Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard – 3 stars

This is one of those rare books that was so over-hyped, I found myself completely buying into all the great reviews, and I bought it immediately at Target, due to the immense amount of praise the book received. My first mistake.

Because of the great reviews form so many popular Booktubers, whose opinions I tend to value, I didn’t even bother looking at the synopsis or reading the dust jacket to find out what the premise was. It had good reviews and a beautiful cover, and for the first time ever, that was enough for me. My second mistake.

At the end of the day, what I found in this book was a nice try at a debut novel from Victoria Aveyard. Take a dystopian premise, add a sprinkle of teen angst and the feeling of not-belonging, throw in a love triangle for some added drama, and a plot twist (that could arguably be seen from the midway point of the book). BOOM. You have the Red Queen…… And a number of other YA books that currently grace the shelves at any local bookstore. That’s not to say this book didn’t have redeeming qualities, because it did. But at the end of the day, it was unoriginal.

SYNOPSIS: 

Mare is a girl living in a world of silvers versus reds. People in are sorted in society based on the color of their blood: the silvers are royalty and possess magical abilities, and the reds are powerless and poor, left to suffer in slums while the royal silvers live in richer neighborhoods (think the Hunger Games and the Capital versus District 12). Mare seems to think she is rather ordinary, except when it comes to her above average pickpocketing skills. For this reason, she has consigned herself with being placed into the draft for the war that is ravaging their lands. Until she meets a mysterious woman who says she will help Mare escape conscription if she is able to pay a high price. Desperate to avoid the war that has already claimed members of her family, Mare sneaks into the palace to steal from others. However, after a series of interesting events, she finds herself working in the palace alongside her sister, and her powers are suddenly revealed to a slew of Silvers. Because of this rarity, she is then forced to pretend to be a long-lost Silver from a high-ranking family. All the while, she is forced into an engagement with one of the Royal Princes, Maven, but she clearly also begins to harbor feelings for Cal, the older of the two brothers. The situation escalates to a fiery ending full of betrayal and death, and the assumption of a sequel (obviously).

THE GOOD:

Mare. She is surprisingly human. We get to watch her mental state unravel and re-work itself. We are able to witness her internal struggle with staying true to herself and everything she believes, while also trying to evolve in order to usher in a better tomorrow for other Reds like herself. She reminds me so much of Katniss in the Hunger Games (how she has to reluctantly play the capital’s puppet, but does it to help bring about a better tomorrow). She is a surprisingly strong character with human faults. Even though we’re in a fantasy world, her shortcomings are surprisingly relatable.

World Building. I give Victoria so much credit in this department. There are parts of the story that are under-developed (we never really know much about the war being fought, we’re never introduced to the outside sources fighting the war, etc), but I can only assume these facets are left out for the sake of following books. However, what she does offer up is a beautiful description of Mare’s world. I found myself being able to vividly picture the stilts she lived in, the glass palace, the river journey she embarks on with the Royal family, and the action scenes throughout. The world is dark and beautiful and I’m in love with it.

Characters. Every main character is distinct. Cal, Maven, Mare, Elara, and Kilorn all are very distinct and easily distinguishable. They seamlessly interact and are written so masterfully. It seems as though we never know exactly what is going on in any of their minds, and their opinions really do change on a whim. This is so intriguing, because it gives the characters a human dimension that is so often missing from YA books. Love them or hate them, the characters are well-written.

THE BAD:

Story. The story honestly had so much potential to grow further in this first book. Unfortunately, I felt the introduction to the beautiful world was a little lengthy and longer than necessary. Consequently, the actual crux of the story doesn’t take place until about 150 pages in. It’s a slow start, and an even slower read. The real action doesn’t take place until deep into the second act of the book. For this reason, the book took me awhile to finish—there was no real urgency.

Plot Twist. Here’s where I was really bothered. Going into this book, I knew absolutely nothing about the plot, the storyline, the characters—nada. I went into this completely blind. SAVE for the fact I knew there would be a twist of some sort. Now, the particular plot twist in this book was said to be mind-blowing and completely unexpected. Let me just say, I was not shocked in the least. Mare was told on more than one occasion, “Maven is his mother’s son,” or something to that affect. Further, Victoria’s story and Mare’s telling placed so much stock in absolutely everything Cal did from the moment she met him. Suddenly, Mare was content with Maven because he seemed kind to her, and instantly Cal became the bad guy because he didn’t want a war and he was sympathetic to his Silvers, but Maven happened to be sympathetic to the Reds his family had suppressed for years. Now, I’ve read plenty of YA books to know that these signs pointed to one clear point: Mare was OBVIOUSLY not going to be picking between two brothers, it would be one or the other (because let’s not forget her inexplicable soft spot for Kilorn, also). That coupled with the repeated “Maven is his mother’s son” meant that something was going to happen with Maven. AND THEN SUDDENLY IT DID. And I wasn’t shocked in the least. I’m more shocked that this “plot twist” took anyone by surprise. The one part of the “plot twist” that I would classify as a twist was the killing of the King. But even so, this felt like a cheap rip off of the Season 1 finale of Game of Thrones—it was so irritating because the King hardly did anything, but was so likable, and he just had to die. Granted, it seemed necessary, but somehow also annoying.

Kilorn. Okay. So Kilorn is basically the Gale of the Red Queen (I know I’m referencing the Hunger Games a lot, but COME ON). He’s a part of Mare’s home and she just can’t let him go because he reminds her of who she is and where she’s from, and she’s grown up with him. But he isn’t like her. He’s foreign to her and her cause at this point. And he’s seriously getting in the way of the clear budding relationship between Mare and Cal. Just like Gale, he seems to be the one who brings out the anger in her and brings out her worst traits, while Cal makes her want to strive towards cultivating a better future for all. Kilorn was the most irritating and unnecessary character, and I feel like the novel didn’t suffer because of him, but nothing would have been lost had he not been written into the story in the first place.

OVERALL:

This book wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great, nor was it original. The writing was lovely, the world was interesting, and the characters were great. But the plot was slow, the premise felt like every other YA dystopian, and it honestly just took me way longer to finish than it should have. Despite all that, I find myself wondering where the overarching plot of the series is going. I will pick up the second book in the series with my fingers crossed for more originality, because at the end of the day, Red Queen just had too many parallels to too many other high-grossing YA dystopian novels.

END VOTE:

3 stars

★★★