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“Rise, red as the dawn.��

Rating- 3 stars

Content/ Trigger Warnings- Betrayal, Death, Discrimination, Murder, Violence, War {}


Buddy read with my friend Ester, thank you so much for buddy reading it with me!

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is an extremely hyped up YA novel. The reason I read it was because of the hype.

Do I think it deserves the hype?- Not really, it didn’t live up to the hype for me. But I understand why people love it.
Did I still enjoy it?-Yes.

The plot
Mare Barrow lives in a world where people are dived by blood-red or silver. Mare is a red and is living in poverty. She gets a job as a servant in the white palace, and soon discovers that she has magic powers. She's declared a long-lost Silver princess and is engaged to a Silver prince. Surrounded by the people she hates, Mare works silently to help the Scarlet Guard, a militant resistance group to bring down the Silver regime. There is also a love triangle.





Where have I seen this before? I can list so many books.
The Hunger Games where Katniss Everdeen is very special and 'not like other girls' because she can use a bow and arrow. Her best friend has feelings for her but she is completely oblivious to it.
City of Bones where Clary Fray is very special and 'not like other girls' because she wants to fight and suddenly has discovered she's a Shadowhunter. Her best friend has feeings for her but she is completely oblivious to it.
The Selection where America Singer is very special and 'not like other girls' because she wants to wear pants and doesn't want to be a princess. (There's a love triangle in this too.)

Yes, this list can go on.
So this is a very standard YA plot, and unfortunately there's nothing in this book that makes it stand out plot wise. There is one major 'plot twist' which I think was a good one but I predicted it. So this book brings nothing new to the table.





It was still an enjoyable read. Even though it was a very predictable storyline I found it interesting. This is one of those guilty pleasure kind of books, which you know you shouldn't be reading but you can't get enough of. So that's my thoughts on the plot.

The writing
The writing was ok for the most part. There's nothing extraordinary about it, but its not bad either.
There were some lines that had me annoyed. We have everyone's favourite; 'I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding' and this...

"I have three older brothers, so when I spit at [insert person's name; not mentioning to avoid spoilers] my aim is perfect, hitting him square in the eye."

I thought we moved passed this in books. Are you trying to tell me that Mare is strong enough to dare spit at someone only because she has 3 older brothers?
It would have been different if it was mentioned that it was her brothers who trained her in fighting or something along those lines and if the circumstance was different, but that's not the case here.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against brothers teaching their sisters fighting or something, its just that this scene is suppose to be a badass moment for Mare, so why is this line there? She's literally just spitting at someone. Why does she need 3 older brothers to do that? What logic is this, I fail to understand.

Edit - in the comments, someone mentioned that the spitting thing was because Mare and her brother keep doing that to each other and hence she has practice. I didn’t see it this way, so thank you for pointing it out. This is possible that it was intended this way, but the first time I read it I was kind of annoyed. I think it could have been framed differently though, like ‘I have enough practice because of my brothers�� instead.

Regardless, the rest of the writing was ok.

The world building
The world was interesting, but there is a lot of info-dumping in the beginning of the book. We are showered with info on how the world works and all about Mare's life right and the beginning, before we've even started to care for Mare as a character. It also takes beyond 10 chs for the thing mentioned in the blurb to actually happen.

The characters

Mare
Mare gives me the classic 'I'm not like other girls' protagonist. She is fierce, determined and strong and wants the best for her family. She hardly struggles learning her new powers and becomes a superhero (heroine) when she gets them. She hardly ever gets seriously injured.





There is an attempt to make her morally grey but I personally don't think it was that well done.

I don't have any strong emotions towards Mare, but I hope I will like her more in the second book.

Cal
I was fine with Cal. He was morally grey and I think he was done better than Mare in this aspect. I want to see more in his character.

Maven
Maven was the only character I actually liked. He's very kind. That's all I'll say about him for now.

Evangeline
I forgot about her first, but I liked her character as well!

The romance
I don't really ship anyone with Mare. I don't care for the love triangle. Hopefully things will get better in the next book.

Audiobook Comments
I really liked the narration, would recommend the audiobook! It helped me finish faster.

Final thoughts
This book was an interesting and entertaining read but it wasn't anything new. I still liked it.

"Anyone can betray anyone."

My ratings and reviews for other books in this series-

Glass Sword- 2 stars
King’s Cage- 3.75 stars

Note - Don't see my reading updates if you haven't read the book as it has mild spoilers.

Review written in 2021.

DISCLAIMER - All opinions on books I’ve read and my reviews are my own, and are with no intention to offend anyone. If you feel offended by my reviews, let me know how I can fix it.

How I Rate-
1 star- Hardly liked anything/ was disappointed
2 star- Had potential but did not deliver/ was disappointed
3 stars- Was ok but could have been better/ was average / Enjoyed a lot but something was missing
4 stars- Loved a lot but something was missing
5 stars- Loved it/ new favourite


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Pre-review rambling

3 stars( I may change it later)

I have a lot of mixed emotions on this, there were some things I liked and some that made me roll my eyes. I think it was an ok book for ya. I predicted the ‘plot twist��. Most of it had a lot of things that are typical in ya novels. The same clichés and tropes. It doesn’t add anything new to the table and that was the reason I had put it off for so long. But I still enjoyed it, which leaves me confused on how I feel about it. Detailed Review to come!