Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen

Victoria Aveyard

(Red Queen #1)

Publication Date: February 10, 2015

Hardcover, 383 pages, HarperTeen

Genres: YA, Fantasy/Dystopian

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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.

My Review

I shouldn’t have read this. Oops. Let me be a little clearer. I shouldn’t have read this book so early. I now have approximately 331 days, 7 hours, and 49 minutes until I can read the sequel, IF it comes out around the same time as book #1. (This review will go up on my blog after I finished reading it, so it’ll be a little less time by then.) I don’t think I can wait that long…

I really wasn’t sure about Red Queen at first. I knew there was A LOT of hype, but some bloggers/reviewers I trust said the book didn’t live up to its hype. I think that really helped me enjoy the crap out of this book! I wasn’t expecting a fantastic, bloody (See what I did there?), action story, but I got it!

Mare, the main character, has a really weird name. It’s the word for a female horse. That annoyed me. I still really liked her character though. She wasn’t the perfect assassin type, or the greatest warrior, or even the best daughter, and that really made me empathize with her character. Now, I’m not saying I wouldn’t have screamed at her for some of the choices she made, but that’s only because I spoiled myself by peeking at the back of the book. I wasn’t looking for spoilers! I just wanted to know how many pages there were! 

The most fantastic part of this story though, is Cal. I can’t even begin to describe how amazing I found him. He’s a warrior, a prince, and sometimes, he’s even a douche, but I love him. Mare and his relationship is just so complicated and so messed up that I have no idea how Aveyard’s going to patch it up in future books. (And she had better patch it up!)

Despite my complete adoration of Cal, there were other love interests throughout the book. Kilorn, Mare’s friend from home, is also a sweet and protective guy that I wouldn’t mind having as more than a friend, if Cal wasn’t there. And Maven, Cal’s little brother, was another love interest. One aspect of this book that I didn’t really like, was that I had a hard time finding how the love interest relationships actually got started. Maven and Mare’s and Kilorn’s and Mare’s I could kind of understand, but Cal and Mare’s was a little bit of a mystery. I couldn’t see why they liked each other so much, but boy did I love it that they did!

The plot of the book had me worried at first, mostly because I heard that it wasn’t original. I could see a little bit of that being true, but I found that a lot of it was not only original, but crazy astounding! The powers! The red and silver blood! The royalty! I was all over that. I do wish that the book, instead of associating with a dystopian world, had just focused on being a fantasy. It could have been like Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone, where they still had technology, but it was its own world. The reason for this is simply because I found myself trying to picture where they were in the real world, whereas if it had been a fantasy, I wouldn’t have worried about it so much. This also could have been helped by having a map.

All in all, this review probably doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt while reading this book. This is my first 5-star book of 2015, and I just need a freakin’ sequel! And if my crazy ranting doesn’t convince you to go buy this book, then I don’t think anything will…

*Note: I borrowed a copy of this book from my library.