So, you know how people think most fantasy/dystopian YA is just a thinly veiled allegory for high school ? Well the Red Queen on it’s surface is pretty much that.
We’ve got Mare Barrow another brunette YA heroine who hates her hair and wishes she was more like her sister Gisa who is pretty, talented and basically put up on a pedestal.
In Mare’s world what separates the oppressed Reds from the elite Silvers. . . is their blood. The Silver’s blood silver blood gives them abilities like controlling elements, strength and mind control.
Mare soon discovers that even though she is Red, she has abilities like a Silver. A threat to the Silver way of life, The Silvers whisk her away to live among them until they can figure out what she is.
On the flip side The Scarlet Guard, a resistance group fighting the Silver’s oppression, is starting to rise and Mare just might be their way to victory.
Living among Royals, Mare is basically a fish out of water trying to fit in with all the cool Silver kids while avoiding the mean girl whose boyfriend she is crushing on.
One more thing about this book:
I mean there are so many to choose from. We have the fierce warrior and future king, Prince Cal, Or the reserved and charming second son, Prince Maven. Plus there’s Kilorn,that guy-next-door-best friend AND Lucas the understanding bodyguard.
One of the things that bothered me about this novel is that the women characters were either Mare’s enemy or put on a pedestal. There wasn’t a rang there. I would even argue this for the character of Farley, the female leader of the resistance.
This was my first Amanda Dolan audiobook and she is a very subtle narrator who lets the story come through. She’s not obtrusive with her performance.
With all that said I found this to be a popcorn audiobook for me. Yes, it’s cliched, yes we’ve seen it before but Aveyard throws in a few plot twist and leaves the ending open to new adventures. This kind of feels like it could be more than a trilogy.
By the time I finished this book I’d pre-ordered the next one just to see where we go next.
1/2 of the blogging duo at Books and Sensibility, I have been blogging about and reviewing books since 2011. I read any and every genre, here on the blog I mostly review Fantasy, Adult Fiction, and Young Adult with a focus on audiobooks.