Grimizna kraljica

This is going to sound completely ridiculous, but I think the best thing about this book is the love triangle. I know. But hear me out.Mare Barrow is your token quick-witted, feisty street rat living in a dystopian world where the upper class superpowered Silvers dominate the subservient powerless Reds. Mare is simultaneously too aware of her situation and not angry enough about it for a teenager. Even though I wasn't a fan, Chuck Wendig's [b:Under the Empyrean Sky 17817631 Under the Empyrean Sky (The Heartland Trilogy, #1) Chuck Wendig https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1369037255s/17817631.jpg 24922171] I think was one of the best examples of how people in the bottom rungs of an oppressive society behave and think. Pierce Brown's [b:Red Rising 15839976 Red Rising (Red Rising, #1) Pierce Brown https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1461354651s/15839976.jpg 21580644] is another great example, which a lot of people have compared Red Queen too. Most marginilized people don't realize what's happening to them, and the one's that do are extremely active, whether covertly or not, in righting things. With the level of awareness Aveyard gives her Reds, a revolution would have happened ages ago.Likewise, the Silvers aren't particularly believable either. We're told over and over again that Silvers are inherently colder, more rational and practical people, and yet all we ever meet are compassionate and sympathetic Silvers. You know, with the exception of the evil harpy female characters like Evangeline and Elara. I'm serious, the only sympathetic female Silvers are dead or mute, which is fucked up. The implication was supposedly that Silver culture raises its people up just to be more cutthroat, much in the way the Golds are in Red Rising. Except in Red Rising you could see that, you met interesting, beautiful, loving Golds who nonetheless were stone-cold killers, which perpetually keeps you on your toes. In Red Queen, you have either evil bloodthirsty psychopaths with no depth or emotion like Ptolemus and Evangeline, or sympathetic and kind characters like Julian who are very clearly going to get stepped on because they don't possess that killer instinct needed to survive in Silver society. There's no in-between.The only vaguely complex characters are the king and his two sons, Cal and Maven. Cal is the handsome one who accidentally gets Mare entrenched in the world of the Silvers, and Maven the one she is betrothed to in order to hide the secret of her abilities. And believe it or not, these guys are actually really captivating characters. Cal is the born prince, the warrior, the righteous one. I like that he simultaneously cares about people and wants to be a good and compassionate king, but also believes in the value of war and that the Reds cannot and should not ever be liberated. Aveyard goes a little overboard making him seem more relatable and vulnerable, and he and Mare's chemistry feels forced at times, but you can see why she'd be into him. And then there's Maven. You know he's slippery and smart, but he shows so much passion for Mare and her cause. This is what a supportive love interest looks like, this is a character with a soul. Considering what a vulnerable position Mare was in, I'm surprised that she didn't fall head-over-heels for him sooner. Maven's a dream. Or at least, you think he is. Maven's swerve was not a huge surprise for me, neither does it negate what I said about his character. Aveyard still gets a lot of credit from me for writing a character that Mare would believably fall in love with, even if the whole thing was a deception. If he ends up being a much better, more well-thought out version of Warner from the [b:Shatter Me 10429045 Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1) Tahereh Mafi https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1310649047s/10429045.jpg 15333458] series I'll be very pleased.Which brings me to overall plot. Aveyard is not bad at writing action, but not so great at strategy. When Mare joins up with the Red Dawn to help them overthrow the Silvers, they come up with a plan to target specific individuals in the Silver hierarchy, and then break in during a ball and assassinate them each individually. That...that's a terrible plan. It's a horrible horrible plan, and the Red Dawn deserved to get caught for thinking they could pull that off. Of course, there is a reason that all their plans are terrible, but honestly only a child could believe the Red Dawn has a fighting chance at all.And that's the crux of it - in the spectrum of Young Adult, Red Queen is on the youngest end of it. I can see why people would find this enjoyable, and admittedly it got a lot better as it went along. But the writing here is very very blunt and not particularly sophisticated. It has a slog to get through for the most part, I had no real interest in seeing how things ended or what happened to the any of the characters. I would recommend this for a young reader new to YA and dystopias, but for everyone else just read Red Rising.

Sigh, would have quit if it wasn't on the BOB list. It's nothing new, has all the overused YA fantasy cliches (class warfare, abilities, double-cross plots, semi-love triangles) but the writing isn't very good, the characters don't exist as anything other than basic stereotypes, and even the “epic battles” are rather boring.

4.5 Stars

“I'm a Red girl in a sea of Silvers and I can't afford to feel sorry for anyone, least of all the son of a snake.”

This book was beyond highly anticipated. And to be honest I was a little weary of it because of the hype and attention it was receiving. Luckily, I was not disappointed at all. This book was magnificent. I thoroughly enjoyed it and once I started, I did not want to put it down. From a superficial standpoint, the book draws you in simply because of the cover. It is down right gorgeous. In person, it is even better with the texture of the crown and the blood. The end pages are also beautiful.

As for the actual book, Red Queen combines many of the favorite YA themes and aspects, but in a new way. You have a Red pretending to be a Silver, much like Darrow in Red Rising is pretending to be a Gold. You have different Silvers with different abilities very much like in the X-Men realm. There is a Game of Thrones aspect with the different houses all competing with each other for power. There is even a little bit of The Selection with the princes picking their brides. While this book had so many aspects from other series, it did not cause me to enjoy it any less. I can see how others could be annoyed by this though. For me, I loved how Victoria Aveyard blended all the different ideas into her own story.

Mare is an interesting character. She is very focused on protecting those she loves and will protect them at any cost. Even if it means risking herself in the process. However she is also a little too gullible and trusting of those around her, which is problematic at times. I absolutely loved Cal. He was great. From the first sighting of him, I knew he was more than just a guy at the bar. The dynamic between Cal and Mare was fantastic. I loved all their scenes together.

A lot of people would say this book has a love triangle. And I'm not sure I would agree with them. Yes there are multiple “interests” but romance is not at all a major aspect of this story. This story is about rebellion, political ties, War, and the ever growing thirst for power and control.

Overall, this book was highly enjoyable and lived up to the hype. Victoria Aveyard wrote a wonderful book and I cannot wait for the 2nd installment especially with how action packed the last 20% of this book was.

So, I have very mixed feelings about this book. It wasn't boring and I was able to finish it. I probably also enjoyed it in parts but wasn't totally impressed. Mare Barrow is an okay protagonist and though she is initially a cunning thief who hates the Silvers, I was very surprised how easily she came to trust Maven and many others at the Summer Palace. I also didn't like Kilorn, he seemed very ungrateful towards her, atleast for the first half of the book. I definitely could empathize with the Scarlet Guard and the motivations for their rebellion, but somehow the writing didn't really compel me to root for them. The only characters who were interesting were Maven and probably Julian. Cal was the typical brooding YA hero that we expect and though I liked him, I hope he does a lot more in the next book. But it's Maven who has such different shades to him and his transformation really surprised me. He is going to be the only reason if I decide to pick up Glass Sword because I really do want to know what he does next.

I enjoyed this book like I do the twilight movies. It???s so clich?? and so obviously like every other YA novel. A fantasy world with two classes, one royal and one oppressed. And the prince is among the ???commoners??? one day. He meets the protagonist et voila. I also feel like this book is trying really hard to be meaningful and make meaningful sentences and statements but it just doesn???t click. Most of them made me sigh or roll my eyes. 

Mare is between different extremes all the time, I hate him I love him, oh no I love his brother, no I hate his brother. Like girl make up your mind. Also apparently Mavens hands are fucking magical because they drastically change temperature every 10 minutes. But again, despite all of this, and it not being a really good book at all. I did enjoy it in a guilty pleasure sort of way. And isn???t that what it???s all about

Read this book for my reading club
-
I liked the book. The twist with the ‘others' was quit unexpected and I wasn't expecting that. But the maven thin wasn't unexpected at all. He is a mummy's boy and we all knew that. Not surprised. But over all, the book was good. There was a lot of information and too much to take in.

Het begon goed spannend, en boeiend. Maar hhahah wat ging het bergaf . Het eerste deel was wel een leuke guilty pleasure. Maar alles was te voorspellen en Ik kon het niet meer serieus nemen door zoveel toevalligheden. Het hoofdpersonage was ook ongelofelijk dom in haar beslissingen . Wel ik heb me met het begin tenminste geamuseerd.

“Many things led to this day, for all of us. A forgotten son, a vengeful mother, a brother with a long shadow, a strange mutation. Together, they've written a tragedy.”

This is actually my second time reading it, the first time was a few years ago, at the peak of its hype. I truly disliked it then, I gave it a 1★ and I promised myself I will never go near this series again.

Anyhow, after seeing some rave reviews, recently, I decided to give it another try, thinking, maybe, I had just read it at a bad time. My view on it has changed, a bit but not a lot. I haven't fallen in love with it, I just don't despise it with the fire of a thousand suns as the first time around.

The characters and their troubles felt too familiar. I've read a handful of dystopian novels by now (though this read more like a fantasy) and this did not stand out to me.

Mare, the main character was the typical special snowflake. On top of that, she was also much too trusting and naive despite having lived in a rough environment. Most of the characters behaved and acted quite unnaturally so it was difficult, many times, to suspend my disbelief and get immersed in the story. The love triangle was very unconvincing, both the love interests being immediately taken by our heroine. The world building and the plot lacked nuance. The author tried to add some by including certain betrayals, but I saw them coming so for me the attempt failed. Additionally, quite a few things did not make any sense thought the book. Overall, a paint by numbers kind of YA. Nothing too offensive or awful, just kind of bland for me.

I listened to it in audiobook form and perhaps this was the reason for my improved reading experience. The narrator did a pretty good job, enough to keep me engaged and get to the end without feeling stupid for giving it another shot.

It ended on a major cliffhanger yet I don't want to pick of the next book to find out what happens, especially because even hardcore fans of the series say it's a downgrade from the first one.

I'm currently the most glad of glad people on this planet right now ( and for the rest of life ... I'm hoping ..) Thanks to this book.

Why you ask ?
Hang on tight + brace yourselves :
-CAL (tiberias CALORE) What a name he has . He probably has nice hair and is good with swords and stabby as hell could get . WAIT . No he is stabby and has good hair and I can't trust him for the life of me but what is there not to love about this boy? I have no clue . I know nothing , Jon Snow .
-MARE ( Mareena Titanos ) Her name reminds me of horses , which are cool , like her , just without the fancy x-men powers that our girl Mare here holds. the “little lightning girl” isn't as little as she seems . Be warned .
-MAVEN ( I don't know his last name ....) E v i l is the what I think he needs his last name to be . He did not only betray his bethrothed but ME , how dare he . Maven is a pineapple . Prickly and sweet , but mostly prickly.
-Queen Elana . She has an extent to her powers ??? They (silvers ) are not as incvincible as they seem . I know right ? cool . Don't look inside my head please . You won't find whatever it is your looking for.
-King ( with the big name with more than 5 words that I should know the name of by now but don't) Turns out king's try their best to do what they feel they must, so did this one. He loved Maven , so much that Maven was blinded by it and couldn't see . I don't have words for him , even though there wasn't an entire amount of him until the end .
Kilorn- He feels like Gale from the hunger games to me , if im being honest with humans today . He is cool .


I loved the contrast between the Reds and the Silvers . If I were to choose I feel like I'd be a little bit of both like Mare is , why not be both and stronger than just one or the other i ask ? This book happily answered it.


Glass Sword here I come !

This book seems to be one of the most talked about in the Young Adult genre at the moment, a new series that seems to have it's readers hooked and begging for more. With whispers about this book being adapted for the big screen it begged the question ‘Just what is so special about Red Queen and it's sequels that has everyone so excited?'

Immediately when I began reading there were parallells to other books in this genre that have become hugely popular in the last few years. There's threads of The Hunger Games with a story of a poor people being overseen by the rich and powerful who live in better cities and who force those lesser mortals to live a life of hard work and poverty. There's bits of Keira Cass' Selection series with stories of a girls going through a contest in order to gain the hand in marriage of the eligible prince and finally Victoria Roth's Divergent series is mixed in there with different people having different strengths or powers they can use that make them special. This book is a real mix of lots of other concepts that have been hugely successful and initially this made me a little concerned, was this going to be just a copy of those with nothing special to recommend it?

The first thing that Aveyard does is establish really strong lead characters, her heroine Mare Barrow is in her own right a wonderful creation. She's all you would expect from the heroine of a Dystopian novel, she's independent, strong, resourceful, highly moral with strong family bonds and values and she's brave and fearless. Her story is that she has grown up in one of the ‘Red' villages, where people live hand to mouth trying whilst the ‘Silvers' live a life of wealth and luxury and power. The difference between Reds and Silvers being the colour of the blood they bleed. Silver's have special powers that make them strong, such as the ability to control minds, or control fire or water or to heal.

For Red's the only life they have to look forward to is either finding a lowly apprenticeship or being sent to fight as cannon fodder for the Silver's in a war that has raged for years. Mare has already lost her 3 brother's to front line of the war and is destined for the same fate when she meets a stranger in her village one evening. Suddenly the following day she's catapulted into the world of the Silver's where her destiny will be forever changed. She will join a rebellion that seeks to overthrow the status quo and give birth to a world where Red's will rise again with the rights that they deserve.

There is literally so much that happens within this book it's difficult to digest it all even now I've finished. What I loved about the book is that we are drawn back and forth between who we trust and who we don't. There are so many twists and turns in the plot that it kept pulling me back. And that is the strength of the book, the character writing, because we genuinely don't know who is on Mare's side and who is not. In the words of the book itself ‘Anyone can betray anyone'.

I can imagine this book being adapted to a big screen movie because many of the scenes within in are lavish and glamorous and full of wonderful backdrops and with great crowd scenes, these along with epic battles and lots of action will make this a surefire hit on the big screen. It also leaves us with a cliffhanger ending, we are clear the story has much further to go and we are firmly with Mare on her journey. I know reading reviews that many people had to wait to read the second book in the series and I am fortunate that because I'm coming to this book a little later I don't have that dilema. Book 3 in the series is scheduled for next year and there are novella's that go along with the story available also.

I know that the book has received equal criticism for it's similarities to other books based on Dystopian fantasies and I can completely understand why some people found this turned them off from this book however I felt that it was strongly enough crafted. I didn't find myself struggling to pick the book up, in fact I was continually drawn back to the action and the romance and the unfolding story and that in itself is a very good sign. I guess my only concern would be I remember reading many first books in similar series' and thinking how magnificent they are only for the momentum to fade as the series progressed, my real question now is can the subsequent books in Aveyard's series live up to the quality of Red Queen?

The world is divided by what color your blood is. If you bleed red then you are a commoner by birth, forced into the lower class world without an ability to call your own. If you bleed silver then you are a high-class citizen with unique powers. Mare Barrow was born into the red. She lives with her family, struggling to survive. She picks pockets to keep them afloat until she is caught by a sympathetic silver. Surprised by the show of kindness from a silver stranger, Mare is baffled when she is summoned to the high court to become a servant. There she will learn that she too possesses power, and the silvers will do anything to hide a red with silver powers. Mare finds herself in a treacherous world and she must decide who she can trust with her deadly secret.

I picked this up because of the number of reviews I have seen. The concept seemed interesting and I wondered how well it would be executed. I found the world building lacking. There wasn't enough time spent in the red world before Mare was pulled into the silver. While I understood the reds were treated poorly, the emotion behind it never reached me. I never felt sorry for Mare. Then again I also couldn't stand Mare.

Mare is one of those female characters who is always a damsel in distress. No matter what she always seems to end up the victim. She feels sorry for everyone and is always berating herself for not doing anything when bad things happen. She is gullible and desperate to trust people. Given how she was raised, I found it unbelievable how she came to trust the silvers. How in the world did she survive in the red world like this? It seems the only thing that she's good at is thieving and throwing her power around in pure luck.

There was also very little action in the first sixty percent of the book. I almost stopped reading it. If it weren't an audiobook I probably would have. But I plodded on and the plot finally picked up speed near the end of the novel. The first book in a series can be hard to write. Given how this ended, I'm going to give the author the benefit of the doubt and hope the next one is better. We shall see.

uramisten, ez a könyv...
már az elejét baromira untam, de nem szoktam olyan könnyen föladni és nem is szeretek könyveket félbehagyni, ezért kitartottam. egy idő után kezdett is jóra - vagy legalábbis jobbra - fordulni a dolog, de kiderült, hogy ez csak átmeneti jelenség, mert aztán hullámvasútszerűen váltakoztak a jobb és unalmasabb részek.
amikor volt valami kis akció vagy suskus, akkor egészen szórakoztató volt a regény - ezért is kapott két csillagot egy helyett -, de sajnos a hosszas, dagályos leírások, világ- és karakterépítések lényegében altatóként is funkcionálhatnának.

a könyvet mr. gatwood tolta az orrom alá. hát így fogadjon bármilyen ajánlatot az ember a kedvesétől, a párjától, az urától, az emberétől.
“the soldier. the general. the prince. his father's son.” ilyen és ehhez hasonló jelzőtúltengésben szenved a red queen, ami egy idő után kifejezetten zavaró. emellett pedig az írónő nagyon szereti újra és újra elismételni a fontos vagy kevésbé fontos információkat, de már tényleg az unalomig.

én nem szoktam túl nagy észlény lenni, főleg, ha beleélem magam a történetbe, aránylag ritkán találom ki a különböző fordulatokat, de ez a könyv véletlenül sem tudott meglepni. olyan lapos volt az egész sztori, mint a tetű. meg nagyjából olyan kellemes is.
azt hiszem, az is sokat elmond a kapcsolatunkról, hogy majdnem az acknowledgmentsnél vágtam a sarokba. szinte hihetetlen, hogy még azt is sikerült idegesítően fellengzősre írni.
hogy miért olvastam mégis végig? “i'll never know.”
és ez is trilógia lesz természetesen...

While this one is still a "special boy/girl" sci-fantasy, I did like the constant edging of foreshadowing betrayal immediately followed by descriptions of how nice a character is. In fact, when a significant betrayal did come, I didn't believe it and more than halfway expect to find it reversed later on the series. The ratio of fantasy to sci-fi felt weird to me but I couldn't say why.