NOVEL | ' Red Queen' by Victoria Aveyard
'Red Queen' is the first in a trilogy of young adult fantasy novels written by Victoria Aveyard. In the 'Red Queen,' the world is divided by blood - red or silver. The Reds are commoners who are ruled by the Silver elite - the holders of superpowers.
For protagonist Mare Barrow, a seventeen year old Red girl living in poverty, it seems like nothing will change. That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace where she's surrounded by the people she hates the most. Mare discovers that despite her red blood, she possesses a power of her own that threatens to destroy the existing balance of power.
Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view and declare her as a long-list Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing one misstep would mean her death, Mare works to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, to bring down the Silver regime.
Aveyard's debut novel is the truly fascinating debut of a world that's deeply imaginative and full of character driven-plot twists. While the young adult genre is overstuffed with dystopian and fantasy novels, and the 'Red Queen' comes in as a breath of fresh air.
In saying that, however, 'Red Queen' was significantly overhyped despite it's intriguing nature. Though it may be a fun read, there is hardly much meaning or depth behind what's on the page. The book is not quite the one that it wants to be, but what makes it frustrating is that it's so very close.
For such a small book, it's painful slow. It's an incredibly interesting idea that had so much potential, yet brought nothing new to the table. There was little action in the first half of the book, save for the attempts at flirtation Mare has with Prince Cal and Evangeline, his betrothed, hating Mare as soon as she sets sights on her.
If you think of the comedy classic 'Mean Girls', you'll be familiar with concept of exclusive cliques, and this is similar to the friendship circles in the 'Red Queen'. Mare comes off as a selfish brat that doesn't care about destroying the lives of others, and such characterisation threatens to destroy the reader's enjoyment of the book.
The main issue for the 'Red Queen' is that there is too much focus on the romantic and not enough on the revolution between the Reds and the Silvers - the former of which is something that could hardly be cared about.
If you liked Pierce Brown's 'Red Riding,' then Victoria Aveyard's 'Red Queen' should be right up your alley.
'Red Queen' is available now at your local bookstore, newsagents, and online.
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