Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

It is fair to say that there has been a lot of hype around this book and after reading it I can definitely see why. Even though I have given this book four out of five stars, I would probably say that it is more like four and a half stars out of five. However, I do not think I could give this book a five star rating because to me, it is not worthy of that.

The beginning of this book had a very 'Shadow and Bone' feel to it, which I liked because I really like that book and universe, but I also felt like it seemed to be drawing too much from that universe. I don't know if that series was any sort of inspiration for this book, but the Silvers having powers and the Reds being kept out of high society really linked the two books for me.

The world that was created in this book is definitely an amazing thing. I could really tell from this book the amount of effort that had gone into making the world work so that each place fit together and everything made sense. I kept on wishing that there was some sort of map that I could refer to so I could identify this world to a visual image, but it was also nice to have my imagination run wild with the ideas of what it could look like.

The idea of the world being separated by the colour of the people's blood was something very new and it interested me greatly. It was great to not only have the difference of the Silvers having powers, but also having the difference of the colour of their blood really added to the story as there was a definite physical difference for me to identify with. The science side of me wonders what they would have instead of red blood cells to make their blood that colour and the history of the Silvers and Reds is something that I would like to explore more in the coming books.

As a character, I liked and disliked Mare. This story was told from her perspective so I felt like I should know her and her feelings, but I felt like I couldn't link what the text told me her feelings were to her actions. She was very passionate and wanted to stand up for what she believed in, which I admired greatly, yet I did not like her seeming disassociation with her feelings and thinking that she could toy around with other people's feelings - I don't really believe that that's the right way to go about things.

One aspect of this book that I really liked was the lessons and training that the Silvers went through. It was a good thing to see them being prepared and ready to fight rather than just sitting around and relying on others to do everything for them. As well as that, the fact that their training was not just focused on them using their powers was a very important thing as it meant that they recognise that their powers couldn't do everything for them. That side of this, and them knowing that their powers were not for all to end all, was something likably different about this book.

The Scarlet Guard reminded me greatly of other revolutionary groups - they set out with good intentions, but that eventually leads to people being killed when they have not necessarily done anything wrong and the group itself can become as corrupt as the people they're trying to throw out are because of differing opinions. Though this book didn't really cover the second point, it did really look into the first point. Above everything else, we look after ourselves first and everyone else is just collateral damage so we can achieve our aim. I wonder how many more will have to die for a supposed equality to be achieved?

The actual storyline of this book captured my imagination immensely. I was constantly interested in what would happen to Mare, Cal, Maven and all the other characters next. That was helped by the level of description Aveyard went into (I do love lots of description) and how well she created this world. The plot twist at the end really caught me out and though I had been warned through the whole book about it, I was still not prepared for it. I just wanted to scream and throw the book against the wall because I felt so hurt and betrayed, but that is also a good thing because this book made me able to feel those emotions.

Though there were parts of this book that I didn't like, overall this book is absolutely amazing and I would definitely recommend it. I cannot wait for the next book in the series now!

(Goodreads parallel)