Please note that this is more of an unstructured rambling rather than a review about the book Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard.
Intro
I have finished this book 4 days ago, and spent the last 4 days trying to analyze what’s wrong with me. This book, since its birthday in February and even before, was one of the most hyped YA book in 2015. People love it, give it glowing reviews, recommend it to their friends, etc. Frankly, I’ve been putting off reading it because the first sentence in Amazon’s summary said:
Graceling meets The Selection in debut novelist Victoria Aveyard’s sweeping tale of seventeen-year-old Mare, a common girl whose once-latent magical power draws her into the dangerous intrigue of the king’s palace.
Now, I have never read Graceling and decided to not read The Selection because I’m not interested with the premise. I was worried Red Queen will be something like reality TV shows or pageant contest or something. It wasn’t, not really. It turns out that should be the least of my worries because it might be more fun if this was actually a book about beauty pageant.
“Why do you read it then?” you said. Well, it’s simple really. I read a twitter exchange between the author of this book (Victoria Aveyard) and Victoria Schwab-whose book, A Darker Shade of Magic, I truly enjoy. In case you didn’t know, I get my book recommendations mainly from 3 sources: my sister, my favorite authors (via their blogs and twitters), and blogs. So, that settled it, I was going to read Red Queen.
Rambling
I almost DNF’d this book, but I’m glad I managed to finish it because the last 60 pages or so (almost) redeemed it.
The first 300 pages, however, felt like a strange mix of the popular dystopian and fantasy books you’ve read before. Divergent? check. The Hunger Games? also check. Throne of glass? yup. I know it’s really hard to come out with a new idea for YA fantasy book because there are so many out there, but this one really felt like a book you’ve read before.
The characters. The main character, Mare, is a strong heroine who just want to help her friend and family, but ended up tangled in a rebellion and love triangle(-ish). Sounds familiar? She came from a lower Red caste, but because a Silver prince named Cal sympathized with her, she got a job in the castle where she managed to somehow reveal her hidden power, or as they call it, ability. The king and queen decided to hide her identity as a Red because they’re afraid of potential rebellion, so she was introduced as a long lost Silver princess named Mareena betrothed to the younger prince, Maven.
The main characters tried so hard to make you love them. And I tried, tried, to like them, but they’re just too perfect. They are not bad, it’s pretty much the opposite. It’s almost like they came out of a template book for a kickass YA heroine and her love interest(s). The antagonists, on the other hand, are just pure evil, they were given no background why are they so evil, they just are. It’s kind of cartoonish. These are the bad people, those are the good ones. Even the characters who were intended to surprise you failed to do so because it was just so darn obvious.
The story. You’ve read this book before. The so-called twist is over hyped. You would more or less know what’s going to happen halfway through the book. Nonetheless, it was still fun to roll with it. Like I mentioned earlier, the last part of the book nearly saved it.
Final words. It’s not terrible. Red Queen is an okay book, albeit over hyped. The main weaknesses of this book are the characters and the way it felt like a combo from other popular books. The latter reason is not even a weakness, it is why I wasn’t crazy about it, but this may be the reason why many people actually love it.
Final score. 2.5 stars (out of 5 stars).
Windie
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I’m glad you posted this when you did. I was thinking of buying this book tomorrow but now, maybe not
Thank you for reading. It was a decent book, but honestly I don’t know if I could recommend it to anyone. Many people love it though.
Sounds like a book written for people who don’t read much. I’ve been putting off reading this book despite its popularity because most people who didn’t like it think it’s too much like everything else popular right now and I’ve read a lot of what is popular right now.
I very well may still read it eventually though as people keep asking my opinion on it not realizing I haven’t read it, and I am curious due to the hype.
I did read somewhere that this book is perfect for people who read and love all the hyped books out there. Obviously, there are people who will enjoy instead of disliking this book for all its similarities to other books.
I’m interested to know what’s your opinion on this book if you decide to read it.
I very well may read it eventually if only because it has a 4.12 goodreads average, and I tend to try to read books with high averages.
It’s not a priority at the moment though as I’m planning to spend October reading mainly new releases (Shadows of Self, Mangus Chase, ect.). So, I might not get to it for a couple months.
Haha, I love this review. But then again, I agree with a lot of what you say. Now that you mention it, it’s so true that I didn’t feel the characters are three-dimensional. They’re quite… flat, i.e. the evil ones are evil; the good ones are good. I’m not picking up the second book, but I hope it’s much better. 😛
Thank you! It’s good to find comrades who feel the same about Red Queen. xD
Looking back, I was so mad when I wrote that review. A big part of that ‘review’ is just me vented my rage. Hahaha.
I really don’t get the villains’ motivation. They decided to hate Mare at the first sight, to the point of wanting to murder her without any clear motivation apart from her being a red. I get that the silvers would want to get rid of her because they saw her as a threat or worthless, but hating her?
Ahh, yes I am anxious. So far, the opinions are divided. Some said it’s better, some said it’s much worse. I’ll wait for more reviews before investing my money and time.
That’s what I do when I review as well, although sometimes during editing I usually end up removing some sentences just to avoid being *too* ranty. It’s actually quite cathartic. 🙂
Yeees well. I assume it’s because Mare seems close to the princes that the other nobles hate her. The king and the queen, though… I dunno. They seem very angry, although I suppose it’s not unusual for evil characters to be angry all the time…
lol yes, I probably should have edited that post more than once. Oh well. 😛