Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Orion
Paperback
Published 2015
ISBN: 9781409155843
"I hate First Friday"


Synopsis

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?

My Thoughts

There are no words right now.

Well, other than the obvious scream to Victoria Aveyard to write the sequel faster.

I have read a lot of dystopian books,  but Red Queen is something else entirely. The book is an amazing mixture of dystopian and fantasy. It feels like an epic cross between R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones, and Keira Cass's Selection trilogy. A winning combination for me. 
The whole concept feels new and unique. Victoria seems to have successfully avoided falling into any overused ideas or formulas and has brought us something that feels fresh and special from the very first page right to the final paragraphs.

Every character is special, even those small parts that don't last beyond a few pages. Even the unnamed servants who play no part other than to show the divide between the poor Reds and the Silvers. Every character feels real and solid, and brings something to the story.

Mare, the protagonist, is amazing. I love the fact that she is realistic. She doesn't blindly accept anything that happens to her and questions everything, even when she is told not to. Yet still, she makes mistakes and she doesn't know all of the answers. Just like a real teenage girl. Her rough, red upbringing has toughened her and given her strong convictions and beliefs. But deep down she's still a child who is forced to make her way in an unknown world. I loved that and felt like it made her easy to get behind.
Another favourite has to be Evangeline. My only bug bear being that we didn't get enough of her. It felt like she was being written to be a danger to Mare and her secret, yet she was sidelined as an annoyance rather than a real threat. It was realistic to her character, but I can always wish that she had been used more within the storyline.

The story is non stop action, and the twists... Oh my gosh do they keep on coming. I constantly had to second guess myself because another twist came along and broke my expectations of what was coming next.

I recommend that you read this book immediately. Buy it, borrow it... Just please read it. Red queen has changed the dystopian fantasy genre forever.

Posted in , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. RSS feed for this post.

Leave a Reply

Search

Swedish Greys - a WordPress theme from Nordic Themepark. Converted by LiteThemes.com.