Red Queen (2015)

I think my biggest issue with this book is that I have read so many lately with a similar plot, and it's starting to wear thin.
So to over generalize the plot, you have a world separated by a caste system that is, of course, awful and unfair (which doesn't even begin to describe it). Enter a strong female character, lower class, with a bleak outlook on the future, no real idea of the nuances that can be found in the other classes (not her fault), who is really likable and readable. Something happens, all she knows is turned upside down and now she has the chance to possibly make changes in her world. Changes that need to happen, but are not nearly as simple as they seem on the surface. Good guys are really not good, bad guys make actually be decent or at least have shades of grey, and the truth is anyone can betray you.
It is just all so familiar.
Outside of my frustration for the premise of this book, it's a good book. It's the first I've read by Aveyard, and she definitely has a way with words and worlds. She makes her characters well rounded which helped to keep me moving through the action. The idea that people are separated by blood, and what the means, is unique, or at least is to me. Not my favorite book, but a good read. ( )

I had such high expectations for this book. I've seen great reviews about it but it was just ok for me. It's very similar to Hunger Games with a little of The Selection series thrown in as well. It was pretty slow moving and I kept waiting for the twist to show up. I liked Mare for the most part but didn't really enjoy the vague love interest between her and the three main male characters. I felt like there wasn't enough connection with any of them for her to have major feelings for any of them. I can't decide if I want to continue with the series or not. I'm definitely moving on for now but may come back to it. ( )

I pulled the plug at 31 percent or right when I got to Chapter 12. I no longer care what happens to the main character or anyone else in this world.

Taking place somewhere, we follow 17 year old Mare who we find out is a Red. Yeah I said a Red. If you're brain goes off to Red Rising you won't be so far off here. We once again have a society divided between the haves (Silvers) and the have-nots (Reds). Mare is dreading turning 18 because in this world, 18 year old Reds who don't have a job must go to war for at least 5 years fighting against another Silver/Red combination elsewhere. No this doesn't make sense to me and when I tried to get my brain to just accept it, it got mad at me and told me to go and read something else.



Mare we are told has plain brown hair that most other Reds has. She doesn't really describe herself at all, but I am sure somewhere there are going to be conversations about how beautiful she is, and she's going to be perplexed by it. I just know it.

Mare is also pretty much a jerk from what I can see at 31 percent. She decides that she and a childhood friend (or a guy she fights with all the time, that she barely acts as if she even likes) will run away together before he can be sent off to war. It's not really said what will happen to her family if she gets caught doing this, but since deserters are hung, I can guess nothing good. But heck, we don't have Mare caring about her parents and sister. She is only focused on saving plot contrivance (no I am not looking up his name, I don't care). Of course doing this causes a whole host of other problems and brings havoc onto her family, but you know, no one calls her self absorbed butt out for any of this.

What really gets me about Mare is that we find out what a special snowflake she is because she (trumpet noise) manifests some powers she really shouldn't have and no I don't care why only now she manifests the powers which according to the world in which she lives should not be a thing. FYI, you can't get mad at me about discussing this in the review because the dang book synopsis tells you all of this.

I really can't tell you much about the other characters because at this point I see cliches wherever I read. We have two royal brothers and I can smell a triangle right off and I refuse to see how that plays out. Heck we may even get a rectangle because you know plot contrivance is coming back.

There are also some other plots in here, we have a Red rebellion that is brewing (isn't there always?) and we have the Silver King and Queen ensuring that their two sons engage themselves to two girls from the houses.

The writing is teeth grating to me. Besides the information dumps all over the place, we just have paragraphs that are just have me calling Mare a drama queen.

"Instead, I’m stuck in a room full of people who would kill me if they knew the truth. And the royals of course, who would kill me if they could, who probably will kill me one day. They’ve pulled me inside out, swapping Mare for Mareena, a thief for a crown, rags for silk, Red for Silver. This morning I was a servant, tonight I’m a princess. How much more will change? What else will I lose?"

FYI I loathe information dumps in books. I loathe them. It's way too much tell and not enough show. We are just force fed all of this information too with no explanations about half of things that the main character is telling us.

The flow is awful. We go from Mare figuring out ways to escape from being sent off to war, to doing what she can to help out her family after an incident happens with her sister, to being sent off to work in the freaking palace, and then somehow finding out she is a special snowflake. There is no room to breathe while reading. There is too much happening with little to no explanation.

The setting of Red Queen is another big issue. The world building here could have been exciting if done well. But I started to realize that a lot of this book was reminding me too much of Red Rising and The Lunar Chronicles for me to even try to keep straight all of the things going on. The Silvers have different houses and powers and seriously that whole part with Mare describing them just reminded me so much of Darrow explaining the Golds, Silvers, Whites, Pinks, heck I can't even remember them all, but I was just as underwhelmed with it in that book as I find myself underwhelmed here.

We also don't know how or why the Silvers are different, they just are (just like the Golds in Red Rising) and we don't know why the Silvers even need the Reds to fight an ongoing war between themselves. If you have superhuman abilities why in the world are you forcing Reds to go to war? Heck some of the powers some of these people have are powerful so I am still trying to figure out why after 100 years one side hasn't taken out the other.

I am going to consider my curiosity about this book assuaged and never look at it again.

( )

Ehhhhhhhhh??? I read it in one go and was invested at different times but also it was like. A lot of other dystopians/fantasy books I’ve read? A fun mix of hunger games, the selection, and the geisha trilogy tbh. Probably going to finish the series if I can get my hands on it though ( )

Fresh take on a dystopian world where people have powers/abilities and are separated by those who do and those who don’t. It felt like reading The Selection series mixed with Hunger Games, and I didn’t hate it. I especially loved trying to figure out what parts of the USA they were talking about and what these “dead” languages were. ( )