Red Queen

I thought this book would be more interesting than it was. The concept was good. I thought I would find the war between the Red's and the Silver's to be fascinating. Mare, the protagonist, was a little annoying and made too many dumb decisions. Overall, the book was okay. I have a feeling I will be too annoyed to read the rest of the series, so I think I will skip it.

“Many things led to this day, for all of us. A forgotten son, a vengeful mother, a brother with a long shadow, a strange mutation. Together, they've written a tragedy.”

This is actually my second time reading it, the first time was a few years ago, at the peak of its hype. I truly disliked it then, I gave it a 1★ and I promised myself I will never go near this series again.

Anyhow, after seeing some rave reviews, recently, I decided to give it another try, thinking, maybe, I had just read it at a bad time. My view on it has changed, a bit but not a lot. I haven't fallen in love with it, I just don't despise it with the fire of a thousand suns as the first time around.

The characters and their troubles felt too familiar. I've read a handful of dystopian novels by now (though this read more like a fantasy) and this did not stand out to me.

Mare, the main character was the typical special snowflake. On top of that, she was also much too trusting and naive despite having lived in a rough environment. Most of the characters behaved and acted quite unnaturally so it was difficult, many times, to suspend my disbelief and get immersed in the story. The love triangle was very unconvincing, both the love interests being immediately taken by our heroine. The world building and the plot lacked nuance. The author tried to add some by including certain betrayals, but I saw them coming so for me the attempt failed. Additionally, quite a few things did not make any sense thought the book. Overall, a paint by numbers kind of YA. Nothing too offensive or awful, just kind of bland for me.

I listened to it in audiobook form and perhaps this was the reason for my improved reading experience. The narrator did a pretty good job, enough to keep me engaged and get to the end without feeling stupid for giving it another shot.

It ended on a major cliffhanger yet I don't want to pick of the next book to find out what happens, especially because even hardcore fans of the series say it's a downgrade from the first one.

This book seems to be one of the most talked about in the Young Adult genre at the moment, a new series that seems to have it's readers hooked and begging for more. With whispers about this book being adapted for the big screen it begged the question ‘Just what is so special about Red Queen and it's sequels that has everyone so excited?'

Immediately when I began reading there were parallells to other books in this genre that have become hugely popular in the last few years. There's threads of The Hunger Games with a story of a poor people being overseen by the rich and powerful who live in better cities and who force those lesser mortals to live a life of hard work and poverty. There's bits of Keira Cass' Selection series with stories of a girls going through a contest in order to gain the hand in marriage of the eligible prince and finally Victoria Roth's Divergent series is mixed in there with different people having different strengths or powers they can use that make them special. This book is a real mix of lots of other concepts that have been hugely successful and initially this made me a little concerned, was this going to be just a copy of those with nothing special to recommend it?

The first thing that Aveyard does is establish really strong lead characters, her heroine Mare Barrow is in her own right a wonderful creation. She's all you would expect from the heroine of a Dystopian novel, she's independent, strong, resourceful, highly moral with strong family bonds and values and she's brave and fearless. Her story is that she has grown up in one of the ‘Red' villages, where people live hand to mouth trying whilst the ‘Silvers' live a life of wealth and luxury and power. The difference between Reds and Silvers being the colour of the blood they bleed. Silver's have special powers that make them strong, such as the ability to control minds, or control fire or water or to heal.

For Red's the only life they have to look forward to is either finding a lowly apprenticeship or being sent to fight as cannon fodder for the Silver's in a war that has raged for years. Mare has already lost her 3 brother's to front line of the war and is destined for the same fate when she meets a stranger in her village one evening. Suddenly the following day she's catapulted into the world of the Silver's where her destiny will be forever changed. She will join a rebellion that seeks to overthrow the status quo and give birth to a world where Red's will rise again with the rights that they deserve.

There is literally so much that happens within this book it's difficult to digest it all even now I've finished. What I loved about the book is that we are drawn back and forth between who we trust and who we don't. There are so many twists and turns in the plot that it kept pulling me back. And that is the strength of the book, the character writing, because we genuinely don't know who is on Mare's side and who is not. In the words of the book itself ‘Anyone can betray anyone'.

I can imagine this book being adapted to a big screen movie because many of the scenes within in are lavish and glamorous and full of wonderful backdrops and with great crowd scenes, these along with epic battles and lots of action will make this a surefire hit on the big screen. It also leaves us with a cliffhanger ending, we are clear the story has much further to go and we are firmly with Mare on her journey. I know reading reviews that many people had to wait to read the second book in the series and I am fortunate that because I'm coming to this book a little later I don't have that dilema. Book 3 in the series is scheduled for next year and there are novella's that go along with the story available also.

I know that the book has received equal criticism for it's similarities to other books based on Dystopian fantasies and I can completely understand why some people found this turned them off from this book however I felt that it was strongly enough crafted. I didn't find myself struggling to pick the book up, in fact I was continually drawn back to the action and the romance and the unfolding story and that in itself is a very good sign. I guess my only concern would be I remember reading many first books in similar series' and thinking how magnificent they are only for the momentum to fade as the series progressed, my real question now is can the subsequent books in Aveyard's series live up to the quality of Red Queen?