Review: Red Queen

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Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen #1

383 pages

Finished in June 18th 2015

5 stars

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“It’s our nature. We destroy. It’s the constant of our kind. No matter the color of blood, man will always fall.”

This is what this book is all about. A society divided by the colour of blood. We have the Silvers—privileged, with special abilities and who control everything. And then there’s the Reds—oppressed, forced to find work quickly or be conscripted at the age of 18 and possibly never return home. But despite the colour of one’s blood, silver or red, or their social status, rich or poor, everyone is flawed. Every human has the capacity to destroy. And this is what I find so relatable in this book. It sums up the discrimination in our society pretty well.

“I’m a Red girl in a sea of Silvers and I can’t afford to feel sorry for anyone.”

In this cruel world divided by blood, we have Mare Barrow, an ordinary red girl who by some twisted fate discovers that despite the color of her blood, she possesses an ability that no Silver has ever seen or heard of before and is then forced to live alongside the Silver elite in order to survive.

Mare is “Red and Silver, and stronger than both.” The first of her kind. Or so she thought.

She is a strong and selfish character. Victoria Averyard said that’s why the first and last sentences of both Red Queen and Glass Sword start with “I”, because Mare is an incredibly selfish protagonist. And both sentences have really strong verbs (“hate” and “kill” respectively) that show the dark tone of this book.

Cal reminded me of both Dorian and Chaol from the Throne of Glass series in a way, which is a good thing because I love them! He was raised to continue his father’s work and even though he wanted things to change he was too afraid of the repercussions and failing his people, but I’m hoping that after everything that’s happened he’ll help Mare do the right thing. And I felt really bad for him in the end…

I don’t have much to say about Maven except that I have extremely conflicted feelings towards him.

Also, Evangeline really annoyed me but she seems like a promising character so I haven’t really formed an opinion about her.

“Anyone can betray anyone.”

Damn right they can. I did not see that plot twist coming! But I’m glad it happened, made the book even more interesting. And the ending leaves you craving for more!

I highly recommend this book. In fact I even bought it as a birthday gift for my friend 😀 (You can see in the picture above, my copy is the hardcover and hers is the paperback. They’re both gorgeous!)

And I can’t wait for Glass Sword! I’ve read an excerpt and it looks really promising!