Thursday, December 1, 2016

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard - A Book Review


I was very excited to read this book, first of all. The anticipation grew as I read reviews on goodreads, saw video reviews of booktubers raving about this book and I was indeed intrigued to know what this book was all about. After much of browsing for the “best price online” I got the book for a solid 279 INR. Cha-Ching, right?

You can get this book at an awesome price from here

·         Infibeam

So, did this book live up to its expectations?

The story revolves around a girl named Mare Burrow who is Red by birth in a land where people are separated by blood: Red and Silver. Red are the normal people who live in poverty, suffer, and have mandatory military service for every kid that is 18 (conscription) and so on. Silvers have special abilities; they frame the rules and rule the Red. Mare’s only friend Kilorn is up for his conscription and Mare wants to save him. One thing leads to another and the Silver find out that Mare is different so they try to protect her identity and hold her a sophisticated captive. Till what extent does Mare go to protect her family, her friend and even more her own self?

When I began reading the novel, the first few chapters were captivating as they built the world and the characters introducing Mare, Kilorn, the differences in the Red-born and the Silver-born. But after a few chapters, I realized this was an average Young Adult dystopian novel after all. I was supposed to be taken by surprise at places where I actually felt ‘meh’ and nothing more. I am not the one for love triangles and the love triangle in this one wasn’t any breathtaking one either. The characters just came and went. Even though it has only been few days after I finished reading it, I do not remember any of the names other than the main characters’. They are not memorable since they do not play impactful roles in the story.

The second half of the book was better compared to the first since I knew that there was a plot twist. Accidentally, I misplaced my bookmark one day exactly on the page where the plot twist was and I read the spoiler. Boy, was I stupid. I think I would have had a different view of the book had I not seen the spoiler. I hope you don’t read any spoilers before reading this one. I saw on the internet where people were taking teams such as Team Maven and Team Cal or whatever. I don’t know. I never truly felt rooting for either one of them as they practically did nothing amazing of any sorts. This was definitely not going to be a DNF (Did Not Finish) and I was sure of. I have not read many YA (Young Adult) fiction yet I could see that this story was not something very original. Even the review at the back of the book says that it is a blend of Hunger Games, The Selection, Divergent and Graceling. Can’t get any more original, now, can it?

I liked the ending of the book, though. You know when you watch certain TV shows where you don’t exactly like it but at the end of the episode you wanna watch the next one? This book was like that for me. I might get around reading the second and the third book of the series. 

Did you like the book? Or absolutely hated it? Let us know!


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