Author: Victoria Aveyard
Series: Red Queen #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Paperback
Pages: 383
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SYNOPSIS: This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.
The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.
That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.
Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.
But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart...
HANNAHCASSIE'S REVIEW
Everybody was talking about this book. In like a month I went from not knowing it existed to being absolutely obsessed about it. It was just that type of book! And the cover...it is just Beautiful, just look at it! Absolutely Beautiful!
THE WORLD: Lets have a few words on the world this book is concentrating on, I mean it is a dystopia! The idea of the world of Red and Silver which correspond to the colour of the blood again reminded me way too much of the Vampire Academy. However, the addition of powers rather saved this new and incredible world from being called "not unique". I personally would love a tour through the Summer Residence all the way down to the big book library of Julian and Fighting Arena as well as the village of Stilts! Victoria Aveyard truly did an amazing job creating this magical world!
CHARACTERS: Mare...well she was special. I really want to say she was the type of character I would definitely remember when listing my favorite characters of the books but I am not so sure about it. She is strong, smart, trusting and even hot-tempered but something about her just kept reminding to me of Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games and Rose Hathaway from the Vampire Academy. Tho, I just must say, overall I did like Mare, she was just not that memorable to me.
PLUS AND MINUS: As you probably already got an idea, I dived into this book with sky rocking expectations. I was just craving! So I have to admit I was not very satisfied at first. The story was rather dragging for me. I know it takes a while to introduce new characters and the fictional world but it was taking a little bit too long. I do not know how many times it was mentioned that the reds are servants and silvers ruling evil heartless creatures. Maybe just one too many. However, once the story started to pick the speed it never lost it even for once.
OVERALL: 4 stars.
Unfortunately, tho, I might be reading too many books with the big BANG in them or I am just good at sensing things but the big BANG of the Red Queen I sadly did see coming. I picked it up rather early in the book, just had that nagging feeling and again sadly turned out to be right. So it was not that big of the shock to me tho, I must admit for somebody who does not see it coming...well that's why I call it a big BANG! It was well well written!
OVERALL: 4 stars.
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LAURA'S REVIEW
Alright, Red Queen is one of those books everyone's talking about so I just had to read it myself to know what all the fuss was about. I regret nothing.
THE WORLD: It is a dystopian world where the Silvers, which are minority, rule over the Reds, the majority. The Silvers are the royals of the story: they're rich, the live in palaces and mansions and they have super cool powers (depends on the family because the powers are inherited) while the Reds are the majority but they cannot do anything to fight the Silvers because Reds do not have powers so they think they don't stand a chance. Quite a familiar topic. Oh! and the Silvers are ranked in a pyramidal order where the top is the Royal Family, then the nobles and then the rest of the Silvers.
CHARACTERS: Mare Barrow, the main character, has that special spark to be a heroine just like Katniss Everdeen. Smart, strong, good heart but make bad decisions. Oh! and let's not forget about Cal (I will never call him by his given name... like please) and Maven. Those two are on fire through the whole book and are the typical characters you love to hate or you hate to love or both at the same time. Mare's best friend, Kilorn, also has a minor role as well as Mare's family (important mentions are Shade and Gisa). Moreover, we are introduced to a lot of silvers including the King and Queen, a stuck up but badass silver girl called Evangeline Samos, and mysterious rebel woman called Farley.
PLUS AND MINUS: Okay, so I really enjoyed the story and I liked the characters but I know a lot of people are mad because they see no originality and say everything has been copied from other books... :/
Personally, I don't think she deliberately said "oh! I like this, I'm gonna copy it in my story I just give it another name" well no. I think that as there are many many books it is inevitable to find resemblance with other ones and that always happens with most of the books. There have been SO MANY books published already that is almost impossible to find originality. Maybe you think your idea is original but then it turns out is not (if you look hard enough for it) so I tend to not bother much when I find similarities to other books. It works for me as I am able to enjoy more the book, otherwise I would be upset all the time.
Personally, I don't think she deliberately said "oh! I like this, I'm gonna copy it in my story I just give it another name" well no. I think that as there are many many books it is inevitable to find resemblance with other ones and that always happens with most of the books. There have been SO MANY books published already that is almost impossible to find originality. Maybe you think your idea is original but then it turns out is not (if you look hard enough for it) so I tend to not bother much when I find similarities to other books. It works for me as I am able to enjoy more the book, otherwise I would be upset all the time.
OVERALL: 4.5 stars. At first I thought the 'Silvers' and 'Reds' were some kind of vampire vs humans or something like that but it is actually not and I'm really glad because the vampire theme got burn out (at least for me).
The point is, this book has a lot of characters, scenarios, etc that will most probably remind people of some other YA or dystopian book and it can be annoying and repetitive... but it wasn't my case. Although, it has a lot of elements which are beyond typical in literature it has also enough original base to be an entertaining book. I definitely enjoyed Red Queen a lot and I cannot wait for the next two books! I have very high expectations. (Please don't disappoint me)
The point is, this book has a lot of characters, scenarios, etc that will most probably remind people of some other YA or dystopian book and it can be annoying and repetitive... but it wasn't my case. Although, it has a lot of elements which are beyond typical in literature it has also enough original base to be an entertaining book. I definitely enjoyed Red Queen a lot and I cannot wait for the next two books! I have very high expectations. (Please don't disappoint me)
What do you guys think about RED QUEEN?
