Review: King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard

King’s Cage

Victoria Aveyard

(Red Queen #3)

Publication Date: February 7, 2017

Hardcover, 528 pages, HarperTeen

Genres: YA, Dystopian/Fantasy

Book Depository | Amazon | Goodreads

In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl's spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?

Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother's web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.

As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare's heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.

When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.

My Review

I was finally able to read the next portion of Mare’s story. I’ve been waiting for this sequel for what seems like forever.

There are some SPOILERS ahead. Nothing major, but this is the third book in a series of which I have some pretty big feels that I have to get off my chest.

The beginning of King’s Cage doesn’t quite leave off right where Glass Sword left off, but it’s still pretty close. Readers get to immediately know where Mare is in terms of her whole Mal situation. And boy, was that situation ugly.

Let me start out by saying that I am most definitely not Team Mal. I loathe Mal. Loathe. So having Mare in a slow, political battle with his character—during which she basically just rotted away as his “prisoner” the entire time—for the first half of the book was supremely unsatisfying. I just wanted something to actually happen.

Despite Mare’s scenes being rather dry, the other point of view we got from Cameron really kept me going throughout the book. I looked forward to reading her scenes. I’m not ashamed to admit that 95% of this anticipation was because of Cal. #TeamCal

Even though I may have enjoyed Cameron’s chapters more at first, it still didn’t change the fact that not a lot really happened in the beginning half of the book. I also noticed there was also a lot of heavy description scenes bogging down some of the first chapters.

Alright, so there’s my nit-picking bit. Now, I’m going to get into the good stuff. This includes how Mare finally managed to make up her gosh-darned mind. She also stopped being so aloof and sinister. In Glass Sword, I’d begun to dislike her character a little, but, thankfully, she managed to humanize herself in this book.

Once what I’m going to call Part 1 of King’s Cage was over, the real action began. This is where I couldn’t stop reading. Characters were finally using their powers, and the plot was moving. Oh, and there was more Cal. ;)

Speaking of Cal, one of my favorite quotes in the book is about him. I won’t share it for fear of major spoilage, but just know that it’s awesome.

The ending of this book gave me some mixed feelings. On one hand, I know book four will be epic. On the other hand, I really wanted the characters to be happy, and I don’t know if that’s going to happen now!

All in all, I really just don’t want to wait for the last book in this awesome series. While this book isn’t my favorite of the three out right now, I know that it’s building up to a monstrous conclusion that will in the end have me either a) in tears, b) rampaging and cursing the world, or c) supremely satisfied. There will be no in-between.

*Note: I purchased a copy of this book for myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.