Ratings325
Average rating3.6
This came as a highly recommended fictional “block buster” and I caved. I liked it overall. Here's the deal, you could argue Aveyard is benefiting from the currently popularized genre within which this novel belongs. However, take a bit, look past the hype, and discover how well written this was. The characters were dynamic and compelling. The story had more depth than I expected despite its clear function as act one of the series. Precursory, though it was, nothing was overly complex. On the other hand, the author avoided maddening simplicity, creating another clear bonus. As in each three-to-four star rating, nothing was necessarily wrong with this book. Elements of the plot felt rushed, especially moving from the final moments of rising action and into the climax. Regardless, for a breakout novel, this deserves every bit of the attention it is receiving. Bravo Victoria. Keep it up.
I read this book because I saw a video saying one of the love interests was like Carden from The Cruel Prince. Maybe that has colored my overall opinion because I fully disagree with that statement.
That aside, this book was a interesting, quick read! The magic system and world building was well done. I've seen other comments about the slow beginning, but I think that is where this book shines. When Mare gets to the castle, I had to keep going back and rereading parts because everything happens SO FAST. Mare even comments on multiple events with “I can't believe that was just this morning.” Because of this, the pacing felt a little off at times and there were definitely more characters and relationships I wanted to see explored before they were cut short.
The love triangle was probably my least favorite part of the book, where I could only really understand why one relationship developed. The other wasn't fleshed out enough and went from nothing to kissing to LOVE with what felt like nothing in between.
Then again, this is a YA book and with so much action and politics there wasn't a ton of time for the relationship to develop on page, but I digress.
I give this book 3/5 stars and recommend it for those who enjoy badass heroin YA books that exploded in the 2010s (Hungar Games, Divergent etc).
~Full review on The Bent Bookworm!~I finally, finally got around to this book. With above a 4-star average on GoodReads and nearly 205,000 ratings, I thought for sure I couldn't lose! Well. Erm. Behold my rather sad panda negative review of Red Queen. I honestly have NO CLUE how this book is so popular and I'm really kind of angry about that. I feel robbed.Best Quote:This world is Silver, but it is also gray. There is no black-and-white.Feels:I really expected to like this book more than I did. I saw SO MANY glowing reviews (which I avoided reading in their entirety because reasons), I loved the idea of silver blood vs. red blood + some unexplained combination of the two. And then...and then...and then this was me:Actually, until the last couple of chapters I was more like:Characters:Main characters are Mare Barrow (a.k.a., Mareena Titanos), Kilorn (her best friend since childhood), Prince Cal, and Prince Maven. Also a cast of side characters who honestly sound much more interesting. Julian, anyone? Colonel Ellyn Macanthos? Farley?? Anyway.Our heroine, Mare, was a very hard person for me to connect with and mostly I just wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled. She reminds us at least a few times that she is trying to “save” people, yet she seems to be incredibly good at getting them in more trouble than they were in to start with (Kilorn might be the exception there). She's completely out of control of her emotions. I know, she's a teenage girl under an extreme amount of stress – I got it, really. But geez Louise, a girl with as much street smart as she supposedly has should know better than to trust to appearances as much as she does. She's so extremely childish it's disheartening. Like when her best friend/crush Kilorn joins up with the rebels against her wishes, because she's trying to keep him safe.“Mare,” he calls after me. “At least say good-bye.”But I'm already walking, Maven by my side...I won't look back, not now when he's betrayed all I've ever done for him.Yeesh. Control issues much?Kilorn, I put in with the main characters because even though the role he plays in the actual story is small, his part in the back story is huge and I suspect (hope?) he will be more in the forefront of the next books. I like his stubbornness, though I'm a little less enthusiastic about his collapse in the face of conscripting. Like everyone in this book is a fucking drama king/queen. Give me a break.The princes. Well. They are about as different as night and day, and yet they are both so perfectly predictable. Yawn. Had them pegged as good guy/bad guy from the second scene they appear in together. Which isn't necessarily bad...except neither of them do anything unexpected, ever. They are literally just good guy/bad guy. I see the character development there, and I have some question if Prince Bad Guy could maybe, just maybe possibly, be redeemed down the road (maybe after his brainwave controlling mother is out of the picture). I liked Prince Good Guy. I think what he went through in the last couple of chapters will (or should) have a MAJOR effect on him and his actions in the future, which could also be interesting.Plot:“You want me to pin my entire operation, the entire revolution, on some teenaged love story? I can't believe this.”Oh, Farley, I couldn't have said it better. Because yes. Best line of the book. That's exactly what this is – and not only that, but trope after trope after trope. Love triangle? Check – only because more is obviously better let's make it a fucking LOVE SQUARE. Special snowflake? Check – and she is oh-so-special let us count the ways she is the ONLY ONE who can fix this.“For hundreds of years the Silvers have walked the earth as living gods and the Reds have been slaves at their feet, until you.”Insta-love? Check – because as soon as certain characters set foot on the page, I went “Oh, yep, there's one...two...three...wtf?!?”The plot – obviously the oppressed Reds versus the godlike Silvers – has a decent start. But so many of the parts surrounding Mare are just extremely farfetched and had me squinting at the pages and saying “Really?” out loud. Like the fact that, the very first day Mare starts her job, she's sent to the biggest Silver event in decades. Where she conveniently produces powers she never had even an inkling that she had. Suspicious much, I am. The queen, who has the power to read people's thoughts and memories – why does she never catch on to the secret attacks? It just doesn't make sense.Also, there is way, way way way way WAY too much romance in this book. Has Mare never even seen a man before? Seriously? I nearly rage quit when I realized that yes, indeed, the Love Square was a thing. Also WHY are all these guys in love with her? What do they see that I don't?Worldbuilding/Setting:The setting here is X-men meets Lord of the Rings, which was actually pretty cool. Just...I need a map! Haha. Also more names. The descriptions are good, but I need names and big pictures to orient myself, even in a book, and that felt lacking. The world, to me at least, seemed like a combined setting of fantasy and dystopian, what with all the fancy clothes and crazy magical power yet also video cameras and other technology.Final Rating and Thoughts:2.5 stars. I tried, folks, I really did. But all the tropes, the sheer predictability, and my extreme dislike for Mare have me giving this one a no-go. I was considering a 3 star rating, but for me the shift to the better side of the middle of the road is whether or not I will read the sequel, and for this one I have to say no. I'm somewhat curious about a few things, but not enough to put up with Mare's stupid self-centeredness for an longer.Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram
The first time I read Red Queen was in 2017; I was sixteen years old and finally ready to grow from Percy Jackson and Divergent into other popular books for teens at the time. I was given a copy of this book by my grandmother, and I was initially hesitant to read it due to the massive hate bandwagon this book had garnered. Needless to say, I blindly hopped on that bandwagon as I read the first two books. Now I'm back to see if it still holds true, like I did with The Raven Boys and Caraval.
Red Queen is a story I've read and seen many times before in different forms, with tropes that are overused— sometimes severely. However, it's not an entirely bad book. It's more well written than some books that are being published today cough cough Zodiac Academy, Lightlark, Sanctuary of the Shadow, someone stop me, though I'm not the biggest fan of the frequent chunky paragraphs that lessen the dialogue.
Mare Barrow is very much your typical Mary Sue female main character with special Chosen One powers. Cal is very much your typical forbidden love interest. The Red blood vs. Silver blood plot is very much your typical caste-based book plot. But the plot twist with Maven, despite remembering it from my initial read, is what bumps this up half a star. While it's technically somewhat predictable, it's still a well thought out plot twist and ending for an author's debut novel of a 2010s young adult series.
TL;DR: I understand why many didn't enjoy this novel, but I don't think that the hate train that this book received was completely deserved.
All I have to say is damn. I remembered this book being good but the last 70 pages probably tore something in me. I don't remembering shedding tears at any point previously, but I did this time.
It always brings me back to one thought though, how do people love Maven? He is a red flag, the biggest red flag to exist. Normal people like Cal aren't even given a second look and it surprises me so much. People hold completely different expectations in book characters.
My original rating was 5 stars but I'm now shoving it down to 4 because the book is no equal of ouabh and tbona, unfortunately
Quick read, but seriously disappointing. I overheard that even the publishers are confused why this book did as well as it did. I did not find the plot reveal shocking. I felt that the early action scenes were poorly done– although the arena scene towards the end was well executed. No pun intended. YA paint by numbers.
This was honestly a really interesting book. It contains a lot of plot twists, things I really didn't think of. I couldn't stop reading this because it had a lot of cliff hangers at each chapter lol- I really recommend!
Oh my gosh I loved this book. I didn't want it to end. the world is so captivating, the characters are whimsical but relatable. it wasn't too predictable, which I find is common in YA lately, so that was nice. Gah, I almost want to re-read it immediately.