Reviews with content warning for Classism - Rød dronning

YA books have been a miss with me lately, but this one was actually good. I liked the writing. The characters made dumb decisions, but that's because they're dumb teenagers. And the decisions were not as dumb as they could've been.

The premise is fun. Feels like fantasy until you realize it's actually dystopian scifi. I mean, it's not crazy original, but it's different from what I've read in ways that make it interesting. The themes are similar/the same but that's how the genre goes.

So that's about all I've got. Dynamic characters, nice writing, interesting enough plot. I'm going to read the rest of them. Well...I'm going to read the main series. Not so sure about the prequels and intermediate novels or whatever. But the main 4.

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bella613's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Took me a few chapters to get into it, and the story was very predictable, but it was entertaining. The beginning of the book kind of dragged, and the premise has definitely been done, and in better ways. It was like every ~girl finds out she has superpowers and learns to control them~ story mixed with every ~dystopian country in an oppresive civil war needs teenage girl to be the face of a rebellion against cruel leadership~ story. But there's nothing wrong with that, and YA readers eat that stuff up. I wish I could have read this in middle school. It still would have been predictable, but my complaints for this book are also true of the hunger games and divergent, and I loved those back then. I did enjoy listening and I think I would have loved it if I were the age it's meant for (like 10 years ago).
I will definitely be checking out the rest of the series. I hope that we will get to know Mare's brothers better, that Cal will become a round character, and that we'll get more unique plot points.

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knlipke's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I had fun reading this! I could spot the twist coming, but not from the character I was expecting.

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slahlum's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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cowboylikebrie15's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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peregrinwho's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

At first I was excited they seemed to be subverting the "mc falls in love with the man without a personality" trope by having her catching feelings for the secondary man, the brother. Then the foreshadowing kicked in and it was fun to watch him betray the mc, but she switched so fast from "I loved you" to "I'm going to kill him" it's so disappointing and made it feel like her feelings weren't ever genuine. I thought we'd get to have a mc who has inner turmoil over the fact she has feelings for the antagonist, but no. Guess that was too much nuance to ask for.

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bree_h_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

I was looking forward to this book, as it seemed like it had a lot of potential for an interesting story. Unfortunately I didn’t feel like it kept that potential as the story went on.

Overall I found it slow and a bit tedious with minimal action happening. Something about the pacing just didn’t grab me. Which was disappointing as I found the concept interesting and thought it could be executed well.

The characters too just felt very flat and one note. I can’t tell you much about any of the characters. I didn’t really find them or their relationships overly compelling. There were a few moments here and there I did think a character or dynamic would really shine, but overall it rarely felt earned.

The writing style also wasn’t all that impressive to me. There were a few instances where something was described in a weird way, but outside of that it read like your typical YA fantasy.

I definitely think the book had some potential, especially the concept. In the end I think it just fell a bit flat.

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