Book: Red Queen

    Red Queen is a postapocalyptic young adult novel (the first in the Red Queen series). So, in this universe some people are reds, regular people and some are silvers. Silvers have silver blood, superpowers that are passed down genetically, and all the economic and governing power as well.

     Our main character is Mare Barrow a 17-year-old female red almost finished with high school and no career prospects which means she will forcefully be enlisted in the army like her 3 older brothers before her. She has a younger sister, Gisa with talent and a job so she will not be enlisted when she's of age.

    Gisa helps her with breaking into a rich district that she would ordinarily not be able to get into. Well, when she does the "Red Guard" bomb the capital and play a video taking responsibility. The silvers are not happy about this and a riot breaks out and Mare's sister gets injured in the process and therefore can't finish her apprenticeship. Wracked with guilt, she ends up talking to a young man named Cal that evening telling him her fears and fate. The next morning, she finds out she is employed as a servant at the castle and the rich man she talked to is the crowned prince! (insert sarcastic gasp)

    The event that she is working at is a showcase of all the noble girl's power. In the middle of it though Mare gets plummeted into an electric field and she thinks she's about to die but surprise! Mare has electric powers. Now she must pretend that she is a long-lost silver, the thing that she hates most and is engaged to be married to one of the Princes, Maven. Mare decides to take advantage of her new post by joining the Red Guard (freedom fighters for the Reds) after she finds out the fate of one of her brothers.

 

Spoiler warning:

    So, Maven (the younger prince) betrays his father, brother, and Mare by taking the throne for himself and framing Cal for the murder of the King. Then he throws Cal and Mare into a gladiatorial pit to fight to the death as an execution and they naturally escape, being rescued by the Red Guard. When Mare is reunited with them, she discovers that her dead brother isn't dead (let me pretend to be surprised) and a part of the Red Guard.

    All the "twists" weren't much of a twist as much as it felt formulaic. I was surprised about Maven's betrayal though. He was a much better actor than I gave him credit for but every other twist I've seen done a bunch, so I wasn't surprised at all. But hey maybe 14-year-old me would be surprised and entirely enthralled with these revelations.

 

My thoughts:

    Not going to lie I found almost everything in this book extremely predictable. Almost every young adult trope you can think of is in here. But let's be honest sometimes you just want something that’s fun and exciting. I read one review that called this boring and I genuinely didn't feel bored at all. There were moments when I felt very frustrated with the main character in particular and other characters as well.

    Some characters are there it seems to fill a quota. Like the princes are both there to give Mare a love triangle. One Silver girl is a cartoonish evil antagonist with no other traits besides being violent and hating Mare for upstaging her. Her brothers don't have much influence on the plot besides one that gives her motivation to join the Red Guard. In my opinion, the sister is mainly there to showcase everything that Mare isn't.

    One thing that really frustrates me is how Mare despite growing up hating silvers and knowing that they are treacherous still trusts some of them and ends up being betrayed by a silver she trusted. Here's the kicker, she's surprised! Her inner monologue keeps repeating how "anyone can betray anyone" and yet she doesn't see this betrayal coming at all. I'm glad she freely admits to not being smart otherwise we would have another Stephanie (from "A Simple Favor) situation going on. Is this book terrible? No, I think it's ok. If you are a teenage girl that wants to have some good clean fun, I'm sure you'll like this book. But I am out of this age demographic so young adult books don't appeal to me anymore.

    I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

 

Kat K out-