Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Title: Red Queen

Author: Victoria Aveyard
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Goodreads

This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.

Rating: ★★★/5 stars

Red Queen is set in a world where people are divided by blood type. There's the Silvers, the elite who all have a certain superpower, and the Reds, the commoners, who have to do all the dirty work for the Silvers.

In Red Queen, we follow a girl named Mare Barrow, a 17 year old Red, who suddenly finds herself working in the Silver palace. Here, she discovers that despite her red blood, she has a deadly superpower of her own. However, the king and queen find out as well, and in a desperate attempt to keep this hidden and not cause a lot of chaos, Mare finds herself engaged to a Silver prince.

Now, living in a palace where one misstep can cause her death, she is secretly working with a resistance group to bring down the Silver regime, and she finds herself falling for a prince.

I didn't really like Red Queen, but after hearing so many people talk bad about this book, I didn't really expect to. I think the fact that I went into this book with very low expectations, actually saved it for me.

So, what did I like, and what did I dislike about Red Queen?

Likes:

Even though the plot resembled a lot of other dystopians, I still really liked it. It definitely reminded me why I loved dystopians so much in the first place.
The main character, Mare Barrow, was a great main character. She's very likeable and brave. She won't go down without a fight.
The action scenes were excellent! The kept me on the edge of my seat, and made me unable to stop reading until it was over. They were very fast-paced without feeling chaotic, which is a difficult thing to pull off.

Dislikes:

Usually while reading a book, I can always picture what the characters and places look like, but while reading this one, I just couldn't. It felt like I was reading the book blindly (which doesn't really make any sense) and I really didn't like it.
I got bored. So bored, in fact, that I had to read the last few sentences of the book to keep me from DNF'ing it. Luckily the last few sentences were really intriguing, and the book did get a bit better towards the end.
The ending didn't sit very well with me. (SPOILER ALERT!) The fact that Prince Maven's character could change so drastically in just a few seconds felt very weird, and very unrealistic. But, granted, it was a plot-twist that I didn't see coming.

Even though I didn't love Red Queen, I'm still planning on reading the second book because I'm very curious about what's going to happen next.