Red Queen
By Victoria Aveyard
~Book Review~
Warning! Spoilers!
MARE BARROWS IS A RED, which means she is a commoner, destined to serve the royal
Silvers who have superpowers like mind control or fire. Mare is on the side to
a budding resistance to this society until a turn of fate reveals that she,
too, has magical powers. The Silver royal family responds by betrothing her to
one of their sons and claiming that she is a lost Silver princess. However,
Mare knows that the reality is nothing of a kind, and thus begins exploring her
mysterious powers as the flames of revolution grow higher.
The training
scenes of Red Queen were the best part, where Mare gets to test her lightning powers against
other royals who can manipulate metal, have super speed, ect. She forms a bond
with the down-to-earth Silver prince Cal, a formidable fighter with fire powers
who gets all the attention. She also meets Maven, the younger prince and the
son of the new queen who is more bookish, quieter, and jealous of his older
brother’s feats.
Beyond the
training scenes, it was hard to stay invested in this book. Mare is a generic
passive heroine who reacts rather than acts; Cal has a non-existent
personality; and I was about to give up all hope on the sniveling Maven as well
until Aveyard’s twist at the end. That was a breath of relief, but I felt that it
should have happened sooner. For me, the biggest problem was the lack of
tension. There are seemingly no villains or anyone who is much of a challenge
to Mare for three quarters of the book, which contributed to my rapid skim
reading. There should have been; the queen reads minds, for heaven’s sake, but the
complacency upon her and Maven’s side was pretty suspicious from the get-go. I was
really hoping Aveyard would get there sooner, but instead it’s used as a
catalyst to set up the rest of the books in the series.
While mildly
entertaining, not much stands out to engross the reader in this world over the
myriad of other YA fantasy offerings. The most intriguing dynamic is between
Mare and Maven once his secret is revealed, but the other characters were all
fairly forgettable.
Recommended for
fans of: Marie Rutkoski; Mary Pearson; Morgan Rhodes
Upcoming Book
Review: White Cat by Holly Black
