No tags yet.
Red Queen - Book Review
QUICK FACTS:
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Series/Stand-alone: Series; the first Red Queen novel
Length: 388 pages
Format: Paperback, ebook
Available at: Indigo, Amazon, Toronto Public Library
So a few weeks ago, I don’t know what to tell you, we went a bit nuts in Chapters… we bought like twenty books, and I don’t even think that’s an exaggeration… We maybe might have a bit of a problem. Keep in mind like a week later I bought three more books, and I haven’t even used up all my Christmas/birthday gift cards yet, so I’m not going to lie, I’m definitely going to buy a bunch more books in the coming weeks. I may have a problem. But I digress.
One of the books that we got on that minor Chapters spree was Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard - I think it was one of the last books we picked up, and we knew it had to be added when Rachel, her mom and I all picked it up separately and brought it to show each other! So that was happening.
The cover is beautiful and what I think initially caught all of our eyes: it’s simple, with a pale grey background, crisp black text and a silver tiara-style crown upside-down and dripping blood - both pretty and ominous! Especially because it takes a little bit to notice that it’s blood. As with all good book covers, this one hints at the plot of the book without giving too much away: major symbolism going here!
Reading the back, you get the sense that this is going to be the same kind of feel as the Hunger Games series, with a bit of Hunger Games and X-Men thrown in, and once you get into it, that feeling carries through.
Similar to the Hunger Games, society is divided, in this case into Silvers and Reds, which is literally based on the colour of their blood. The Silvers are the ruling class and have built the society around the premise that the Reds are inferior to those with silver blood as they don’t have the special abilities only Silvers are blessed with - or do they?
Enter Mare, our main character: she’s a 17 year-old girl who is desperately trying to help support her family in the last months before she’s conscripted into the army fighting a Silver war. Her brothers have already been sent off, and once she’s gone, it will all be on the shoulders of her 14 year-old sister. After a series of unfortunate events, Mare ends up working in the palace: an incredibly lucky break, at least until she discovers she too has abilities… and now the royal family is determined to make sure no one realizes she’s a Red - because if people do, well basically the Silvers’ ruling days are numbered!
I really enjoyed this book: it pulled you in almost immediately, the characters were interesting and had some more layers than you usually find in a young adult novel, and I found that the storyline kept me on my toes with enough twists to keep it from being predictable. The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger, but still managed to be satisfying - I’m definitely looking forward to getting my hands on the second book in the series to find out what’s next!
Moral of the story: I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoyed the Hunger Games, or is a fan of Young Adult fantasy novels - it has an intriguing premise, good characters and it’s a quick and enjoyable read! If you pick up a copy, let us know what you think on social media or via email - we always love to hear from you babes!
