Red Queen (Red Queen, #1) by Victoria Aveyard

My rating: five stars

Genre: YA, fantasy

Edition: Hardback

Goodreads Summary: This is a world divided by blood – red or silver. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power. Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime. But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.

A few years ago, I read this book and the second one (Glass Sword), but I honestly didn’t remember much except that I loved it (my memory is so terrible…). Since it had been so long, I decided to reread this entire series, because I really want to finish it. Reading this book was like reading it for the first time, and I enjoyed it so much!

Likes: The class system and powers in this book are so interesting. The fact that people have different colored blood, and silver-blooded people have abilities and red-blooded people don’t is a system that is relatively unique. The powers are so cool too! The fact that abilities are based on bloodline, and each house a certain ability strain is awesome! Everyone in each house has a similar type of ability but they are also different. I like how Victoria describes how Mare learns how to use her abilities and what exactly her abilities allow her to do. It was fun to read about the training and the different tests that they had to grow in their abilities. This book not only had a unique and fun world, the storyline and characters were brilliant. There were twists and turns that I did not expect. I saw parts of it coming, but the ending still floored me! In the series Mare works with the Red Guard and reading about how they worked was fascinating. How they kept in contact and how they travelled around was neat to see.

Dislikes: Mare is forced to leave her family and pretend to be a princess. Though this seems like a bad plan, I honestly didn’t mind it because of how she was forced into this. What I do mind is how her friend/family acts. She goes back to visit them and her friend treats her like the enemy. The lie that she tells her family is that she is working there. I just feel like the writing was a little unrealistic here. I understand that they don’t really care for the Silvers, but she supposedly has a great job that makes great money for the family. The fact that her friend would treat her so badly seems unlikely to me.

Overall, this book blew my mind. The powers, the class system, the character dynamic, the plot twists, and the writing style floored me. This book is hyped up for a reason and I can’t wait to read the next one!