Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Genre: YA/ Special Teens/ Series
Grade: B
When I first heard about this book a couple of months ago I wasn’t interested. Mainly because it sounded like a thousand other books…
Mare lives in a society that is divided by blood. She’s a Red which means she is basically a slave working to keep the Silvers, who all have special powers, happy and content and when she’s eighteen she’ll be shipped off to the endless war. Until a handsome strange does her a favor and gets her a job at the palace. There she learns that despite her blood she too has the power to control electricity and because they can’t hide her the King and Queen decide to conscript her and make her one of them.
Yet I saw a couple of really good reviews recently that talked about how much they enjoyed it and a “twist” that surprised them all plus I needed a Female Fronted Fantasy for the Great Imaginations challenge so I said what the hell.
Plot wise this book doesn’t gain any points for originality but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Mare and the Prince’s, Cal and Maven, are well-drawn characters. Mare played the usual special snowflake roll but I thought she was pretty realistic otherwise. She was a bit of a messy person and she knew it and you didn’t always like her but I did want her to prevail. Unlike a lot of the novels in this vein though I thought the world building was very strong. The larger stakes were well set-up.
Yes, the twist surprised me. I had wondered about it but convinced myself I was wrong so when it came into play I was surprised by how much it hurt. I don’t want to give away any spoilers! Sometimes the best thing you can say about the beginning of a series is I’m looking forward to the next. Hopefully Aveyard keeps it up.
Recommend: Yes. It’s made up of elements that are fairly unoriginal at this point yet it still managed to surprise.
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