Hello and welcome back to the nerd shelf.
Today's post is going to be my review of the book Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. Red Queen is the first book in a series of four books.
Red Queen takes place in a world divided by blood - red or silver.
The reds are commoners who are ruled by silvers who possesses god-like powers. The book follows a seventeen-year-old girl called Mare Barrow who lives a life of stealing to get by. She believes that this is all the world is, the silvers ruling over the reds, treating them like slaves, and that it will never change. Until one day when she and a lot of other people discover that she is different in a way that no one thought was possible.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Y/A fantasy books. The world is so interesting and I loved the main character. It was a great intense read that took me on a rollercoaster of emotions.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
So I went into this book knowing nothing about the plot. I knew that it was a Y/A fantasy, which is right up my alley, but other then that nothing. Although I might be confused in the beginning I enjoy reading books that way, it's like watching a movie without watching the trailer, you won't be spoiled.
I love the way Aveyard wrote this book. She writes in a way that makes you want to scream (in a good way). Every chapter ends on a huge cliffhanger that makes you want to read more and more and more. It's like watching a TV show that you just can't stop yourself from binging.
The world that Aveyard built was so interesting to me. I think we might be in our world but waaaaay into the future, but I'm not sure, it could be on another planet entirely. I also haven't done my research to see if Aveyard has answered that question so if you know, leave it in the comments. I feel like Aveyard has taken some elements from our own world, the way silvers use reds as slaves, to fight their war, to be their servants, to make everything they own. It reminds me of the times where slavery wasn't illegal. And I'm sure it still happens today, I just haven't seen it myself. It also reminds me of the hunger games. The way one part of the population has everything they want and another one is starving.
I find the silvers powers fascinating. Like how did this start? Where did the powers come from? And why did some people all of a sudden have silver blood? I really want the origin of that. But it's also irrelevant at this point in the story so I don't expect Avery to do that.
I find the court fascinating and I love that we can go along and experience it along with Mare. The Queenstrial is so interesting to me. I love that Avery made the Queenstrail this event where the most powerful families show off their daughters powers, it's clearly something that they did back in the day with royal families, well minus the powers. I really wonder what happens if it's a princess who needs a husband, is there a Kingstrial? So many questions that probably won't get answered. But that's kind of what I like. I'm so immersed in this world that I want to know more about it.
Mare. One of my new favorite characters. She's so interesting and I see so much of myself in her. Her jealousy of her sister is something I really relate to. She feels like she can't contribute with anything, like she's useless to her family. I understand that feeling especially as an older sister. As the older sister you feel like you have to contribute more to the family, and when you're struggling more than the younger sibling it's hard. I also understand her guilt. If I was the reason my sister got injured in the way Gisa was I would never be able to look her in the eye again.
Her friendship with Kilorn to me is so beautiful and I relate to it so much. A lot of people think that two people of the opposite sexes cant be friends and I really disagree with that. I have a lot of guy friends, and nothing has ever happened between us and there aren't any of those feelings between us. That is probably the only thing that differs between Mares and Kilorns friendship and me and my guy friends friendships. You can clearly tell that Kilorn has feelings for her. He even gets himself into trouble for her. I believe that he probably wants to help the reds as well but I think he's doing it more for Mare that anything else. The part where he gives her an earring, just like the ones her brothers gave her before they went to war, made me cry. It was so beautiful.
The night she meets Cal she is so done with everything. She doesn't care anymore. Shes already ruined everything. She gets caught and Cal is sympathetic. But at this point, she doesn't trust anyone. So what changed when she got into the court? Was it just that she was all alone in a place where she didn't belong? Was that why she trusted Maven? Cause god, I think that's why I didn't see it.
I thought that there was going to be a love triangle between Mare, Maven, and Cal. And in the beginning it kind of was. I wanted her to be with Cal the whole time, it just felt like they had more between them than her and Maven. You can obviously tell that Mare has feelings for Cal, even though she's trying to push them away, and vice versa. But there's something there, so much so that when Maven tells Mare that Cal would do anything for her I believed him as much as Mare did. And I felt the betrayal Mare felt in that moment that Cal turned his back on her and followed his father's orders. But it was nothing like the betrayal that came after that. Mavens betrayal. The way Aveyard wrote that though, I could see it play out in my head. How all of a sudden Mavens eyes are just cold, nothing behind them. Not the same boy that was so caring and loving for Mare, that wanted to help the scarlet guard, that wanted to change this kingdom for the better. There was just a power-hungry cold person who's just like his mom.
I never saw the betrayal coming. There were some hints in the beginning when we first meet him, but I never held onto that and it frustrates me to no end. I wanted to be able to see it, and I usually can. But this time I was totally blindsided. I fell for him, just like Mare did. But oh my god Maven is one of the most disgusting characters ever. He really just switched to another person in just a few seconds. And it made me want to throw up. He just loves power. I think he wants Mare just so Cal can't have her. He talks about being in Cal's shadow and I think if he could have Mare he would feel like he had the upper hand. And Elara, oh my fucking god. I don't know who I hate more, her or Maven. The fact that she can get into peoples minds and go through their memories or make them do anything she wants is terrifying. And when she makes Cal kill the king... I can't even imagine being made to do that, to kill your own father, against your will. And you can't do anything about it. Meanwhile, your father is telling you that it's not your fault, that you are not the one doing it. That broke me, cause even though he says it we all know that Cal will feel guilty. Guilty for not being able to stop Elara and Maven, guilty for not being able to stop himself from killing his father. And then the whole world thinks you did it. Fuck that. Elara and Maven are so manipulative and they know how to lie to make people trust them or at least believe their story.
Mares relationship with Julian is so nice. You can tell that he just genuinely wants to help. And I should have taken his advice and not trusted anyone. Now, as soon as I think about these books all I can hear is "anyone can betray anyone". And I was so frustrated that I didn't take his advice, cause usually, I can see if someone is sketchy. Usually, I can see the betrayal coming but I couldn't this time. And I know that I've said that multiple times already but I just can't let it go. It's the first time in a long time that I've been that blindsided. And I felt like Mare did at that moment, angry with herself. I was angry at myself for not seeing it.
I love that Julian made her a list of others like her so that she can find them. I loved that Julian was so loyal to her that he would help her free red prisoners. He was the one who she could trust fully. He was just curious and wanted to learn more about why she had powers but not because he was scared of what that could mean to their world. He wanted to know just out of pure curiosity. At the end of the book, we find out that he tried to run away and that Maven caught him and executed him. I cried cause he was the only one Mare actually had on her side.
The scarlet guard. I found this group fascinating. Farley is an interesting character and I want to learn more about her. She is just so harsh. She feels a lot like a military lieutenant, someone who's disciplined and like giving out orders. She believes Maven too, but maybe mostly because Mare is insisting that he's on their side.
Mare makes a deal with the king to get her brothers home from the front lines of the war and to have the whole family taken care of. She gets Cal to take her home to see them one last time. This moment when Mare finds out that Shade is dead got me. It's funny because I never met Shade but the way that Mare has described their relationship made me feel like I had. And to hear that he had died right before he was supposed to go home was heartbreaking. Finding out that he was executed because he also had powers made me so angry. Finding out that they have been executing reds with powers just so that they can keep their power is so disgusting. They are so afraid of being overrun, but the scarlet guard has already begun that process without powers. The only reason that Mare is not executed is that her powers manifested before so many silvers. That must hurt knowing that just because of the fact that your powers happened to show up in front of a bunch of silvers you weren't executed when everyone else is.
In the end, when Maven has sentenced Mare and Cal to death, I didn't know what this would entail. I thought that maybe they would just execute them on a stage for everyone to see. Quick and easy. But no. In a way they were on a stage, well they were in an arena, with an audience and cameras broadcasting it to the country. And of course, Maven is too much of a coward to do it himself. They have to fight to their death. A silencer is there to make Mare powerless. Maven has lied to the country and said that her powers are fake, that she is just a small, powerless little red. For some reason I really wanted her to not be affected by the silencer the way other silvers are. I wanted her powers to be greater than anyone elses. But no. She outsmarts him though and gets another silver to kill him to get her powers back. And then the scarlet guard saves them.
When she opens up her eyes in the epilogue and Shade is there I thought that maybe it would just be a dream and that Aveyard would rip him away from us again but no. He's there. He's not dead and he has teleportation powers which are why the silvers couldn't kill him. He was too fast for them. I started to cry when she saw that it was him. Again this is the first time we meet him but I felt like I had a connection to him already. Cal is on the floor shackled and I wanted to scream "HE'S ON YOUR SIDE" but I also understand why. They can't trust him. They tried to once before and they almost died because of it.
The book left us on kind of a cliffhanger, which Aveyard did every chapter, and I loved it. I don't know how much I would have loved it if I would have read the book back when it came out. Having that cliffhanger and wanting to read the next book and not being able to is so frustrating but it's also effective. It makes you excited for the next one and you want to get it as soon as it comes out. I am one of those weird people who doesn't really like to binge things, especially tv shows, but books I'm okay with doing it with.
I loved this book and I can't wait to read the whole series. I want to see where this story takes me and if Aveyard can keep up the cliffhangers at the same pace.
/Johanna
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