The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard Review
Hello Again!
I can't believe we are just 6 days away from the end of the first month of 2018, time flies! I wanted to do a review of Red Queen, which was part re- read and part new read for me, because it's a series I have been meaning to get into due to its popularity. Read on to see what I thought! Enjoy!
Synopsis
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.
-Barnes & Noble
Review
I remember when I first read this book, the novel had come out fairly recently and was not as popular as it is today. For whatever reason I never continued to read the series but the e-book had been sitting in my NOOK app, begging me to re- read it and honestly I couldn't remember much of what happened in the book. I also wanted to re- read the series because it seems to have such a cult following now with the fourth book set to release later this year and that usually signals a great series.
When I started this book, I had thought that I had already read the entire book but by about halfway I realized that I never even finished reading it the first time and I understood why. I tried to go into this book with no expectation having read half of it and knowing how much people love it. I found most of the plot to be underwhelming and monotonous. It felt like the plot was just missing that spark that I get from some other novels and I had a hard time connecting with it. It was like it was missing something but I couldn't put my finger on what.
One of the things that irritated me most was that I could call out obvious plot points well in advance. There were no surprises to me (I'm talking about in the part of the book I hadn't already read). If you know me, I am a person who fully immerses themselves in the story and suspends belief. I hate having plot points called out to me in advance and I hate finding them so I think it showed poor writing them that I could find them so easily when trying not to look for them.
Another thing that bothered me were the abundant love interests. Don't get me wrong, I love book romances and one or two love interests is reasonable but I think three is too many. You could argue that one isn't much of a love interest but I think he is and I think it's alot and I think it dilutes the narrative.
My last issue was that like most YA novels, the main character is written to be this strong, independent female character (which she definitely starts out as). However, she has this sort of wishy washy attitude throughout the whole novel where she can't decide what she wants to do and it really damaged her character for me. I understand that a character can be indecisive but I think this character lacked development and it made her seem whiny and weak.
All of this being said. This was not a terrible novel. It was mostly well written, the supporting characters were pretty well- developed and the world building was done pretty well. The writing and the plot really picked up the last 1/4 of the book and I intend on continuing to read the series. I hope the story continues to stay interesting so I can stay absorbed in Mare's story.
Conclusion
I think this novel had quite a few weaknesses but it was overall pretty well written especially since it was the author's first novel. I will continue reading the rest of the series to see what else she has in store.
Length: At 384 pages, the length was fine
Story Development Pretty flat for most of the novel and then it got exciting right before it ended
Romance: The protagonist has a potential romance with 3 different characters and can't seem to make up her mind which was ridiculous
Protagonist Strength: Average
Re-readable? I'm gonna say no, this was already a re- read and I probably won't do it again
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars
