Red Queen

Red Queen
by Victoria Aveyard
Series: Red Queen #1
Published: Feb. 10, 2015 by HarperTeen
Genres: Fantasy/Dystopian, YA
Source: Goodreads 
My Rating: ✪✪✪✪

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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.

Welcome to the first stop on my Revolutionary Summer Tour!!! (more about it in a previous post) Life and work have gotten so crazy that I haven't had much time to update the blog (or social media accounts), but I have finally found time for this post!

Review:

"The gods rule us still. They have come down from the stars. And they are no longer kind."

When I first heard of this book, I was very excited. The idea of super humans evolving from humans or becoming super due to an experiment (an idea seen in stories such as Captain America and X-Men) is actually one of the reasons I decided I wanted to go into the scientific field (to find out how this could work, etc.) as embarrassing as that may sound. I was a little disappointed about how the origin story was glossed over, but there is opportunity for elaboration on this topic in the sequels (or novellas) .

When I first met Mare, I was drawn into her story immediately. The struggles she faced living as a lowly Red intrigued me and captured my heart and mind. When she discovers her ability, she is thrust into a situation and a way of living that she knows little about. The struggle to hide her heritage results in her questioning all that she has known, pushing her to make decisions that could change the fate of the country. Although I loved her as a character, her naïveté was frustrating at times. However, she does lose most of this trait by the end of the book due to the events that occur, giving me hope that Mare's character will show more maturity in the next installment.

"I thought being their puppet would be easy compared to everything else. I was so wrong."

While there was a tiny love triangle contributing some romance to the story, I didn't find it being focal point of the book, a refreshing change for a book with a female lead. While I am, as ever, rooting for one of the delectable love interests (Team Cal) by the end Mare seems to have had it with all guys, deciding to focus on revenge and the revolution rather than which guy should make her babies.

Overall, this book had a very similar storyline to other popular ones that I have read. It brings to mind particularly Stoneheart by Brandon Sanderson (a wonderful book, full of superhuman mutants ruling the world) and The Selection by Kiera Cass (a love competition to find the new queen in a futuristic monarchy). This doesn't by any means suggest that I don't recommend this book. In fact, it was one of the more interesting worlds that I have indulged in this year and a wonderful and enchanting debut by Victoria Aveyard. I look forward to reading the books that she produces in the future as she further explores and develops her writing style.



And who wouldn't want to read this series after you see the cover for the sequel, Glass Sword!?!?!?!

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