‘Red Queen’ (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard

Mare is Red, the lowest class of a nation ruled by Silvers, elite super humans.

She finds out that despite being red, she still possesses powers, with which she can destroy the Silvers’ control. I really wanted to love this book, but I merely enjoyed it.

by Mariam

17-year-old Mare Barrow lives in poverty and under the rule of the Silvers, the elite with supernatural powers. She finds herself as a servant in the royal court, where she accidentally discovers she has an ability of her own, which should be an impossibility as she is a Red. To maintain the power and to prevent rebellion, the ruling family decides to pass Mare off as a Silver princess.

Using her position, Mare realizes she can be the one who helps people revolt against the Silvers. Keeping up appearances, she helps the Scarlet Guard, the Red rebellion, while also having conflicted feelings towards the two Silver princes.

It is a dangerous game in which she has to be careful with whom to trust.

The characters

I thought a lot of the characters were a bit flat and not as developed as I had hoped. Especially the main character, Mare. There were times, where I had no problem with her and liked her as a realistic, flawed heroine, but unfortunately there were a few times too many where I didn’t like her that much and couldn’t relate to her.

Instead I actually liked the idea of Farley being the main character, because of her strong personality and how she has took matters into her own hands and played a very big and important role in the revolution. I would have loved hearing more about her. I hope Aveyard writes a prequel of ‘red Queen’, featuring Farley.

A shame

In general, I think the plot was a bit predictable some times. The world felt too underdeveloped for my liking and not so elaborate. I don’t think the revolution and the war itself was given enough attention. I also wanted more information about the hierarchical build society and its history. As it is right now, the plot, the world and some of the characters are only interesting, but not captivating, because of lack of details and emotional feelings.

It is a shame really, because this books has so much more potential and some of the ideas behind are good. What I really liked was that the big issues, such as the war, pollution, political corruption and the “ethnic” inequality were critical reflections on today’s troubling issues. And they were never overshadowed by the romance, which often happens in YA.

Excerpt from ‘Red Queen’
In school, we learned about the world before ours, about the angels and gods that lived in the sky, ruling the earth with kind and loving hands. Some say those are just stories, but I don’t believe that. The gods rule us still. They have come down from the stars. And they are no longer kind.

Overall

If executed in a way with more focus on details and world-building, ‘Red Queen’would’ve turned out a lot better.

I really wanted to love this book and wanted it to become my new must-read-at-least-a-dozen-times-book because it sounded very interesting. And those who loved it recommended it to people who had read some of my favourite dystopian novels.

But ‘Red Queen’ didn’t meet my high expectations, so I ended up disappointed and only enjoying it as a “casual read” and nothing big.