I have just recently finished my reading of “Fifth Wing” by Reid Mockery, which is a parody of the popular novel “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros. The first thing I must say is that there will be spoilers in this posting (it is unavoidable when talking about this book) and the second thing is, you cannot truly appreciate the humour of this parody unless you have read the original it is based on.

First of all, “Fifth Wing” is just… wow. There is no other way to put it. Every time I went to read it, I had to put it down to laugh and cover my face, unable to look my partner in the eye after what I had just read, considering he was the one who bought the book for me. It was humorous and definitely challenged some of the more intense parts of the “Fourth Wing” novel. However, if you are someone who is wholly dedicated to the original novel and is not flexible to poked fun about it, this is most definitely NOT the reading for you.

So… summary time! Again, there will be some spoilers to this:

Our protagonist, Vile Soreinbut, is fully determined to become another dragon rider in her family, her siblings being one and her mother being a General. However, she is challenged by her inability to study, concentrate without a constant presence of food in her vicinity and her curvy, full figure. While some readers may not appreciate the references to Vile’s weight and size, I myself being a curvy woman, came to appreciate her determination to still fight for her dream and shake her voluptuous body in the faces of those who put her down. Much like Violet, she employed poisonous tactics to win her battles on the mat, and when that didn’t totally work she sat on them which mostly ensure her victory. That is until, Xadence Marriott challenges her to a surprise fight, starting off with a strip tease down to a thong, and an oiled up burlesque dance. I had to put the book down for the first time. Poor Vile never had a chance, although Xadence did make it up to her with a box of pastries.

Vile makes it to the Gauntlet, which is described as the backwards playground from hell itself involving a teeter totter (see-saw), witches’ hat (no idea what the Australian version of this is), merry-go-round, and jungle gym. Much like Violet, she struggles through getting the Gauntlet right, one miss-step could land her in broken glass or a chasm of death. Pain Assos continues to try to help her, despite Vile injuring him every, single, time. To date, he’s been stabbed in the leg and the shoulder, thrown into the hellish playground equipment and leaving with a broken limb and I’m pretty sure he’s also been hit in the head. To anyone to had hoped Dain Aetos from “Fourth Wing” would get injured during the novel, well Pain definitely cops it in this!

Vile gets a handy hint from Xadence, survives the Gauntlet and ends up with two dragons. One oversized, slightly inebriated, black dragon named Torn son of Tarmac, and a rainbow coloured bundle of joy who won’t stop squawking, Adammit. Torn’s signet allows Vile to jump to the front of any line, which is great for the cafeteria, while Adammit’s allows her to shoot lightning from any and all orifices. It’s after this that we get a bit of a script of what the mated dragons get up to when they’re feeling frisky, Vile and Xadence acting out every thought that the dragons send their way, and Vile experiences Xadence’s signet for the second time, an extreme orgasm. You heard me, Xadence is an orgasmic, he literally kills people with super orgasms. It was at that point, I had to put the book down for the third time. The second time was when Xadence explained and demonstrated his signet for the first time in Vile’s room.

The Fifth Wing win the squad challenge, involving four categories: Gauntlet, sparring, war history and fashion. They got a lovely spring break at Mount Lauderdale, where they all get drunk, Vile and Xadence have an emergency heat session when their dragons get frisky again and Xadence experiences Vile’s second signet for the first time, a bolt of lightning out of her butt while he’s trying to get into her. He is then unconscious for the remainder of the trip. That was the fourth time I had to put the book down.

The rest of the book went on about as expected, Vile and Xadence carry on their physical needs with extra protection, the squad heads off on a mission, they come across the gryphons and Vile finds out the truth. They get attacked by Vermint and Wyvern, Vile saves the day with her nostril lightning, but not before accidentally killing Sailor and his dragon (mentally hitting myself as I read this, and still mourning poor Liam), then she flings herself off Torn’s back and plummets to her death. But, then she wakes up in a cozy bed with Xadence looking at her lovingly and her not-so-dead brother standing at the foot of her bed.

So, again, you can’t really truly appreciate the humour of this book without having read “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros, but if you are also a fully committed “Fourth Wing” fan, this probably isn’t the book for you. I love the “Fourth Wing” series and cannot wait for the next one, “Onyx Storm” just absolutely killed me! I did, however, really enjoy the humour of “Fifth Wing” and will be reading the sequel “Purple Flame”, considering that they were bought together.