Reviews with content warning for Torture - Red Queen

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.

Content Warnings

fuelledbymonster's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark 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? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

aggielexi's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

2.75

There were parts of this book I really liked, The last 100 pages specifically. But getting to that point was just ok. Then I kept reminding myself, oh hey, this is book one in a series....I MIGHT be intrigued enough to look at possibly reading the second book. But I'm not committing to it.

Content Warnings

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Content Warnings

unremi's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Epic dystopian

Content Warnings

More...