Hello
world. I am alive and though still on
antibiotics, feeling much better. With
the bipolar weather my sinuses got into a hissy fit and caused all sorts of
havoc which meant I pretty much slept all the time. I did some reading to but writing my thoughts
down, a bit tricky. I am coming back at
you with another book that came out on Feb 10th, Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard.
This is a debut novel and wow is it amazing. And I want to share my thoughts with
you.
I
feel I have to mention first off the cover love. The beautiful and simple crown inverted and
dripping blood. Simple and beautiful and
in real life, vs. the pictures, it's even better with a slight raise to it
giving it depth and even some shine.
LOVE. Now if you're not familiar
with the books premise then let me fill you in.
The world is pretty much divided into two types, the Reds, the commoners
without power, and the Silvers, the elite and powerful who rule with their
godlike powers. It's blood pure and
simple. If you bleed red or if you bleed
silver. Moment to think about that, how
cool would the blood look coming out silver though? Anywho back to the story, we follow Mare, a
red girl almost 18, age of mandatory military conscription without other
prospect, and their job market is worse than ours. She likes in a small and improvised area and
feels her life will never change, until by some twist of fate she ends up
working in the Silver Palace, surrounded by Silvers she can't stand. Circumstances being what they are Mare ends
up discovering she, despite being a Red, has a deadly power all her own. This is unheard of and anything can go. Power is ultimate and what happens in the
pursuit of power makes one hell of a story.
This
is a fantasy book filled with things to keep you guessing. Following along-side our street thief Mare as
she goes from gloom and hopelessness to playing a game of power in the Silver
Palace. Mare is a likeable character, she
has a rough run of things and she has some issues, but I found myself rooting
for her. I wanted things to move forward
and see how they would turn out for Mare and the rest of our cast. I had some theories, no doubt, about what
would happen and was still surprised.
She has a depth to her that leads room to grow as the series
continues. She was a bit rash at times,
but even as the book progressed she thought about things a bit more in the
overall but she never lost that fast reaction attitude that was clearly
hers. Then moving to the Princes Cal and
Mavin. Step brothers, each with their
own attributes. It was clear to see,
from Mare the good and bad of both. How
things come across and how they were intended are many times not the same.
Red Queen for me was an enthralling fantasy
spy game thriller. You have the
different classes, the Reds vs. the Silvers.
But within the Silvers they have their own power structure. Silvers might be above Reds but they could
still be lower rank in the hierarchy.
The overtone of the Segregation and elitism at play between the Reds and
Silvers was well done. I wanted to be in
the fight. But more than class war, we
have people with hard core powers. The
powers are wide and vary from controlling metal, fire, healers, and so many
more.
I
really enjoyed the book and the overall story and look forward to reading
more. I do think some areas were a bit
vague. Less development or explanation
on some aspects that could shed light on the backstory. I don’t feel it subtracted from the overall
story though, and the way it was done seems purposeful to me, and only
intrigues me further. Like it will be
more important to the next book in the story and flow from the stories arch. I have a ton of theories about what shall
happen. I mentioned previously that
while I was theorizing about the book I was also surprised. There are twists, some I saw coming, others I
should have seen coming but I was so shocked by something else I just didn’t
see it. I give Aveyard’s Red Queen a solid 5 Stars.
Spoiler Part: I have to talk about the end! So don’t cheat or ruin it for yourself.
Speaking
of twists. I didn’t see the ending
coming. Okay that’s a lie, I did. I expected it from the very start and I just
knew he would betray them, I was only undecided on the motivation. If it was the plan along bread out of
resentment and duty or if it was more emotional. Then as it got so close to the end I started
to rethink, maybe I was wrong and that maybe that was the real twist. I started to let my guard down then BAM! Just like I imagined. Dang you.
That played with my emotions.
Also while I was so caught up in the expected yet unexpected twist I
didn’t even see the other twist with Shade, I suspected at the very start but
then I got so wrapped up I honestly forgot about him. And Lucas!!!
I was totally expecting something to happen but that just blew me
away. One shock right after another at
the end.
I
can’t wait for the next book to come out and let me dive back into the world of
the Reds and Silvers. I want to see what
becomes of all of our characters. I feel
some serious stuff about to hit the fan.
I also feel more backstory coming, diving deeper into the war and the
society and maybe some romance. As
always please share your thoughts and such below. I’m working on some more reviews to post
soon, finished a couple more series and a couple stand-alones.
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