Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Avenyard

Red Queen

  • Victoria Avenyard
  • Orion Publishing Group
  • 2nd February, 2015
  • Teens and YA, Fantasy

This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.

The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.

That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.

But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart . . .

Red Queen is set in a dystopian world where the war between Reds, work class commons with red blood, and the Silvers, those with superpowers as the ruling class, are wearing down the world.

Mare Barrow is Red, who is just about to turn 18. She is a regular thief and doesn’t have any special skills or training that would allow her to get a job in this strict. She knows that she has no chance to get away from conscription into a war after she turns 18, just like her brothers before her.

One sleepless night, Mare meets a mysterious stranger who arranges for her to get a job inside the Silver Palace where on the very first night she finds out her own powers. Red with magic powers? Her life will never be the same.

Red Queen is well written and entertaining novel. I liked the characters and I was really feeling for Mare and her struggles to jungle her Red and Silver world problems.

The last part of the novel was really breaking my heart. Every single decision Mare made have terrible, painful and heartbreaking payback and the way Victoria Aveyard follows you through them is kind of mind blowing.

The story is full of strong-ish characters with, sadly, very predictable stereotypes. I mean poor Cinderella Marie and evil queen kind of thing. However, genders are amazingly well balanced, which I loved: Red girls and boys are conscripted to go to war, Silver girls and boys are pushed to develop their powers for war. They were equal in their own world.

The plot was okay. With many twist I got that feeling ‘Oh, I seen / read this before’ and I never watched Avengers or Star Wars. The plot also gives many questions and gives you not many answers. However, I don’t know why but I enjoyed it. I truly did.

To sum everything up, this is a good read. The cover is gorgeous, writing style is easy to read and it managed to keep my attention.

Would I recommend it to my friends? I would, and I actually already did. I had some sample chapters back from YALC and I was giving them away and got some quite good feedback.

Glass Sword… Bring it on!

 

Disclaimer:

I received a review copy from publisher through Netgalley for honest opinion. 

P.S. A Special Thank You goes to Orion publishing group, for granting my wish to read this book. THANK YOU!

Red Queen, wish netgalley