Fourth Wing Book Club Questions: 20 Discussion Questions for Rebecca Yarros's Novel

The Short Version

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros’s 2023 novel and the first book of The Empyrean series, works well for a book club because it gives a group plenty to argue over: a deadly dragon academy, a heroine who wins with her brain, an enemies-to-lovers romance, and an ending that rewrites what the characters thought they knew. Violet Sorrengail was raised to be a scribe, but her mother, the general who runs Basgiath War College, orders her into the Riders Quadrant, where cadets bond with dragons or die trying.

Below are twenty questions: ten you can use before everyone has finished the book, and ten that spoil the ending. A short section on the series order helps a group plan its next pick. The book scores four out of five in our review.

Before You Start: Content Notes For Your Group

Tell your group first. The book contains open-door, explicit sex scenes, constant strong swearing, graphic violence including strangulation and cadets killing each other, poisoning, grief and the deaths of many characters, including some you will like. It is an adult book, even though the setup feels like young adult. If someone in your club is uneasy about any of that, say so before you pick it.

Spoiler-Free Questions

1. Violet is twenty, small and fragile, with joints that dislocate and bones that break, and she trained to be a scribe. Why does Yarros make a physically fragile character the one who must survive a war college?
2. On the first day cadets cross a narrow stone bridge two hundred feet above a ravine, and many fall. How did the opening set your expectations for the rest of the book?
3. Violet cannot win by strength, so she wins by studying, planning and noticing things. Which scene best showed her scribe training as a weapon?
4. The dragons are huge, proud and sarcastic, and they talk inside your head, so there is no privacy. What does that bond add to the book, in jokes, in fear and in warmth?
5. The dragons are not pets; they have their own laws and their own politics. Did that make the world feel bigger than the school for you?
6. Basgiath mixes trials, rankings, a vertical obstacle course called the Gauntlet and a rule that cadets can challenge each other to fights. Is it more compelling or more cruel than The Hunger Games?
7. Xaden Riorson is a scarred wingleader whose father led a rebellion and killed Violet’s brother. Is the romance a believable slow burn, or does he come across as too brooding and bossy?
8. Violet has lost her brother and her father, and her mother is cold. How does grief run under the book, and does it make her mother more or less sympathetic?
9. The story is told in first person, present tense, in Violet’s head. Did the voice carry you through, or did the repeated phrases and reactions wear on you?
10. Our review scores worldbuilding at three and a half and prose at three, but the hook at five. Does the pace make up for the thin politics and history?

Spoiler Questions (Finish The Book First)

11. Xaden smuggled weapons to the enemy for years, and his reasons are tied to the hundred and seven children of the rebel leaders. Is that a reason or an excuse, as Violet treats it?
12. Tairn and Andarna knew about the fliers and kept it from Violet. Were they protecting her or betraying her?
13. Dain touches Violet’s face before they leave, and his signet reads recent memories. Is he a villain or a loyal friend who does what he always did?
14. Colonel Aetos’s letter makes clear the squad was sent to Athebyne to die. Why was the test built to make Xaden choose between a village and command of his wing?
15. Liam’s red dragon, Deigh, is killed by a wyvern, and Liam dies in Violet’s arms. Why does Yarros let this loss land so hard?
16. Liam’s last words explain the venin rule: when a venin dies, so do the wyvern it created. How does that change what the final battle at Resson is about?
17. Violet calls lightning, using Andarna’s time stop to guide the bolt. Was the use of her signet earned by everything before it?
18. Violet wakes in Aretia, the Tyrrish capital that history says was burned to the ground. What does it mean that she started as a scribe who trusted history and ends knowing it was edited?
19. Brennan walks in alive and says welcome to the revolution. Did you see him coming, and does the book owe us an explanation of how he lived?
20. Violet says she is in, but she will not trust Xaden with her heart again. Did that feel like the right place to leave the romance?

The Series

Fourth Wing is book one of The Empyrean series and ends on a cliffhanger, so the story is not finished when the last page turns. The next book is Iron Flame, and the third is Onyx Storm, which came out in January 2025. Our review says this first book is a satisfying story on its own, with an arc, a big final battle and a closing scene that changes what you thought you knew, but it is clearly the start of something longer.

What To Read Next

If your group would rather talk with a clear idea of what is coming, start with our spoiler-free review, which includes a spice guide. Save the ending explained, which covers the venin, Aretia and Brennan, for after the discussion. Our guide to the series in order is useful if your group plans to keep going.