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A review by smart_girls_love_trashy_books
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
2.0
-POTENTIAL SPOILERS-
-EDITED AND MADE LONGER FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE!-
This review was one of the first reviews I ever wrote on this site, and it shows. I was so angry I just had to get my thoughts on it out. I didn't explain my hate very well, and with King's Cage coming out on Tuesday, I decided in order to celebrate, I shall rewrite this review!
I remember back two years ago when this monstrosity first came out, and it got nothing but positive reviews. Not only that, but it won several awards! I was excited to read it as a result, since I loved the plot and assumed it must've been good to receive such glowing praise, right? Right!?!
Well, yes, and no. Mainly no. Mare is a horrible main character, easily one of the worst I've ever seen. She's selfish, prejudiced, and just an insufferable douchbicycle to pretty much everyone she meets, even moreso if they're Silvers. And half the time she has no reason to, except: 'they're Silvers so they must be evil,' Flawless logic right there.
She acts like this for pretty much a hundred or so pages of the book, and thus they are the most insufferable. I remember from the first SENTENCE I was begging the book: "Please don't be the YA book I think you're going to be," But it was.
At one point, she accidentally breaks her younger sister's hand, thus firing the girl because she sews clothes for a Silver family and you can't really sew if you don't have your hand, now do you? Even though her sister is pretty much her family's only source of income and even though it was her fault, Mare has the gull of telling her sister 'well at least you're not working for those Silvers anymore'. I really don't want to use harsh language this time around, since I don't think the 'f' word will properly show how upset I am, but it's getting really hard to not just flat-out call Mare a bitch. Because that is what she is, plain and simple. She's not charming, she's not empowering, she's not a good role-model, she is just a bitch.
Shortly after this incident, she runs into Cal, one of the Silver princes, in-disguise on the streets, but she quickly figures out it's him. He offers her both some money and a job, and she pretty much spits in his face just because he's a Silver. Bitch, if my sworn enemy walked up to me and offered me a million dollars, heck yeah I'd take that! I need money, and it doesn't matter where it comes from as long as it's good and legal.
Once she's actually inside the court, she's not much better. She pretty much resents every single second she's alive, even though she's pretty much been given everything she needs, such as proper food and bedding, and hates how rich and stubborn the Silvers are, which honestly I don't blame her for. The author doesn't really bother to make any nice Silvers aside from her tutor Julian and Cal, but that's it. None of the Silver princesses really like Mare or want to be her friend, so we don't have much justification for the Silver side. All the Silvers are spoiled and horrible I guess.
However, she does get some good character development later on in the book, which makes me happy. Her tutor says one of my favorite quotes in the book, which makes her reconsider her thoughts on Silvers. He pretty much tells her: "If you flat-out hate Silvers for no reason other than their blood, then that makes you no better than those who hate Reds for no other reason than their blood," And yes! That's a very good point!
There's also another scene where the Red Rebellion sneaks into a Silver ball and set off a bomb, thus killing most of the people there. At first Mare is excited about it, but then she sees all the carnage and destruction that's being unleashed because of the rebels she supports, and immediately starts to regret it-in fact she's nearly traumatized by it. One of the Silver princesses, who Mare pretty much loathed with a passion due to her personality grabs Mare and asks her with tears in her eyes why they had to kill her own father, who did nothing wrong, why life was unfair, and Mare is genuinely shaken-up by that experience. The bitch DOES have a heart!
Now, onto the book's 'huge, shocking twist'. Originally I said I wasn't going to spoil it since when I reviewed it, not a lot of people had read the book yet, but you know what? Fuck it. I'm going to spoil the twist for you, because only by knowing it will you know why it's stupid and dumb. Not just stupid and dumb, FUCKING stupid and dumb.
The twist was that Crown Prince Maven is a bad guy. No, not just a bad guy, a sick and twisted evil bastard. Normally, I love characters who are evil and revel in their wicked ways. They're over-the-top and they love it. I love characters like that because they're fun to watch. Maven is, unfortunately, NOT one of these characters. He sucks the fun out of being over-the-top evil. I cringe when he shows up. And I'm mad that I, someone who can't guess the easiest plot twists to save her life, saw this coming from literally a mile away.
When Maven first showed up, I thought: "Oh God, PLEASE don't turn out to be the evil prince. I will never forgive you if you do this plot twist." And at first, it looked like they weren't, but then they did, and there went this book's three-star rating.
And there are people who SHIP Maven and Mare! Oh yeah, it's SO romantic when my boyfriend threatens to SLAUGHTER MY ENTIRE RACE. Genocide is soooo adorable! Fuck Netflix and chill, let's murder a bunch of families just because you hate their color!
He's not subtle, he's not enjoyable, he's just an evil bastard who needs to be burned in the deepest pit of Hell, but even that would be offensive to people who need to burn in the deepest pit of Hell.
This 'futuristic society' is one of the more confusing aspects of this book. You have the Reds living in an almost medieval, feudalistic world of poverty, yet they are described as having electricity and even a refrigerator, and the Silvers very clearly have things like motorcycles and iPads. iPads! The two worlds don't mesh together very well. It's one thing to have them dress like they're from another era, because dresses don't matter. Technology does. It would've flowed a lot better if the author either kept the society as a medieval-inspired one and have the Silvers living in a 1300's castle, or just make the world a high-tech futuristic one and have the Reds have a TV and computer but that's it, and the Silvers get super high-tech industrialized castles. How cool would THAT have been?!
The kingdom is confusing too. It's not modeled after a specific time or place, which makes me make unhappy noises. I'd model it after Victorian England, personally. They'd still use iPads, but wear corsets and giant fake flower hats! How fancy would that be?!
Last but not least, I liked the historical commentary in it, although I get the feeling it wasn't intentional. What historical commentary, you may ask? Oh, I don't know. It's just that a world where the 'Silvers' are on the top and the 'Reds' are prejudiced and placed at the bottom, and are planning a rebellion, calling themselves the 'Scarlet Guard'. Also, the Reds sneak into a Silver party and plan on killing most of the nobles there, which echoes an event in 1863 in the Russian Empire, when several Polish teenagers were sick of forced military conscription and snuck into a party and killed several noble families. Plus, the Russian Revolution was fought between the poor 'Reds' and the wealthy 'Whites'. So, whether or not it was intended, the historical commentary was interesting.
Now, you people might be wondering, why did I give this book two stars if I so obviously didn't like it? Well, I liked the general idea! A world where you're divided by the color of blood, and Silvers get powers? I remember I described that plot to one girl and she said: "That sounds awesome!" And I told myself: "That DOES sound awesome! Why is this book not awesome?" I'd love to see this plot in more capable hands, since it has a lot of potential.
Mare has some character development, which is more than what I can say for some other certain characters in this genera. Plus, that historical commentary.
Plus this book is automatically better than Anastasia's Secret, since at least this isn't about a real person then destroys everything likeable about said person, then had the gull to call itself historical fiction.
So, that was my improved version of my original review of Red Queen. Overall, not the worst book I've read in my life, but it was EASILY the worst book I read back in 2016. Horrible plot twist, horrible characters, horrible world, just horrible everything.
Why can't YA authors do royalty right?!
-EDITED AND MADE LONGER FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE!-
This review was one of the first reviews I ever wrote on this site, and it shows. I was so angry I just had to get my thoughts on it out. I didn't explain my hate very well, and with King's Cage coming out on Tuesday, I decided in order to celebrate, I shall rewrite this review!
I remember back two years ago when this monstrosity first came out, and it got nothing but positive reviews. Not only that, but it won several awards! I was excited to read it as a result, since I loved the plot and assumed it must've been good to receive such glowing praise, right? Right!?!
Well, yes, and no. Mainly no. Mare is a horrible main character, easily one of the worst I've ever seen. She's selfish, prejudiced, and just an insufferable douchbicycle to pretty much everyone she meets, even moreso if they're Silvers. And half the time she has no reason to, except: 'they're Silvers so they must be evil,' Flawless logic right there.
She acts like this for pretty much a hundred or so pages of the book, and thus they are the most insufferable. I remember from the first SENTENCE I was begging the book: "Please don't be the YA book I think you're going to be," But it was.
At one point, she accidentally breaks her younger sister's hand, thus firing the girl because she sews clothes for a Silver family and you can't really sew if you don't have your hand, now do you? Even though her sister is pretty much her family's only source of income and even though it was her fault, Mare has the gull of telling her sister 'well at least you're not working for those Silvers anymore'. I really don't want to use harsh language this time around, since I don't think the 'f' word will properly show how upset I am, but it's getting really hard to not just flat-out call Mare a bitch. Because that is what she is, plain and simple. She's not charming, she's not empowering, she's not a good role-model, she is just a bitch.
Shortly after this incident, she runs into Cal, one of the Silver princes, in-disguise on the streets, but she quickly figures out it's him. He offers her both some money and a job, and she pretty much spits in his face just because he's a Silver. Bitch, if my sworn enemy walked up to me and offered me a million dollars, heck yeah I'd take that! I need money, and it doesn't matter where it comes from as long as it's good and legal.
Once she's actually inside the court, she's not much better. She pretty much resents every single second she's alive, even though she's pretty much been given everything she needs, such as proper food and bedding, and hates how rich and stubborn the Silvers are, which honestly I don't blame her for. The author doesn't really bother to make any nice Silvers aside from her tutor Julian and Cal, but that's it. None of the Silver princesses really like Mare or want to be her friend, so we don't have much justification for the Silver side. All the Silvers are spoiled and horrible I guess.
However, she does get some good character development later on in the book, which makes me happy. Her tutor says one of my favorite quotes in the book, which makes her reconsider her thoughts on Silvers. He pretty much tells her: "If you flat-out hate Silvers for no reason other than their blood, then that makes you no better than those who hate Reds for no other reason than their blood," And yes! That's a very good point!
There's also another scene where the Red Rebellion sneaks into a Silver ball and set off a bomb, thus killing most of the people there. At first Mare is excited about it, but then she sees all the carnage and destruction that's being unleashed because of the rebels she supports, and immediately starts to regret it-in fact she's nearly traumatized by it. One of the Silver princesses, who Mare pretty much loathed with a passion due to her personality grabs Mare and asks her with tears in her eyes why they had to kill her own father, who did nothing wrong, why life was unfair, and Mare is genuinely shaken-up by that experience. The bitch DOES have a heart!
Now, onto the book's 'huge, shocking twist'. Originally I said I wasn't going to spoil it since when I reviewed it, not a lot of people had read the book yet, but you know what? Fuck it. I'm going to spoil the twist for you, because only by knowing it will you know why it's stupid and dumb. Not just stupid and dumb, FUCKING stupid and dumb.
The twist was that Crown Prince Maven is a bad guy. No, not just a bad guy, a sick and twisted evil bastard. Normally, I love characters who are evil and revel in their wicked ways. They're over-the-top and they love it. I love characters like that because they're fun to watch. Maven is, unfortunately, NOT one of these characters. He sucks the fun out of being over-the-top evil. I cringe when he shows up. And I'm mad that I, someone who can't guess the easiest plot twists to save her life, saw this coming from literally a mile away.
When Maven first showed up, I thought: "Oh God, PLEASE don't turn out to be the evil prince. I will never forgive you if you do this plot twist." And at first, it looked like they weren't, but then they did, and there went this book's three-star rating.
And there are people who SHIP Maven and Mare! Oh yeah, it's SO romantic when my boyfriend threatens to SLAUGHTER MY ENTIRE RACE. Genocide is soooo adorable! Fuck Netflix and chill, let's murder a bunch of families just because you hate their color!
He's not subtle, he's not enjoyable, he's just an evil bastard who needs to be burned in the deepest pit of Hell, but even that would be offensive to people who need to burn in the deepest pit of Hell.
This 'futuristic society' is one of the more confusing aspects of this book. You have the Reds living in an almost medieval, feudalistic world of poverty, yet they are described as having electricity and even a refrigerator, and the Silvers very clearly have things like motorcycles and iPads. iPads! The two worlds don't mesh together very well. It's one thing to have them dress like they're from another era, because dresses don't matter. Technology does. It would've flowed a lot better if the author either kept the society as a medieval-inspired one and have the Silvers living in a 1300's castle, or just make the world a high-tech futuristic one and have the Reds have a TV and computer but that's it, and the Silvers get super high-tech industrialized castles. How cool would THAT have been?!
The kingdom is confusing too. It's not modeled after a specific time or place, which makes me make unhappy noises. I'd model it after Victorian England, personally. They'd still use iPads, but wear corsets and giant fake flower hats! How fancy would that be?!
Last but not least, I liked the historical commentary in it, although I get the feeling it wasn't intentional. What historical commentary, you may ask? Oh, I don't know. It's just that a world where the 'Silvers' are on the top and the 'Reds' are prejudiced and placed at the bottom, and are planning a rebellion, calling themselves the 'Scarlet Guard'. Also, the Reds sneak into a Silver party and plan on killing most of the nobles there, which echoes an event in 1863 in the Russian Empire, when several Polish teenagers were sick of forced military conscription and snuck into a party and killed several noble families. Plus, the Russian Revolution was fought between the poor 'Reds' and the wealthy 'Whites'. So, whether or not it was intended, the historical commentary was interesting.
Now, you people might be wondering, why did I give this book two stars if I so obviously didn't like it? Well, I liked the general idea! A world where you're divided by the color of blood, and Silvers get powers? I remember I described that plot to one girl and she said: "That sounds awesome!" And I told myself: "That DOES sound awesome! Why is this book not awesome?" I'd love to see this plot in more capable hands, since it has a lot of potential.
Mare has some character development, which is more than what I can say for some other certain characters in this genera. Plus, that historical commentary.
Plus this book is automatically better than Anastasia's Secret, since at least this isn't about a real person then destroys everything likeable about said person, then had the gull to call itself historical fiction.
So, that was my improved version of my original review of Red Queen. Overall, not the worst book I've read in my life, but it was EASILY the worst book I read back in 2016. Horrible plot twist, horrible characters, horrible world, just horrible everything.
Why can't YA authors do royalty right?!