Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen (Red Queen, #1)

by Victoria Aveyard

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.

Reviewed by Renee on

4 of 5 stars

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It was time for a reread. I remember how enthusiastic I was about this book when I read it for the first time. I loved it with all my heart. I thought the plot twists were unexpected, the idea felt totally new, and wow the powers. Now, I am a bit less enthusiastic, but I still adore this book. However, I won't call it one of my favorites anymore just because the final plot twist has been foreshadowed early on in the book and I thought it spoiled it too much. Even though I didn't see it coming the first time.

Maybe it is also nostalgia, but I honestly love the world, the characters, and the plot twists. I do think some characters are a bit too bland, but I can definitely name a few popular YA books with more bland characters than this one.

I just now learned that this book is often compared to Red Rising, which appeared a year earlier. Personally, I love both books and even though there are some comparisons, they are almost nonexistent. The two books both have Reds as the lowest persons of the society and they both have a main character that wants to change the world from within the highest society. In both cases, this person is originally a Red. But whatever you call the lower society, infiltrating a higher class, or preferably the highest class of society, and trying to bring it down from within is nothing new. Both books do it in their own unique way. And I don't blame Red Queen for not changing its name of the lower society too avoid comparison, because having red blood makes sense and makes the reader feel connected to the lower society.


February 2016: 5 stars

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