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Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
When I saw this book in my local bookstore a light bulb automatically went off reminding me of the post abookutopia posted way back raving about this book I knew I had to pick it up. The cover is so beautiful simplistically perfect with red blood dripping off a simple crown. Oh the irony.
First let me begin by saying this isn't your normal dystopian book with its overdone plot and love triangle it gives a new breath of life to fantasy and the idea of blood. Before we dive in let me give you the official synopsis.
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. Will her power save her or condemn her?
Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood--those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.
To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard--a growing Red rebellion--even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.
Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood--those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.
To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard--a growing Red rebellion--even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.
Don't worry this contains no spoilers.
Mare Borrow is your below average teenage girl while her 14 year old sister, Gisa, has busied herself with a glorified sewing apprenticeship that will later on help her provide for her whole family Mare just steals from others (more on this later).
In this society silver bloods and red bloods are separated the red bloods being at the bottom and the silvers at the top in their own sort of hierarchy. The red bloods who do not have either a job or active apprenticeship are doomed for conscription basically being shipped off to a century old war.
Just in the nick of time Mare lands a job in the service of the very Silvers that she hates, the royalty. Here she finds out that she has powers, but she is a red which is suppose to be impossible. Thankfully she does this in the presence of all the other houses which actually helped save her life not allowing the royals to just kill her like they would have preferred.
Characters in this book seemed very one dimensional first until later on in the book when more layers were added on to make them not just believable but relatable.
Anyway Aveyard spins a very cool plot that has a twist at the end that I promise you won't expect, but you'll have to read it to find out. I actually totally disagreed with the comparison to the Selection which I found really had nothing in common with it other than the Queenstrial which was all of about 2 pages.
Anyway I give this book 4/5 stars.
On a side note here's a brief update on my life. These past 2 months have probable been the busiest 2 months of my life. Between school finals, vacationing in Jamaica, and soccer workouts it's easy to see how I've been busy. But with all due respect to my schedule I have not been to busy to read which is why I bring to you my first review. :)
Until next time,
Avalon
(P.S. I would love it if you took a few minutes out of your day to visit my YouTube Channel to not only see the person behind the camera but check out the ultra cool stuff on there. I hope to post a video review soon.)
