Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

This one I’m torn with, I have things I liked about it and things I didn’t which will probably put me in the minority since it’s such a popular book. But let’s do this right fist the official blurb..

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…

Pros first. The writing was amazing, first YA book I’ve read in awhile that had a solid plot and well written characters. Mare, who this story was about, at the beginning I liked her, unfortunately it didn’t stay that way but I’ll explain why. The prince brothers Cal and Maven, best characters in the book. They actually stuck to character, which was nice for a change. Loved the villains in this book, great job. The world building was spot on, I understood where they lived and the divide between the silvers and the reds. In fact I enjoyed the concept, if you have a super power and have silver blood you’re a silver (let’s call them upper class) if you have no power and have red blood your a red (servant class). I enjoyed the idea of having the power but not the right blood color, very cool.

My problems, I think I figured out the twists too early. Therefore I started to get really annoyed with Mare, who had no problem participating in killing silvers but was appalled that the silvers killed back. I’m never a fan of the everybody wants you thing, though the end helped with this a little, but I think I’m over lead female characters that do selfish stupid stuff and don’t understand why things go wrong. So done with that.

There is a fantastic part at the end where a character straight out tells her, I was your friend and you betrayed me, now I’m going to die. Your fault. I was cheering for him, she doesn’t seem to grasp that when you use people they can get hurt, even with the ending I don’t feel like she really got it.

Would I recommend this read? Yes I think it’s good enough to recommend. I will read the next one and see how it goes. Some characters are interesting enough that I want to read more about them.