Disclaimer: This review contains minor spoilers. I won’t discuss major events, but there are things I mention that are definitely spoilers (it would be hard not to include them). Read at your own risk.
“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.”
Well hello, everybody! How ya' holding up there? I hope you're all doing fine because today we'll be talking about Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard.
I'll be brief: Truth be told, reading this book was never part of the plan. However, there wasn't a single living soul that had not read Victoria's Aveyard 'Red Queen'. So I said to myself: What the fudge, dude? I'm reading it (yes, I did say that). I needed to know what all the fuss was about. And you know what? I finally get it.
Mare Barrow’s world is divided by blood—those with red and those with silver. Mare and her family are lowly Reds, destined to serve the Silver elite whose supernatural abilities make them nearly gods. She's a thief, stealing from anyone she can in order to survive the hunger and the coldness. One day she steals to a certain guy in a bar. Or she tries, for he is smarter than he seems. Next day, Mare is offered a job as a servant in the royal family. She's a useless red, a perfect nobody—that is until she discovers a power of her own—an ability she didn’t know she had. Except … her blood is Red. To hide this impossibility, the king forces her into the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks her new position to aid the Scarlet Guard—the leaders of a Red rebellion. Her actions put into motion a deadly and violent dance, pitting prince against prince—and Mare against her own heart.
Not sure if you know this, but I strongly disliked both Throne of Glass and The Selection series. I could not make myself read beyond book one. This book—Red Queen— is pretty much alike. What might explain why I had a very hard time at the beginning of the book. However, the more I kept on reading, the more I enjoyed the book.
Aveyard's style writing was something that even though I wasn't very fond of, I grew up to like it at least a little. I think of it like that friend who's always trying to fit on your squad and even when he's not really part of it, you quite enjoy his presence.
To be honest, I didn't feel attached to any character (if something, I believe I liked Lucas Samos the most). Not getting attached to any character was a big deal for me because, characters for me, are equally important as the plot itself is. In this book I found Mare to be a very, very stupid and visceral character. She had a lot of things going on in her life lately and she didn't know how to handle all of it. But even when there was no such thing as a great character development (not from Mare nor anyone else), I liked the book, nevertheless.
The fact that I liked this book is because Aveyard knows exactly how to get us care about the rebellion that's rising. I read this book looking for a love story that I didn't get, but I finished reading this book really satisfied. There's indeed a love story, but it is not the main focus in Red Queen. I really liked that the love situation took a step back and allowed us to see the real problem that was heading all along. Much authors don't do that these days, so to see that in this book was a breath of fresh air. I daresay it has become harder and harder lately to find a book that captivates you and has your total attention to it if there isn't a love story within its pages. Thankfully, Red Queen is one of those very rare and few who had achieved this.
My reading progress was something like this:
page 62: Cal's identity? Totally see that coming page 207: Julian doesn't like Maven? Hmm. That gives me a reason not to trust him (Maven). page 330: Is it just me or Cal and Maven are really like Thor and Loki? page 338: Totally see this twist coming. It was so predictable.
You might notice from my reading process that I saw many (if not all) things coming. However, you may as well take note that the fact that I deduced what was coming, I still liked this book and kept reading. Why, you may ask? Well, Reader, that's because I was eager to know where the story lead to not what was heading after only a few chapters. I wanted to know where would all the bad decisions made by the characters was going to leave us. What will the consequences be? Was there going to be what we commonly know as a 'second change' in order to redeem them? And what after that? While you're reading the book, I suggest you think about this.
If you have not read this book, seriously Reader, what are you waiting for? I really suggest you to read it. Red Queen is a perfect pick-up book for all those who love dystopian/YA fantasy. I'm not implying whatsoever, that this book is a book for the ages. No, it is nothing like that. But, even then, it is quite a read. Read it. Believe me when I tell you things get so much better in book number two. After all a forgotten son, a vengeful mother, a brother with a long shadow, a strange mutation. Together, they've written a tragedy.
Rating: 4 of 5