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High-fives to Fourth Wing author

Fourth Wing book cover

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Ginormous high-fives (high-fifties?) are in order for Rebecca Yarros for placing a content warning at the beginning of her enormously popular fantasy book Fourth Wing. Here’s what she writes:

Fourth Wing is a nonstop-thrilling adventure fantasy set in the brutal and competitive world of a military college for dragon riders, which includes elements regarding war, battle, hand-to-hand combat, perilous situations, blood, intense violence, brutal injuries, death, poisoning, graphic language, and sexual activities that are shown on the page. Readers who may be sensitive to these elements, please take note, and prepare to enter Basgiath War College…”

I was eager to read Fourth Wing myself because it is on a lot of bestseller lists and has gotten a lot of glowing blurbs (it sounds fun!). At my library, the hold notice for the book shows at this moment that there are 487 (!) holds for the ebook and 156 holds for a hard copy (of which the library has 30 in its system). That’s by far the most I’ve seen for just about anything. I considered just buying a Kindle copy to read and rate because it’ll be forever until I get a Kindle copy from the library (I’ve done that with some books I feel confident will be worth my money.)

Luckily, I noticed that Amazon has a sample of the very beginning available, and I took a look at that first. Right away, I read the author’s warning.

And I did not spend $14.99 on the book. (I did create a DIRT-Rapid Rating hybrid post, essentially, on Rated Reads.)

What I think is great is that Yarros had no problem openly sharing details about the content of her book. No fuss about how some readers were too sensitive, no offense taken that it may not be some people’s cup of tea simply based on content. She laid it right out for everyone. And has it cut into her sales? It appears not.

In part thanks to book bans (which I largely disagree with, as I’ve written about already), many do not agree with the notion of having a ratings system for books. That may be because it might lead to more bans or other kinds of restrictions.

But why can’t more authors (and major publishers) voluntarily put these kinds of warnings at the beginning of their books? More are including “trigger warnings” about sensitive content that could disturb readers who have had traumatic personal experiences. This author may be taking her cue from those. (Although her warning paragraph actually sounds like what amusement parks post at the entrance of intense rides, setting the stage for this book being a heck of a fun ride. So if that was her intent, cool, but it works for all of us who like the info.)

So, authors and publishers, are you game?

I may not read your books if you do, but I’ll promote you to those who don’t mind the content, even as I pass the warning along to those who are sensitive to that kind of content. It’s happy reading for all.

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