Red Queen
Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard (Red Queen #1)
Blurb: This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.
That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.
Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.
But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.
Rating: 3/5 stars
My Review:
So let me get this straight, I did enjoy the book and the plot. I mean, I've read similar books because it sort of started out like the hunger games. I did enjoy the way Victoria Aveyard portrayed the story however my major concern was the main character. I didn't like her. At all. She just got on my nerves way too much and Mare's actions were selfish and they annoyed the heck out of me. At the start, I was okay with her because she was just protecting and looking out for her friend but then she just took it overboard halfway through the book. Throughout the book I found that she was a terrible person to be working with and she is ALWAYS second guessing herself, making her a terrible freedom fighter.
Another thing that bothered me was the love triangle. I have read many books that have love triangles present, but for some reason, this one got on my nerves. She doesn't love Maven at the start but then starts to fall in love with him because of his character etc. Then there's Cal, who apparently will do anything for Mare because he basically loves her. THEN we as readers find out that Mare also has a thing for Cal, but then starts to hate him towards the end. It's so confusing, but for some reason, the way it was portrayed annoyed the heck out of me. So Mare now has a thing for the brothers and she ends up using them both for different reasons and then she will go from there on what to do about their love. (urgh, it's annoying)
However, I do applaud Victoria for making me love Maven and his actions for 90% of the book. This is where she was clever and made us dislike Cal for that 90%. I admit, I did sort of see the plot twist happen but I didn't know how she would play it out and I was pleased but also disappointed with the outcome. Not going to say anything revealing because you know, spoilers, but the last 10% didn't go as I envisioned it. This was the disappointing part on my end because I still had a little bit of hope for Maven but nahhh that was crushed. So well done Victoria for actually making me sort of hate him now.
One last thing that annoyed me was Cal and his personality. He just seemed.. so borrrinnggg. He doesn't really have anything going for him apart from his strength and fighting skills. So whenever Mare was talking about him it would be about his fighting skills or when they were dancing (which even then was boring in my opinion) and it annoyed me that there wasn't really any character development for him. Even at the end, he was still the boring strong Prince. Sorry, but no.
However, I liked this book enough to read on. Therefore meaning that I am going to read Glass Sword and see if it's any better. I do want to know what happens but I'm just not looking forward to meeting Mare again.
