Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard {Mini Review}
Release Date: February 10th 2015
Publishers: Hachette
Pages: 383
Genre: Dystopia
Links: Goodreads | Author's Website | Book Depository | Hachette
The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.
To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.
Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of
those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.
But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?
To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.
Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of
those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.
But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?
Review
Red Queen is such a hard novel to write a review on because I have such mixed feelings about it. I can't say that I didn't enjoy it because I did, I really did but I couldn't help but think that this was a cliche dystopian novel. From the summary I'm sure you can already tell but I was looking for something more.
The world building was well done in Red Queen which is what you need to make a good dystopian. I loved the way Victoria Aveyard described the slum area the Reds lived in since It created such vivid imagery in my head. I could easily picture what everything looked like and I really think it could be a good movie one day. The only thing I would have liked to know more about is the history of how everything got like that. There were many unanswered questions like why there was a divide between each class? If these small little holes were fixed it would be perfect ;)
I loved Mare as the protagonist! She was so funny and she could be very arrogant at times. But I liked her keen sense of survival and to be honest I think she could have done well in The Hunger Games! She had a strong sense of duty to her family and would do anything to save her family. Mare was very relatable because she always felt second best to her sister and I think a lot of people can relate to that.
The romance didn't completely overtake the storyline which was good. A lot of it was focused on the war between the Reds and Silvers which I liked. I hate it when the romance take over completely like in The Selection. This novel had a good balance between romance and the conflict that's going on.
I really liked Red Queen but there were a few faults. Not to say I didn't enjoy it and I'm excited to see what happens in the next one. Hopefully all the unanswered questions will be solved then. I definitely recommend it if you feel like a dystopian read at the moment because you will become so invested with the characters.
I give it 3.5 Stars!
About the Author
2 comments
I really want to read this one! I've not read a dystopian book in so long because of how all of them started feeling same-y, same-y - it's a pity you found this one a little cliché still! I think I'm going to read it anyway but I might feel the same way as you. Great review! :D
ReplyDeleteI definitely felt like this one was too typical for me to really love it as well. There were definitely so many unanswered questions, which made it crawl for me as well. Great review Francoise!
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