Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Title: Red Queen 

Author: Victoria Aveyard

Publisher: Harper Teen 

Publishing Date: February 10th 2015

Pages: 383Fanrasy Dystopian?

Series: Red Queen #1

Source:  Audio 

 

 MARE BARROW'S WORLD IS DIVIDED BY BLOOD—those with red and those with silver. Mare and her family are lowly Reds, destined to serve the Silver elite whose supernatural abilities make them nearly gods. Mare steals what she can to help her family survive, but when her best friend is conscripted into the army she gambles everything to win his freedom. A twist of fate leads her to the royal palace itself, where, in front of the king and all his nobles, she discovers a power of her own—an ability she didn't know she had. Except... her blood is Red.

To hide this impossibility, the king forces her into 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 her new position to aid the Scarlet Guard—the leaders of a Red rebellion. Her actions put into motion a deadly and violent dance, pitting prince against prince—and Mare against her own heart.
From debut author Victoria Aveyard comes a lush, vivid fantasy series where loyalty and desire can tear you apart and the only certainty is betrayal.

I was very excited for this book but took a while to get to it. I decided to go audio on this read and I am very happy with that decision. I really really enjoyed this book. It was a bit predictable and a bit on the dystopian cliche track but it did have some originality. It became very consuming in a short period of time and quickly became a page turn. I liked the characters and I liked the story. 

SO there was this land and it was run by the monarchy system. It was divided into two different breeds of sorts... the silver bloods and the red bloods. The silver bloods had special abilities... like the x men. The silver blood had the power both in person and in government. Used, abused, and thrown away. There is a rebellion, an evil queen, oppression, a special girl who changes everything. There is also secrets, lies, betrayals, blood shed, romance, and all that good stuff. This book states fantasy but reads and feels more like a dystopian.

This book wasn't at all what I was expecting. The summary states fantasy but I felt it was more like a dystopian. So I called it a fantasy dystopian. Mash it up. Why not. I actually went in looking for fantasy but was very happy with the mash up. I really loved the tone, the setting, the atmosphere. It read well and vividly set the feel of the book perfectly. The writing style was good, easy. I breezed through. No confusion, no boredom, no rushing, not too much or too little information. The pacing was done well too. These are the things that really hit home for me. The characters were good and developed but wasn't what sold it for me. The story itself was very interesting but it has been told many different ways. There was some originality and of course that helped the story tremendously but it was completely original. At least the concept wasn't. The writing, setting, tone.. that is where it was for me.

I did like the story. It was good and I really loved the abilities and the different breeds of blood. This is where the originality came in. It was nice to see some super powers without it being about superheroes. I love stories about abilities and special powers. Don't we all want these things in our life. I loved hearing about all the different types and families. I liked the structure of the abilities, separated by families or houses. I loved how there were different types of blood and yes the blood was actually silver and red in color. So the story... although it had some cliches.... was totally fab.

So the characters. This was the only area I would ask for some improvement. Not that they characters were bad. They weren't, they just didn't wow me. I connected enough for the story but didn't connect the way I like too. The main character, Mare, was annoying at times but she did  have some super growth. In the beginning much of what she did was for revenge but in the end she had a mission, a cause. SO I liked her in the end.

The princes, well they were flat for quite a while for me. I did like one of them more in the beginning and then in the end it switched for me. It was actually in the end, the last 25 percent that I really started to like and feel the characters of both princes. Good and bad. So they did grow on me and in the second book well I think it will be better. I think I didn't have enough time to really get to know them until after half the book was done.

The one awesome thing about the characters in this book. The evil are just evil. There is some evil going on big time and I like my bad guys to be well bad. Sometimes the some what bad is good but mostly I want clear cut good vs. evil. I am old school.

The ending was just fabulous. I loved it. I was on the edge of my seat, biting my nails, holding my breath. It was epic and I can't wait for the next book.

I really liked the narrator. She was good and I do believe I wouldn't have enjoyed the book as much if I had read it myself. She really brought the characters and story to life. 

A really pretty good and great read for me. I  will read the next one as soon as it comes out as this book left me wanting more.

I'm a screenwriter/YA author who likes books and lists. This site is the nexus of my universe.
My book RED QUEEN will be published Winter 2015 from HarperTeen at HarperCollins. I'm repped by the incomparable Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc.
The genres I'm into include YA, Fantasy, Historical, Adventure, Apocalyptic - if people are dying, I'm buying.