Genre: YA Fantasy
Published: February 10, 2015 by HarperTeen
Series: #1 (Red Queen)
Length: 400 pages
Source: HarperTeen (ARC)
“Graceling meets The Selection in debut novelist Victoria Aveyard’s sweeping tale of seventeen-year-old Mare, a common girl whose once-latent magical power draws her into the dangerous intrigue of the king’s palace. Will her power save her or condemn her?
Mare Barrow’s world is divided by blood–those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.
To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play 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 everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard–a growing Red rebellion–even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.”
Red Queen is a mixed of fantasy and dystopian that is about the Silvers (the one who has powers, literally and figuratively) and the Reds (powerless citizens). I think that is the only thing that made this book unique. The book is a little bit of all the dystopian books I have read such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Selection, etc which disappointed me a bit because I was craving for a fantasy book that shows no resemblance of other books. Even though I have not yet read Red Rising by Pierce Brown, Red Queen sounds a lot like it :/ because of the summary. I thought it was really cool though that the silvers literally have silver blood, while the red, of course, have red blood. I also like the idea of the silvers having superpower due to evolution.
This book unfortunately felt draggy at times…when I finished the book, I just sat back and realized that not a lot of stuff really happened even if it was a long book. There are a few action scenes that I enjoyed, but I wish there was more. There is a twist at the end which I already saw coming since the book was a bit predictable. I also did not like how some phrases that are supposed to be powerful are repeated (i.e. “red as the dawn” and “anyone can betray anyone”). Since their slogan for the revolution was so redundant, it made it sound cheesy and I could not help rolling my eyes. As for the romance, I have a love-hate relationship with it. I liked it because the princes (Maven & Cal) were swoony, yet I feel like it was all too sudden for them to have affections to Mare.
The world building was okay. It was pretty basic and I wish the author described more of how the world came to be, and the different settings in that world. I think the author only gave us a snippet of that world, and that she will provide more locations and descriptions in the sequel. I found the characters in the book okay as well. Mare steals anything she could pickpocket so she can help her family survive. She was a strong character, but shows no character development. I found the princes to be swoon-y though! Out of all the characters, I think they were the most realistic. I also love how family is involved (both Mare’s and the princes’). I love how Mare cares about her family a lot and also her best friend, Kilorn. Overall it was a very good read. I read it in two days; if you find the pacing slow, like me, just push through! I recommend it, but if you are bothered that this book is similar to other books, I wouldn’t put it on top of my to-be-read pile.
