Review: Broken Throne by Victoria Aveyard

Broken Throne

Victoria Aveyard

(Red Queen #4.5)

Publication Date: May 7, 2019

Hardcover, 480 pages, HarperTeen

Genres: YA, Fantasy, Dystopian

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Return once more to the deadly and dazzling world of Red Queen in Broken Throne, a beautifully designed, must-have companion to the chart-topping series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Victoria Aveyard.

The perfect addition to the #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen series, this gorgeously designed package features three brand-new novellas, two previously published novellas, Steel Scars and Queen Song, and never-before-seen maps, flags, bonus scenes, journal entries, and much more exclusive content.

Fans will be delighted to catch up with beloved characters after the drama of War Storm and be excited to hear from brand-new voices as well. This stunning collection is not to be missed!

My Review

I love the Red Queen series! Love it. I’m honestly not sure why it gets so much hate. But when I heard Victoria Aveyard was releasing another book in the series with stories from characters after the events of War Storm, I was super excited. For some reason, though, I put off picking this one up. I guess I just didn’t want the world to officially end. Now that I have read it, I definitely want to go through and do a re-read of the entire series soon. But let’s get on to my review, shall we?

Please note that because this book is #4.5 in the series, there will be spoilers in my review.

So the first two stories are ones I have already reviewed, since they were previously published in Cruel Crown. I originally gave “Queen Song” four stars and “Steel Scars” three stars, and I stand by those ratings. Cal’s mother, Coriane, has a terrible, fascinating story, while Farley’s story in “Steel Scars” really only gets interesting when the Barrows get involved. I re-read Farley’s short story simply because I wanted to read the entirety of Broken Throne. I don’t think I’ll ever read that story again, though. (Check out my full review of these novellas.)

The next short story in this bind-up is “World Behind,” and it follows Lyrisa. I didn’t remember this character from the original four books at all. I never could place her while I was reading. I had to do some research to figure out who she was. This meant I felt kind of “meh” about the first half of her story. I did like the ending though. It gave off some fun Six of Crows vibes. I’d give this short story three stars as well.

Next, we got an Evangeline story. It was good, though I wish there had been more in terms of her and her brother’s relationship and their next steps. I think it does provide a satisfactory ending to Evangeline’s story compared to what happened in War Storm, though. I’m giving this one 3.5 stars.

Towards the end, we get a few different short stories, but the main one is Cal and Mare’s. I always want more Cal, so this story and all of the ones that followed were great. I think these ones could have been fifty pages longer just to make me happy and give me more. Despite that, they did put a smile on my face. Cal is kind of clueless when it comes to the real world (i.e. the cabin scene). I’m still a little bitter about how poorly Cal gets treated sometimes writing-wise. However, I do appreciate how Aveyard ended the series in War Storm more now than I originally did when I first finished that book, and I do think Broken Throne is a necessary epilogue to the series. I’d give these stories five stars.

All in all, Broken Throne just re-ignited my love for this world. I really want to re-read the entire series when I get the chance, though I’ll probably skip the first three stories in Broken Throne during my future re-reads. I will skim through all of the maps, texts, etc., in the book, though, because those were fascinating. Everything was purple, even the font! Purple is my favorite color, so this book will have a place of honor on my shelves. Oh, and the Calore family tree poster also made me super happy. I love when publishers include extras inside books.

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