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“Rise, red as the dawn.��

The colour of the blood of an individual defines whether they are elite. The Silvers are the elite establishment of society, whereas the Reds are the abhorrence. Change is non-existent to a seventeen-year-old Mare, raised in the destitute Stilts, a town encaging the Reds. A shocking revelation exposes that Mare possess a concealed talent. This talent poses a potential threat to the Silvers who decided to disguise Mare as a forgotten royal. Mare must benefit from her new position to eradicate the cruel hierarchy of society.

I had heard many contradicting reviews, before contemplating whether or not to read this book, some of which concluded that this book included recycled elements of The Hunger Games. I suppose upon reflection that it did include cliché concepts, but if you were to ask me whether this effected whether I cherished the book any less. The answer is a definite no. However, if you were to ask me whether I think this is incorporates concepts of a textbook copy of other dystopian, young adult book. The answer is a simple yes.

Take Mare for instance the replica of every young adult heroine; a secure female condemned because of societal separation, destined to bring about the beginning of change. Victoria Aveyard failed Mare’s character in many respects, one of which being in-depth character development. Although upon acknowledgement of Aveyard’s failures I still rooted for Mare’s character from beginning to end completely. An additional cliché aspects was Kilhorn, his character made be extremely apprehensive, I thought this was Victoria Aveyard’s equivalent of Gale Hawthorne. However, I feel as though this was not explored enough as to whether I could determine whether this was in fact Gale’s replacement.

In retrospect I feel as though I have critiqued the storyline and the book in general far too harshly, when if truth be told I could not put this book down. Yes, maybe Victoria Aveyard did indeed incorporate some worn out, popular dystopian cliches but honestly, I’m not mad. Notice the key word in that sentence - some. The intertwining of both dystopian and fantasy abstractions is executed both effectively and effortlessly. Her enticing writing style and elaborate descriptions built the land of Norta impeccably for me.

This book was both flawed but accomplished in a variety of ways. I relished in the book enough that it took me just over two days to finish, surely this is evident assurance that I did in fact very much delight myself in the book. I have high expectations for Victoria Aveyard and hope that the following book in this series will improve on all those aspects that I feel disheartened my love for this book.