You've Got Five Pages, Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, to Tell Me You're Good.

The first chapter can make or break a reader’s engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let’s study the stories of others to see how they do it! As a born and bred fantasy lover who’s raised a girl obsessed with the Wings of Fire series, I had to grab Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing from the library’s new release shelf. Dragon stories are always in demand, whether it’s for the sheer escapist adventure or the exploration of the bond between a human protagonist and their dragon, or anything in between. Now the first pages of Fourth Wing provide no dragons, but they do provide an introduction to the brutal world our protagonist Violet must live in. As a twenty-year-old in their militaristic kingdom, she must join a service like all other twenty-year-olds; the difference here is that the scribe training she had under her father has been tossed aside by her mother, one of the highest generals of the kingdom. Violet must be a dragon rider, or die trying. The concept itself is neat and definitely had me engaged from the outset. I only wish the opening pages were more than a bickering match between Violet’s mother and sister, who also serves the army as a dragon rider. The argument feels like it’s there solely to give readers a bunch of establishing information of the story and its stakes for Violet; while the information is certainly useful, it does cause the argument to drag out far more than it needed to. Still, the premise here is very promising, and for those who enjoyed tales like Christopher Paolini’s Eragon or Naomi Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon, Rebecca Yarros’ Fourth Wing will be a perfect addition to your book hoard. And what will you learn in these opening pages? Let’s find out! Cheers!