THE RED QUEEN- VICTORIA AVEYARD (snowleopardsarecool)

HEY EVERYBODY!!!

I am back from France (truly one of the best things in my life) !!!! And Now I am back to posting. Well I was back more than 2 weeks ago but then I had to go visit my grandparents and school started (boo) and everything has been busy. But I promised myself that I would come about to write a blog post and during all this craziness because I have been reading a lot of books these days (what do you do when your grandparents don’t have wifi) and I have all these thoughts that are about to explode. I am in a state of thought diarrhea.That sounded better in my brain.

So the book I am going to review today was definitely not my most favourite YA novel at the moment but I saw it on Goodreads with just the most beautiful cover and I just couldn’t resist reading it. And before any of you say you judged a book by its cover you cannot deny that you do it too. Everyone does it and honestly what’s wrong with that? So presenting the majestic Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard.

CAN WE ALL JUST TAKE A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE THE TRUE BEAUTY OF THIS COVER!!

So if you don’t know what the book is about, It is about a world in which people are divided by their blood colour-the ‘reds’ and the ‘silvers’.The silvers live a life filled with luxuries and wealth whereas the reds are poverty struck folk who work till their limbs bleed. Why, you may ask, are the silvers considered superior to the reds? It’s because the silvers are blessed with supernatural powers like controlling fire, water, mindreading and many more.Thus the reds are considered inferior because the silvers can control them with their powers. The story follows a red teenage girl- Mare. She has lived her entire life as a red- stealing pennies to survive, not having luxuries and constantly nagged by her parents. Until one incident changes it all. Soon Mare discovers that she has supernatural powers -more reckless and uncontrollable than ever. She finds herself among the royal silver family posing to be a long lost princess. And with a dangerous rebellion right around the corner, Mare must make decisions but one thing is for sure- there will be betrayal and bloodshed.

This book is the first book in a series.

This book without a doubt IS GOING TO MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE A VULNERABLE FIVE YEAR OLD. The plot twists in this book has broken all kinds off charts and has left a lot of readers feeling a lot of feelings. From abandonment to just absolute glee this book is definitely not for light hearted readers. And I really liked the fact that the plot twists made sense and wasn’t there just for the sake of plot twists. Many authors do that these days just to in the name of an ‘unexpected’ aspect. It is really annoying since sometimes the plot twists don’t leave you surprised, It leaves you confused and bewildered since it is forced upon you. This book is intense and compelling and really a page turner.

Honestly if you start reading it you will finish it in one big gulp. The book leaves you with so many jaw-drops and eye-pops. You can feel the pages fly by. The book is very simple and cleanly written and Aveyard does such an amazing job describing each of the characters emotions perfectly. The emotions of injustice and rebelling are truly mature and not childish. They are raw and genuine and one quality that isn’t there in many YA novels -pedestrian emotions. Emotions that we all can relate to.

But the biggest surprise was not all the cool battles and cold behaviors it was the BETRAYAL.THE BETRAYAL IS SO HEART WRENCHINGLY TERRIFYING. MY REACTION THROUGHT THE ENTIRE BOOK WAS

IT WAS JUST PLAIN CRUELTY VICTORIA AVEYARD!!!!

I will do my best to  make this a non spoiler review.

But saying this for a reader who has read lots of books and know all the classic cliches, the betrayals were kind of predictable. Because the most used phrase in the book is ‘anyone can betray anyone’ and so you are kind of expecting something crazy to happen. But to a reader that has not read many novels, it will be a great experience of torture. In a good way.

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The characters I felt were very simple yet interesting. You have the mischievous Mare who is bold and confident with herself. As a protagonists she was very interesting yet not too over the top. Then we have the adorable royal brothers- Maven and Cal. Cal was rather plain compared to his brother Maven who is so complex and has different layers. He was a hard nut to crack and that is why I think he is one of my favourites. Cause everyone loves a mysterious outcast. I know that there are some Cal fangirls too but I just find myself so intrigued my Maven’s complexity. But I have to say my favourite was Julien just cause I love intelligent YA characters (they are a rare species). He is a old, broken man that all readers learn to love. And I hate saying this but even the cold queen had her moments. Her villainous approach was fascinating in a terrible way.

And some of you might be confused by now because I spoke very positively even though I said this to be not one of my favourites. And it is not because of the storyline or characters. It is because of the theme. The theme was very generic. It was a very cliche YA novel with ‘the normal girl who turns out to have powers’ and “a rising rebellion” and “she must make decisions’. I feel like I read this in the summary of every YA novel. And I am sick of it. And it is so unfortunate because her writing and story line was so good and if she releases a book outside this series with a more unique idea I would definitely read it. I feel really bad saying this about such a nice author but originality is always my top priority in anything so sorry Victoria Aveyard you failed to please me.

Okay that was a bit TOO far.

But anyways give this book a try if you don’t read YA much. It would be a great experience. And to people who read YA, read it if your a cool hipster who likes criticising books.

I rate this 2.9 out of 5 snowleopards.

GOODBYE AND SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!!!

-snowleopardsarecool