Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard
Hardcover, 383 pages
Published February 10th 2015 by HarperTeen
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.
I will say that I immediately compared this plot to The Hunger Games and I never stopped comparing. As soon as I heard of a male introduced that the main girl pitied and gave bread to, I almost stopped reading it. Then a second stronger male was introduced and it was almost laughable. I felt like I knew the entire book in the first few chapters. The issue is there was something about this story that made me continue reading it. I'm not sure if I was waiting so see how many more similarities there were or waiting for the divergence.
Even though every time I thought of Mare, I envisioned Katniss being paraded around on display with the similar situation, they did have some differences. Those differences kept me reading and I'm hoping they get more drastic and escalate as the series continues. The story ended on a high note and a twist I didn't see coming, so I'm looking forward to see this series separate itself completely.
It's hard to rate this because I did love The Hunger Games and this book was entertaining, but the originality would be a two balanced with the writing style, angst, and twists that would be a four. I'll give this a three star average even though I would still recommend this story, and I'm hoping the rest of the series skyrockets and jumps straight to five stars.
“The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.”