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A review by linguisticfanatic
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This story is about as standard a plot as you can get. It's been done before and written with more finesse. I made it about 70% of the way through the book before I really had to push myself to finish it. I actually like cliches. I have my comfort zone with them and if they are delivered well then I spend a fun time reading. I might not come out the other side thinking it's the best thing on Earth, but I'll have enjoyed myself.
My main sticking point with the way the book was written was the reaction of Mare to the two princes. Here is a girl who has grown up dirt poor amongst a people enslaved for the color of their blood. They are expendable to the silver bloods and are invisible if they even talk to them. As soon as she's brought into the palace to cover up her having powers she's engaged to the second prince. Ok, fine so far.
However, here's where I get annoyed. Within days (I think it was a couple weeks.) she's suddenly perfectly fine with the second prince figuring out that she's a rebel and is all gungho to work with him. She's perfectly willing to think poorly of the prince who didn't execute her when she tried to steal from him without knowing it. A prince that got her a job so she wouldn't be sent to the front line of the war. A prince that was saying things that showed he considered her to be human when the king was talking to her after her imprisonment. One glance at a room full of armor and war books and she's perfectly fine thinking the worst of him. This is also fine with me if a bit extreme. She has no reason to look for the good in silver blood even when one is trying to show that he's different.
Except, she doesn't show that attitude to the second prince. He's given her no reason to believe all the stuff he's spouting about wanting things to change. He's shown nothing to indicate that he's been doing small things before she met him to take consideration for the red bloods; nothing to show he's different from his mother. I spent the entire book frustratedly waiting to get to the point where he betrayed her just so I could see if the author gave a reason for Mare trusting to easily. It was written as if the mom knowing what Mare's motivations and emotions were would make her trust a silver blood, but that was too flimsy of an explanation for me to take seriously. The author did not handle the emotional and character development for those two well at all to make the subsequent parts of the book feel tense or the betrayal emotional. Instead when Mare is going "I've been so stupid." after everything goes down I just rolled my eyes.
However, here's where I get annoyed. Within days (I think it was a couple weeks.) she's suddenly perfectly fine with the second prince figuring out that she's a rebel and is all gungho to work with him. She's perfectly willing to think poorly of the prince who didn't execute her when she tried to steal from him without knowing it. A prince that got her a job so she wouldn't be sent to the front line of the war. A prince that was saying things that showed he considered her to be human when the king was talking to her after her imprisonment. One glance at a room full of armor and war books and she's perfectly fine thinking the worst of him. This is also fine with me if a bit extreme. She has no reason to look for the good in silver blood even when one is trying to show that he's different.
Except, she doesn't show that attitude to the second prince. He's given her no reason to believe all the stuff he's spouting about wanting things to change. He's shown nothing to indicate that he's been doing small things before she met him to take consideration for the red bloods; nothing to show he's different from his mother. I spent the entire book frustratedly waiting to get to the point where he betrayed her just so I could see if the author gave a reason for Mare trusting to easily. It was written as if the mom knowing what Mare's motivations and emotions were would make her trust a silver blood, but that was too flimsy of an explanation for me to take seriously. The author did not handle the emotional and character development for those two well at all to make the subsequent parts of the book feel tense or the betrayal emotional. Instead when Mare is going "I've been so stupid." after everything goes down I just rolled my eyes.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Racism, Slavery, and Violence