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Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood--those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.
To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard--a growing Red rebellion--even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.
To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard--a growing Red rebellion--even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.
Series: Red Queen (Book 1)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: HarperTeen; 1st edition (February 10, 2015)
Page Count: 388 pages
I'd seen this book floating around the blogosphere for a while and it looked interesting, so I finally decided to read it and it was one of the best novels I've read in a while.
The Plot: The plot held me throughout. I was gripped all the way to the end. I love all of the different dynamics and I like a rebellion force that doesn't have a dark side. I'm getting tired of rebellions then they turn out to be evil. It's annoying. There were so many twists and turns in the story. It just love it! The climax had me on the edge of my seat!
The Characters: Mare is a great main character. I like how she finds herself throughout the book. At the beginning she believes her worth is less than her sister's, but then she grows to value herself more. I love her ability to create and control lightning. It's so cool!
Cal and Maeve present an interesting love triangle for Mare, but it definitely isn't your typical one. The brothers are so different and by the end of the book you clearly see which one is not going to get the girl.
Kilorn and Farley of the resistance are great too. At first I was unsure about them, but they grew on me as the story went on.
The King and Queen are formidable villains and very scary.
The Setting: The environment is very unique. I'm not quite sure if it's supposed to be another world or our world in the far future since the technology is a mix between fantasy and far advanced sci-fi. It's such an interesting world! The tensions between the Reds and Silvers are so interesting and it makes me wonder the origins of the two. Were they always different or did something happen? All the different powers are so cool and detailed. I can never get enough powered people.
Epic Things: I love love LOVE all of the symbolic phrases created with red as silver. "Red shields." "Rise as Red as the dawn." They create just amazing pictures in my head! I also love Mare's earrings for each of her brothers. It's such a neat symbol and immediately makes her standout from other protagonists because I'll always think of those three earrings.
The Theme: Discovering your worth and trust were big ones. Mare often wonders what is truth and what is smoke and mirrors and thinks to herself, "Anyone can betray anyone."
Content Cautions: There is a good bit of violence since there is a war going on. Both Reds and Silvers die in various ways. The most graphic part was during a torture scene when a character freezes another character's blood into ice spikes. There is some swearing, but not a lot. H*** is used eight times, d*** two times, bi*** three times, and ba****d two times.
What We Can Take Away For Our Writing:
1.) A Protagonist with A lot of Siblings - For some reason a lot of YA protagonists are either only children or have one sibling. It's nice to see a character like Mave who has three brothers and a sister. It changes things up a bit and having so many siblings definitely creates different dynamics for the personality of the character.
How this can be applied to writing: Have you thought of having your protagonist have more than one sibling?
Conclusion: I love this book. It's the best one I've read in a while. Can't wait to read the rest!
I'm a screenwriter/YA author who likes books and lists. This site is the nexus of my universe.
My book RED QUEEN will be published Winter 2015 from HarperTeen at HarperCollins. I'm repped by the incomparable Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc.
The genres I'm into include YA, Fantasy, Historical, Adventure, Apocalyptic - if people are dying, I'm buying.
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