// book review + discussion: red queen by victoria aveyard

Title: Red Queen, (Red Queen, #1)

Author: Victoria Aveyard

Publication: 10th of February 2015 by HarperTeen

Format: Hardcover, 383 pages

Goodreads // Amazon // Book Depository

Synopsis: 

Graceling meets The Selection in debut novelist Victoria Aveyard's sweeping tale of seventeen-year-old Mare, a common girl whose once-latent magical power draws her into the dangerous intrigue of the king's palace. Will her power save her or condemn her?

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

"Words can lie. See beyond them."

Red Queen is probably one of the most anticipated releases of 2015. There was a lot of hype around this book due to its publisher so I was hoping that it would live up to it. Another reason why I was excited to read this was because it is dystopian and fantasy which I consider one of my favourite genres. This book is Aveyard's debut novel and the first installment in the trilogy. All in all, her writing and and world building wasn't too bad and the characters are well characterised. The first half of the book did have a slow start though, but the second half did make up for it with its action packed sequences.

"In the fairytales, the poor girl smiles when she becomes a princess. Right now, I don't know if I'll ever smile again."

I enjoyed reading this book, it was fairly entertaining. But one thing that annoyed me is how it seemed to me like she has recycled different ideas from YA books that's already been out for years and somehow jam-packed it into this one book. Whilst I was reading this, I'd think to myself "Why does this sound so familliar?". In this world, the society was divided by the colour of their blood. The Reds are looked down on, sent off to pointless wars and lived in slum-like conditions. The Silvers, on the other hand were like gods. They yield powers from "telekinitics", "strong-arms" to bending different elements such as fire, light, water and steels. They lived near the palace and belonged to high families.

"Anyone can betray anyone." 

Like any other YA dystopia/fantasy book, the main protagonist, Mare Barrow, 17 years old, is different from everyone else. She felt like she doesn't fit and felt like she's not good with anything besides steal from people. But she couldn't be more wrong. An incident happens during the Queenstrial (Like Kiera Cass' selection where the royalty picks the person whom they'll be wed to) which triggers her power and stirs quite the controversy. Now everyone in the palace is threatened by her and makes it their agenda to have her killed. They were intrigued on how a common Red girl could acquire such a unique and strong power. But instead of doing the latter, they chose to deal with it by confining her in the palace, make her take on a different identity and engage her to be married to the younger Prince, Maven. She takes this opportunity to do something for her people and free them from being oppressed and from corruption, like an inside job, a spy. But it also frustrated me how reckless she can  be and how she quick she is to trust.

"If you know someone's fear, you know them."

It appears to me that there is a love square in this book (love square, does that exist? it does here anyway). It starts off with this guy, Kilorn, her childhood crush. But turns out he doesn't have feelings for her. Then there's Cal and Maven, the brothers. If you ask me who I ship though, I definitely ship Cal x Mare. Besides me mentioning ships, Red Queen actually has a very small inclusion of Romance, it's mostly focused on the war and politics. So if you want something different than your usual YA books, which usually has a huge part of romance in it then this is the book for you! 

"Flame and shadow. One cannot exist without the other."

This book was such a thrilling ride, it has so much twists and turns. By the time you put the book down you'll have trust issues. We better keep an eye on this book because this is apparently getting turned into a film, I usually have low expectations on book to film adaptations because they're never half as good but I will give it a chance. The second book of the trilogy is called Glass Sword and it's due to be released this 2016. Yes, I'll read the sequel and probably do anything to get an ARC of it.

Is Red Queen in your "to be read" list? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the book if you've read it in the comments below :-)