Review: Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard

Synopsis: The poverty-stricken Reds are commoners, living in the shadow 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.

Then Mare finds herself working at the Silver palace, in the midst 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.

Title: Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Publisher: Orion Publishing
Pub Date: 12th February 2015
Pages: 383
ISBN: 9781409155843

Rating:

I was provided a review copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The last five or six books I’ve read have been super depressing; not ‘shucks that was quite sad’ type depressing, but ‘what’s the point in living if life is so futile’ type depressing. They were beautiful books, but they weren’t necessarily fast-paced, and none had a happy ending whatsoever…or happy beginnings, or middles.

This has meant that my reading pace has slowed to a snail’s pace. I’ve avoided starting new books; avoided the accusatory glare of the beautiful covers on my shelves. I’ve reverted back to listening to my Harry Potter audiobooks (who can resist Steven Fry’s lovely voice reading my childhood favourite?!); I’ve even caught up on a few TV shows.

But then something happened; I requested to review Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I’d seen everyone rave about it for months on end and had avoided it like the plague, adamant that it would be rubbish. But my curiosity got the better of me (and I had finished my book halfway through a journey!).

Less than 36 hours later, I have finished, requested the next book and keep looking around my office in the hope that someone will miraculously hand it to me. What a read! What a way to kick me out of a long-term reading slump.

On par with Ember in the Ashes, this is a fast-paced, punchy fantasy with a plethora of characters to keep you interested. Yes, there is a love triangle (but who doesn’t secretly love that!); yes, the protagonist can, at times, be a whiney, annoying teenager, but you can’t help but want to be her.

If you take The Hunger Games’s political uprising and mix it up with Tamora Pierce’s formula for feisty female protagonists, you get Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen.

Orion Publishing, if you’re listening – put me out of my misery and let me know what happens next!

#TeamCal