spiravirgo's Reviews (849)

2.5/5

I know it’s not far from the truth. Red girls do not marry Silver princes. I will never wear a crown or sit on a throne. Something will happen, an accident maybe. A lie will raise me up, and one day another lie will bring me down.

I bought this book a very long time ago. Maybe a year ago, I don't know remember. It's been on my shelf ever since like many other books I owned. Didn't pay much attention to it until I saw it again by accident and decided, what the hack, I could use a new book to read. Let just say, that this book was a surprise.

Red Queen tells the story of Mare Barrow, a common Red girl living with her big family under the tyranny of the Silvers. Everything as it should be, but then an accident accord that puts Mare into a tough situation. Desperate to help her family she gets a job but that only leads her to a bigger problem. Apparently Mare isn't normal and powerless as she seemed to be. Mare is special. She has ability and now the royals need to cover it up.

Mare is spiraled into a whole new world of lies, politics, power, hope and despair, each person defining and showing her a different side. Can Mare survive pretending to be something she is not? Can she help her people fight against the Silvers?

All of that sounds so thrilling right? Well no, it isn't that much. To tell the truth, this book is an enigma for me. I am not sure what the author; Mrs. Aveyard wanted it to be. Not only does the plot is a little bit predictable but it can be engaging and surprising. However the setting of Red Queen is confusing. The book is set in the far future, where centuries passed since the world as we know I guess destroyed itself. This book is a little bit
Dystopian, Science-Fiction and maybe Fantasy? It's unclear and this book suffers from major identity loss.

The world setting may be weak but I liked how the tone of oppression the author implicated on the Reds. They are treated so terribly it's sickening to watch. You can defiantly loath the silver bloods for treating them with such little to live with and how they force people to fight for their war unless they have no occupation.

But as much as good words go there's a few nitpicks I have about this book. Like for example, there are guns, airplanes, Blimps, Cycles, Bombs, tons of modern technology and yet the people live in a bit of pseudo medieval fantasy setting. If the Reds, the common folk the one that being oppressed by the Silvers, the super powered aristocrats peeps then why, oh why, haven't they revolted by now?! You have FREAKING BOMBS, AND GUNS.
Sure, I can give it a fair understanding that to take one Silver down you need at least 10 Reds to do so but still come on. All this junk and you guys haven't even try to take over for all this time? That just… Okay, I know you been shown thousands of times and taught the difference between you two, but if something can bleed it can be killed. NOBODY IS IMMORTAL.

As for the Silvers themselves, the higher in the food chain are all mighty and wrathful. I applauded Miss Aveyard for making their powers both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. They are so destructive and yet not so different from their Red brothers they torment. You can see how they blinded themselves to believe they are privileged, unbeatable and rightfully earned it to rule this world and they even bicker among themselves, looking for ways to rise even higher in the hierarchy.

The Silvers press in on both sides, watching us pass in heavy silence. Their faces are curious, cunning, cruel—and behind every false smile is a reminder; they are watching. Every eye scraping over me, looking for cracks and imperfections, makes me squirm, but I cannot break. I cannot slip. Not now, not ever. I’m one of them. I’m special. I’m an accident. I’m a lie. And my life depends on maintaining the illusion.

However, there's only one problem with the silvers for my taste. HOW IN ALL CREATION DID THEY GET SUPER POWERS? It is never explains, just vaguely guessed that it might be evolution or magic or I don't know, a heavenly gift. In fact even Mare, our special snowflake powers are miraculously comes out of nowhere after all these years of thinking she is a no good low life Red and when she has powers nobody knows how or why she gained them. I do hope in the sequel those answers will be answered.

Oh, and speaking of our protagonist... Mare Barrow.

I thought being their puppet would be easy compared to everything else. I was so wrong. But I cannot let them break me, not now. Not even when my own doom lingers on the horizon. I must do everything I can until my blood is matched and my game is over. Until they drag me away and kill me.

Dear lord, why oh why, was she the main heroine of this book again? I just couldn't fathom her behavior. She was reckless, over confident, smart ass and she got people in trouble. In fact, it's her own fault that her poor sister got her hands and future destroyed by trying to help her best friend. I mean, I love that she has a big heart and wants to help, want to change things and she won't go down without a fight. She even transforms from the girl she was before, learning that the world she viewed long time ago isn't as black and white as it seem.

This world is Silver, but it is also gray. There is no black-and-white.

She gets to matured, learning to be smarter, cunning, and manipulate, just like her enemies. And yet it's like she never learned anything in the end. It's like a convoluted character you'd either like or dislike. I hope in the future things change.

Aside from that, there's Cal, the soldier prince she undeniable attracted to who's probably should had been the main focus of this book, you clearly sees he understand what in stakes and how conflicted he is about it all.

He bites his lip, eyes shifting over me. “As beautiful as this world is, it’s just as dangerous. People who are not useful, people who make mistakes, they can be removed. You can be removed.”
And I will be. Someday. But that is not the only threat I face. “So the moment I mess up could be my last?”
He doesn’t speak, but I can see the answer in his eyes. Yes.

And then there's the one she really in love with, which is more confusing since I liked him more as a character compare to Cal. I won't be speaking about him since it's a major spoiler territory but I will say this, you'd love it a lot.

So yeah, there's a love triangle in this.

You had been warned ;p

As for the supporting cast, they were fine on their own. Some are forgettable while others are not. This book made me want to see them again, learn about their history. The villains were presented very well, a looming presence to be reckon with and not to be laugh at. But sometimes they were outlandishly cartoonish losing what made them interesting for my tastes.

I will admit, as much as reading this book has been... tolerable to say the least, I wouldn't have gone and finished it if it weren't for Victoria Aveyard's writing. She reeled me right in with the first sentence of the book till the very end. A beautiful tragic tale of a girl who wanted to do right for once and miserably failed. Aveyard's words compelled me to stay, even if I was annoyed by Mare's voice being heard. I wouldn't mind reading more from Aveyard and I hope in the future the writing will continue to entertain me even more! :D

Red Queen is a very… peculiar book. There's come a time and a place when you read a book that you just don't know what to think about. Not because it was neither bad nor good but just disappointingly a simple book I have encounter many time before in the YA genre. And yet, even with it all, it can still leave a mark in you. There is something deep inside this book, an effort, a fight that been going on but it lost somewhere along the way. And even so, it's something to crave for in far future.