Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
320 Pages
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Publisher: Orion
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4 STARS

Goodreads Summary:

A thrilling new fantasy trilogy for fans of DIVERGENT and THE HUNGER GAMES.

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of
those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.

But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?

       I thought this book was going to turn out very differently than it did.  There are clear points in books where the plot takes turns away from different ideas and normally you have some inclination as to the general direction the plot is going. And I thought that was going to be true for Red Queen. I was very, very wrong. Red Queen takes a more gritty and hard path than I thought it would. Every turn, every new problem thrown at Mare is more and more intense and insane than the last. To be honest I didn't like this  book at some points; I loved the beginning, I loved the end, and I really REALLY disliked (which is still far from hate) the middle. But don't take that assume you shouldn't read this book. Because you should. It's just that the problems faced in this book have more moral issues than most other YA novels and you truly feel the weight and gravity of the situations. Red Queen is sometimes hard to read because the problems faced in it are terrifying and feel very real, and they are emphasized because this is a GOOD book.

     Now Mare. Oh, Mare. Mare and I have a love hate relationship. I think she is brilliant and beautiful and badass and I love her but at the same time...UGH some of the things she does just piss me off to no end! And it pisses me off more because I understand why she makes the choices that she makes and I agree that she needs to do something and I can't think of a better solution either but I wish she would! Basically I have so much respect and admiration for Mare that I expect a lot from her and sometimes she doesn't deliver because she's human.

    I am not even going to talk about Cal and Maven. Too many spoilers, too many emotions, not enough self control. BUT I will talk about this world because I think its a REALLY REALLY REALLY COOL WORLD. Like there are these people with Silver blood and these amazing, crazy, powerful, scary powers who rule over people who have red blood and no powers. EXCEPT that now there's a Red girl with powers. And how the Reds are just so subjugated and treated as if they were less than human and how they are starting to fight back. I just think its so amazing and bizarre and so INTERESTING. So yeah.

     Basically Red Queen is frustrating and heartbreaking and hard to read and wonderful and amazing and you should all stop what you are doing and read it because you will be hooked. I MEAN LOOK AT THAT COVER DOESN'T IT JUST MAKE YOU WANT TO PICK UP THIS BOOK AND NEVER LET GO???? I hope you get as pulled into this book as I did. BYEEEEEEEE