Review : Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Red Queen (Red Queen #1)
Author : Victoria Aveyard
Publication Date : February 10th 2015
Publisher : Harper Teen
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Graceling meets The Selection in debut novelist Victoria Aveyard's sweeping tale of seventeen-year-old Mare, a common girl whose once-latent magical power draws her into the dangerous intrigue of the king's palace. Will her power save her or condemn her?

Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood--those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.

To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard--a growing Red rebellion--even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.

Personal Thoughts

WOW! To think that I nearly skipped reading Red Queen because it sounded like it had a love triangle. Red Queen was one of those books where the entire time I was reading, I was internally screaming and fangirling because it was PHENOMENAL on every level. This book is the epitome of why I love fantasy so much.

I'm going to come out straight and say that Mare, the protagonist of Red Queen, isn't always going to please you. The girl was rough around the edges and was very much flawed. That's what made her really work for me as a protagonist. She repeatedly made mistakes, but it was easy to see why. Mare tended to be very loyal to the people around her, especially her best friend and her family. She was devoted to them and was willing to risk her own life for them. I also loved how headstrong she was throughout the whole book despite falling down on more than one occasion. Mare was definitely a fierce, fiesty and brave heroine who I thought was a delight. While Mare was a brilliant protagonist for me, I wasn't entirely convinced by some of the secondary characters. Cal, especially, I feel like I needed to spend a bit more time to really understand what kind of person he was. That being said though, I think with the way things ended in Red Queen, it's clear that we're going to get to know him on a much deeper level and that's exciting for me because he was very intriguing. And then there was Maven, who I liked from the start. There's just so much I want to say about his character, but I'm going to keep mum because you guys need to experience his character by yourself without really knowing anything because you will be in for a complete ride. The villains in Red Queen had my blood curdling! They were horrific, twisted and manipulative, exactly how I love my villains. It's going to be a thrill to see their evolution in the subsequent books.

What was great about the characters in Red Queen was that every single one of them was hiding a secret of some kind, so you I never knew who to trust. Obviously, that had me flipping the pages wanting for revelations to be made. Victoria Aveyard did not disappoint with respect to that. There were so many twists and turns that had my head spinning and my eyes widening in shock. It was one crazy wild ride reading this book because I didn't predict most of the turns. This had the kind of action-packed plot that I enjoy in books. It was really hard to put down Red Queen because of that. The body count is really high and the book could be very brutal at times. The world building too was interesting. Mare's world is divided into the Reds and the Silvers. The Silvers are basically royalty and have supernatural abilities while the Reds are the laymen, who are considered inferior to the Silvers because they have no powers. Aveyard introduced themes of discrimination and war in the book, both which were dealt with judiciously. For my love triangle haters readers, trust me, you have nothing to worry about. While Mare does kiss both boys, you will find out soon enough that Red Queen is not a romance-driven book and by the time the book ends, you're certain that it's not a love triangle. In fact, I was of the opinion that there was no romance in this book and I wasn't bothered by it one bit because I was more interested in the plot and the world building.

Red Queen was a book that had me invested from the start because of how vicious it could be at times. This wasn't unique in the fantasy genre, but it was an entertaining one. Now, I need someone to hand me book 2!

Rating

Cover : 5/5
Plot : 5/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 4/5

**Overall Rating : 4.5/5**

Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Teen for the e-ARC of Red Queen.