By the hammer of Thor, Loki!!!

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

The Skinny: The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers. To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change. Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.
But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win? -From Goodreads

BFF?: Oh Mare… I totally felt for the girl. She was a little headstrong, but I still really liked her. Gah, I don’t know how to talk about Mare! She was really fantastic and all, like up there with all my favorite BFFs. But I didn’t really feel sympathy for her. Not in a bad way, more like she never got so completely defeated and pathetic that I wanted to throw my arms around her and say “It’s okay bestie! I’m here!” Basically, she got shit done. I can respect a girl for that.

Readability: I couldn’t put this one down! I loved the sassy narration mixed in with the beautiful prose. I felt on edge most times, needing to know what was coming up next while at the same time not wanting what I was reading to end.

Crush Level: ???
Ok, so I’ve been thinking about my crush level for a couple days now and all I can do is say my explanation of it is spoilery and you must highlight to read what I think: Okay, so I really loved Maven. At first I was sort of iffy about him, but the more I got to know him the more I really liked him. There’s always something so iffy about second sons. I know that’s generalizing, but I think when you live in the shadow of a “perfect” older sibling you start to deviate from all he (or she) represents. That’s how Maven was. For the most part I didn’t know if I could trust him, but then he sort of grew on me and I fell for him just like Mare did. It also didn’t help that Cal started to fall apart as the story went on and he started to be rather unreliable and cold. Ugh… which just made the ending that much harder. Like honestly, I didn’t know if I wanted to even continue. This was Thor all over again. Fall for Loki, Thor is an asshole, then Loki breaks your heart. Ugh, ugh, ugh!

Bonus Points
Special Abilities

There is not a single instance where I can think of that special abilities don’t make a book better for me. I loved that the Silvers had all these abilities, like controlling fire or mind reading/control or power over water.

Family Houses

One of the things that confuses the heck out of me in GoT is all these houses: Tulley, Stark, Greyjoy, etc. I have to remember characters AND their house? I still find it mega interesting. That’s kind of how Red Queen was with all the different Silvers. There were many families, each with their own colors and abilities. Mave wasn’t the only one who was confused while learning them!

Commencement Speech: I’ve had a copy of this for quite some time now. I actually bought it for one of my OTSP Secret Sister gifts, but decided to read it. Shh, don’t tell her! I really wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it which is why I haven’t picked it up earlier; I also had an egalley of it but never got around to reading. Shh, don’t tell!

All this being said, I LOVED this one! I really need to find more books like this. The world building was fantastic; I loved how fantasy was mixed in with a futuristic setting. There were some times when I forgot I was in a futuristic setting and then they’d start talking about security cameras. What? It was awesome how these things all mixed together.

I also really liked the two different classes, the Silvers and the Reds. I FELT for the Reds, how they were forced into a level of poverty and oppression. And while I think I probably should have hated the Silvers, I found them interesting, the way they interacted and lived their lives.

If there’s one complaint I have about this book, it’s the ending. Oh, don’t get me wrong I thought it was exciting, but I got to a point where things were revealed and I hated them and I almost didn’t continue. I did, because I loved the book and would hate not finishing, but c’mon with that ending… COME ON!

Overall fantastic read. I loved every moment (minus the ending…) and I’m so excited about this series! I’m also debating keeping this book rather than gifting it to my Secret Sister… 😉

Yearbook Quote: “Authenticity was the key to any deception. Sometimes authenticity was disgusting.”

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