big Rules, andā¦handling this with the appropriate authorities just isnāt how they do things here, I guess. Instead they handle it in front of the whole school by having Xaden walk up front and air his grievances.
Because of course. How else could the viewpoint character relay the scene to us? (By being a direct witness to the violation and thus involved in whatever trial happens? Psh, nah.)
Xaden announces to the whole formation (why?????? Ugh) the events of last chapter and then names Amber as the rider who facilitated the attack. Sheās a bit character who is friends with Dain and doesnāt like Violet. Dain is incensed by the accusation and demands that Violet deny it, then tries to touch her to get her memories of the previous night. She refuses, mostly because Dain is being an ass about it.
Apparently Xaden makes his accusation publicly but then after that all the leadership gets in a huddle to argue about it and just omg why is this happening in this forum????? Violet asks Tairn to share her memory ā but just the Amber parts of it ā withā¦everyone. Apparently thatās possible, dragons are just generally telepathic and itās not an actual function of any bond. This fact is literally never brought up again. Itās rude toā¦talk widely, I guess.
With everyone now having seen Amber in the room breaking the very specific rule of āno murder while sleeping,ā she is sentenced to death and immediately burned by a dragon.