A review by eesh25
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Did not finish book.

DNF!!!

Why? I'll explain. But first:

Red Queen follows Mare in a society that is divided between Silvers and Reds. Reds are slaves and have no abilities while Silvers have many extraordinary abilities. But when it is found out that Mare, a Red, also has abilities, the king and queen try to save their social structure by declaring her a lost princess.

Now, and this is a line from the synopsis at the back of the book, Mare has entered a game of betrayal and lies.

The reason I quoted that last line was because I wanted to point out that book is very much falsely advertised. "Betrayal and lies" makes you think of secret agendas and conspiracies. This book has none of that. "Lies" only comes into play because the author keeps abusing the friggin' word.

The only drama is that which the author is desperately trying to force into the book.

The writing isn't bad. At least, not at first. But it gets tiring after a while because of how overdramatic and repetitive it is. There is another problem with it but I'll address that later.

The pace of the book was slow. The world, which seemed interesting, is extremely underdeveloped. It's supposed to be a dystopian, fantasy set in our world but way in the future. But it's never explained how we got from 2016 to there or even how "there" works. The powers aren't explained, not the war(s) or the society. Nothing!

The characters don't all get the attention they need because the book has an obsessive focus on Mare.

Now, about Mare. I hate her. She is whiny, self-obsessed, harshly judgemental, selfish, stupid and spends the whole time complaining and wallowing in self-pity instead of actually doing something. The when she does do something, it's the wrong thing.

She's that "another problem" with the writing. The narrative is full of her whiny-ness and is, quite frankly, exhausting. It makes me want to hit her.

If you need a reason to not read the book, she's it. And she doesn't even get better because I skimmed through the rest on the book (in 15 minutes) hoping to find a reason to continue reading. I didn't find one. I've heard she's worse in the second book.

I'm not giving a rating because I'll give it one star and since I liked the beginning of the book, I don't wanna do that.

Overall, it was predictable and disappointing (and irritating) and I just don't understand why there's so much hype about it. I didn't like it and I wouldn't recommend it.