Red Queen

Red Queen

Author- Victoria Aveyard
Page count-  383
Publisher- Orion
Publication Date- February 10th 2015

Synopsis

The world is divided, reds and silvers, rich and poor, commoners and gods. It’s as simple as that, until one day it isn't.

17 year old Mare Barrow proves to be the exception. Living as a poor red girl she thinks that being enrolled in the army is as glamorous as life can get until a turn of events finds Mare saved from conscription and working as servant in the king’s palace. In the belly of the beast Mare discovers that despite her red blood she possesses a deadly power of her own one to rival that of her enemies.

But being a red in a sea of silvers, Mare finds herself caught up in Court politics and begins to play a dangerous game. The only question is, who can she trust?

My opinion

I saw a lot of hype around this book, which was one of the main reasons I picked up, that and the pretty cover and for a debut novel I have to say overall Victoria Aveyard does well. However, I have some issues, it may be because I went in with such high expectations but at times it was dry and I was forcing myself to read on. With such a promising premise- with the world being divided into silver blooded and red blooded people, the former having special abilities- I was expecting much more action than was given to me but maybe it will kick start in book two. Also I found it was heavily focused on the romance with all the potential surrounding the brewing revolution from the reds to overthrow the silvers and silver abilities.

“In school, we learned about the world before ours, about the angels and gods that lived in the sky, ruling the earth with kind and loving hands. Some say those are just stories, but I don’t believe that. The gods rule us still. They have come down from the stars. And they are no longer kind.”

And don’t even get me started on the romance; typical girl is different so all guys love her and all girls hate her, but really is everyone in love with this girl??? Two Princes and a childhood sweetheart??? And of course all this attention warrants bitchy girl drama *eyes roll all the way to the moon*

My final issue was with world building, Red queen is classed as fantasy and what I love about fantasy is the incredible new worlds you can get lost In. basically world building is a big thing for me, it’s the hallmark for a good fantasy book. Take S J Mass’ Throne of Glass. I just feel like Aveyard has all this material she’s working with and she’s just given us the pocket on a pair of jeans. I would have liked to have seen a map of this world- Norta-she had created at the beginning, as it’s described later on in the book and for me the details were hard to get around, later I was able to find a map online but It would have been nice to have something to reference to while reading . But again maybe we get to explore more in book two.

Overall, I feel like this book had so much potential and had so much going for it that even Aveyard didn't know what to focus on. For me, it could have worked better if it was shorter as the suspense kept building up and then…. Nothing would happen.

However despite all of this, I did enjoy the book and found myself wanting to read the second one. Mare I feel was quite an empowering character even if she could be annoying at times, and the Princes, Cal and Maven, I feel their personalities showed what the pressures of court life and living as Princes would do to you. What I really loved was how Mare’s relationship with her brothers was presented and it’s something I hope is expanded in book two.

 

Rating: 5/10