A review by phoenix2
Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

2.0

The second part of the first book "Red Queen" at least gave something to look forward to. However "Glass Sword" failed completely. Things that I didn't like about it:
-Mare-> she has a complicated personality, too complicated for me. One time, she wants to save the world, then she is afraid to do it, then she complains about being the only one who has to do it, even though she is not. Okay, the list goes on and on, but the main thing that shows how messed up she is is Maven. She short of loves Cal, but she definitely still loves Maven, even though she keeps repeating page after page that she hates him, and how much she hurts because of his betrayal. She keeps calling herself the lighting girl, on and on, even though she doesn't like the title. Then she enjoys pointing out that her best friend is just a fishermen and he is jealous of her power. She doesn't really feel anything, except of her obsession over Maven. And she can be a b*** to everyone, especially her family. Mare is so over her head, that she makes poor decisions, but she insists that she is better than anyone else, including generals. Even the writer gets fed up with her, having Cal give her a piece of his mind. And even then, though, Mare doesn't see her own mistakes, or tries to change.
-Plot holes-> okay, there aren't many, but some things really bothered me. Like unexpected, rushed characters' deaths that felt like last minutes decisions. Mare is parading around like she is the only one with power, the special one, even though there are clearly people more powerful than her. However, everyone insists that she is the ONE, the lighting girl. Then the ending with the two twins, where did that come from? As if the plot wasn't complicated enough!!
-Plot itself-> the plot is too much!! And reminds me of many movies-books, like hunger games, X men, Divergent etc etc Mare has NO plan, and her only plan is for nothing. She wants to kill Maven, that's the basic idea. But then she wants to save the newbloods and then she wants to save the world. Things happen out of nowhere and characters appear and disappear. It's hard to keep up!!
-Writing-> There are few and scarce good bits of writing. But most of the book felt like it was written by a ten year old. I don't want to be rude, and maybe I'm too harsh, but the writer leaves the characters to rule the plot, and she can't control them. The writing was too simple, sometimes too childish. Like in the middle, when Mare creates her newblood camp, the few pages describing the events are like an essay not like a novel.
Okay, I wrote too much. Maybe it is just me. But there were some good parts, like the fact that it was easy to read (if you didn't think about it too much) and the main idea was very interesting and clever. I wish it was handled better.