Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Published February 10th 2015

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.

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

I’d seen so much hype on Red Queen and so much negative reviews as well that I put this book off for months. Finally, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to read this book. And I’m so glad that I did.

I really enjoyed how this book was written. It was so well written and at times I forgot I was reading a book. I was just experiencing the story. That’s pretty rare for me so I think that was my favorite thing about Red Queen.

I’ve seen a lot of people saying that Red Queen is every YA book ever in one book. I can see why they would say that but I personally didn’t feel that way. This book was blow-my-mind original but I didn’t feel like it as copying or stealing ideas from other books. I didn’t read anything that blatantly similar to any other YA books that I’ve read.

The world building was simple and easy to understand, which I really liked. It wasn’t over the top and complex like some fantasy books. It was well done and easy to picture.

The only thing that kept me from giving this book five stars is I never was emotionally invested in the characters. I started to toward the very end (like the last 10 pages) but I just didn’t feel anything towards the characters. I think I’ll be emotionally invested in the next book though. The last page was really great and I can’t wait for the sequel.

Overall, I really liked Red Queen. It was a fun fantasy and I read it in pretty much two sittings. While I wasn’t emotionally invested in the characters, I still really loved reading this book.