REVIEW: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

My rating: 

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? 

Anyone can betray anyone.

If I could summarise this book into a sentence, that line up there would probably be enough.

First off, I would have to say that I really, really, really liked this book. It is not without faults, especially towards the end. However, that did not stop me from enjoying this baby. I read some reviews saying that this book was not original. Which I sort of have to agree and disagree at the same time. Let me enumerate the similarities to other dystopian books below so you guys know what to expect.

Similarities

- a damaged society

- the opressed and opressor drama

- a rebellion

- a special girl who would most likely will start change with society

- a love triangle square (which also happens even in non-dystopian books)

- a cliffhanger

But that's basically it I guess. There were no major similarities on the plot details. I would have to say that this book definitely have most of the elements of a typical dystopian novel, but has a different spin to it. So forgive me for disagreeing with everyone who says that this book is not too original, because honestly, majority of the dystopian books right now has the same elements. One good example is Divergent and Hunger Games. So many similarities on that one but I don't hear a lot of people comparing it to each other. To be honest, this book is way more in a genre of its own that those two. Anyways... I'll stop rambling and go with the real review.

THE GIST

The story follows a girl names Mare (which I thought was a ridiculous name by the way) who was a Red.

Just to give a little world building note on here. The society in this world is divided into two: The Reds and the Silvers. The Reds are normal people. They do not have any special place in society expect to be workers for the Silvers. If you're luck enough, you get to be at least a tailor, a blacksmith, or something. But if you don't get apprentised by anyone, they send you to war (which is what was going to happen to Mare by the way). So on the other end of the spectrum, we have the Silvers. They were the rich and special people (of course we have those types of people). They have these special abilities that they use to of course, oppress and scare the shit out of the Reds.

So back to the story.

Mare met this guy at a pub or bar type of place. Just before you get any ideas on what she was doing there, she wasn't going on a date, but was there to pick pocket. So this guy ended up arranging him a job at the palace (if that's what it was called... shit bad memory). So the king and the queen were obviously Silvers and so everyone in the palace except for the servants who were Reds. So she got a servants job.

And first day on the job, she got into trouble. Yep. She accidentally exposed her hidden abilities for all of the Silvers to see. So imagine the chaos. A Red having Silver abilities. It was unheard of and caused a bit of a panic.

Mare wasn't a Silver. She was a pure Red blood. So the Queen had to take matters into her own hands... They generate a story for all the other Silvers that she was a Silver raised by Reds because her parents died or something. They wanted to keep her in the palace so they could keep an eye on her and use her for their own selfish goals.

THE WORLD BUILDING

Oh boy. I am absolutely in love with how intricate the world is. The author shows us stuff and tells us about it. She didn't just placed something on there just for the sake of putting it there. She made sure that the readers are in the know of what new things were being introduced. I think that's very important because the readers gets invested in the world. You get to feel that you are a part of the world. I give major props to how the author made this world. I didn't feel she missed out on explaining stuff that needs to be explained so that is a big plus for me. Also, she doesn't think her readers to be stupid. Because she only explain the things that do matter and do not over explain stuff that doesn't need to be.

THE PROTAGONIST

Let's talk about Mare.

Can I just quickly point out how annoyed I am with this name? It's like you're reading about a female horse the entire time. Not a big fan of her name. But... But... I really liked her character, especially on the first parts of it. You get realistic emotion out from her. Her reaction to the events that occured in her life were how people would normally react to it. She wasn't perfect which is why I liked her too. She wasn't all too special like a lot of YA female heroines are nowadays. She is flawed. And annoying at times too, especially towards the end. I guess she did inherit one attribute from the other YA female heroines... She tend to make stupid decisions and trust the untrustworthy people. Hehe. Just saying.

THE LOVE INTERESTS

So we have two eligible bachelors for this category. Unfortunately, there is a third one that I don't even want to mention but anyways... Yeah. Here we go.

Cal: He is the crowned prince. He would be replacing the king once he either steps down from the thrown or dies. He is the responsible one. The one with a good head on his shoulder. Or is he? I actually liked Cal, but I kind of loved Maven better in a lot of ways. Cal was the one who sticks to the rules (or does he?) because it is what is expected of a future king. And I don't really like him all too much in the beginning, but he grew on me.. He grew on me... That kiss... Opppsss... spoiler. LOL.

Maven: This guy is adorbs. He is the younger brother of Cal. The second prince. And unfortunately, there will be times that this will take a toll on him. While Cal is all about the rules, Maven was the opposite. He uses his brain. He uses his brain. It wasn't a typo. I really had to put a bit of an emphasis on that. And while I really really like Maven's character, I still prefer Cal for Mare.

The Guy I Keep on Forgetting the Name: He is sort of Mare's best friend from the Stilt. He reminded me of Gale from the Hunger Games, but that was only at first. Once you read further, you'll realise that this guy is nothing like Gale. Gale was brave. Let's just put it at that. Waiiit.. I think it's coming back to me.. I think his name is.. Kiljorn? Kilorn? Something of the sort. Sorry.

THE PLOT DEVELOPMENT

It's one of the things the author did so well in my opinion. It was seamless. There wasn't a scene in a book that felt out of place. I felt everything was essential not only to the development of the story, but also of the characters. And the character twist!! Oh boy. The twist was so good. Although I am not gonna lie and say I did not see it coming. It was a bit obvious with the whole "betrayal lines from one of the characters.

HOW DOES IT END?

I thought this book ended in a good note for me. I don't usually like cliffhangers but I thought it was a bit necessary for this book to have one. I loved the twist. I did see it coming though. There were some foreshadowing, so I (sort of) knew that it was coming. Betrayal was a big thing on this book. You can't really trust anyone. The person you think you could trust is not really as trustworthy as we all thought he/she would be.

FINAL WORDS

This book is a real page turner. You would really want to know what happens next. Aside from the plot, I am also very much invested with the characters as they are not two dimensional. You really get to know each and everyone and fall in love or hate them.

Also, I would like to emphasise that Mare... did not once ever became the damsel in distress. I really would like to applaud the author for that. She wasn't the type of girl who makes googly eyes with the love interests. No. She does feel something, but she doesn't act on it and it doesn't affect her decision making. She knows what she has to do and does it without second thoughts to a fault sometimes.

I rated this book at about 4.5 stars... I was so sure I was going to give this a 5, but because I was able to sort of guess who was going to betray who. So that was a bit of an issue for me because I love my suspense. I love not knowing and being surprised.

But all in all, I am recommending this book. Like ""shove-it-in-your-face" recommendation. Hehe.

It's awesome. It's kickass. It is amazing.

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