|partner review| "Red Queen" by Victoria Aveyard

Title: Red Queen

Author: Victoria Aveyard

Publisher: Orion

Series: Red Queen #1

Amazon | Goodreads 

 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

 

Last week we hosted a readalong for „Red Queen“. We were really excited for this book. Everyone wanted to get his or her hands on it, there was a big hype about it and we feel like everyone pre-ordered it. We did and we couldn’t wait to finally start this beauty. When we finally did, we were pretty disappointed. The beginning was very slow and it felt like the story wasn’t beginning. It was quite dull and boring. You just followed Mare, our female protagonist, around. After 100 pages the book got more interesting, but with every new page, there came more similarities to other famous YA books, especially similarities to the Selection series and The Young Elites. We weren’t halfway through the book and yet so disappointed. Luckily, we didn’t want to give it up, so we motivated ourselves to finish it. Good Decision! The Book got SO MUCH BETTER and the plottwist at the end was just crazy.

In the end, we have different opinions about the book. That’s why we are going to have an spoiler discussion down blow. We think you can rank this book much better during such a discussion, so we only gave you those brief look at our main thoughts above. Our final ranking you’ll see at the end of the discussion. 

Kueckis opinion

Mauras opinion

Sooo....my German teacher used to say: "You have to go from the rough to the exact (if I can translate it this way xD). So I think we should start with something import. Like the story. I thought the idea sounded so cool! I mean...I'm a bit obsessed with blood (like...in science or something like that) so I was really intrigued, but I think it was quite boring and not well done in this book :/

 

 I think so, too. Even though I'm not obsessed with blood, I think the idea itself is brilliant and intriguing, but in the book nothing is really explained. You just get some statements, no explanations. Why is their blood silver? Why do they have magical abilities? How did this happen? And why did this all happen to our protagonist? Why is she the special one? And where does the story take place? In our world in the future? In a high fantasy world? There was no real world building, too. :(

SO TRUE! I honestly thought it would be a kinda high fantasy book, because the cover looks like that kind of book. But even if it was a fantasy book, we don't know. The world building was as terrible as you say! I didn't know what to think of the Silvers. I imagined them as aliens most of the time, because there was a quote in the beginning, something like "the gods came from the sky but there're not longer kind" (something like that). But this "Bot, Red and Silver" thing bothered me the most! How is this possible? mutation gene. Can somebody please explain? I mean...I'm not an expert but I don't think that there would be an as big mutation as there is out of the blue. I thought this was all pretty messed up :/

The "gods came from the sky but they're not longer kind" quote is quite confusing for me. It was never explained why anybody should say this! I don't get it... :/

Yeah, that's true. I mean our protagonist didn't fall from the sky. And that's no mutation that happens just out of the blue. 

I really hope Victoria Aveyard will explain this in the next book. At least the world building will be explained according to Sasha from abookutopia (here is the video where she mentioned it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7bL37MR6i4 )

That would be great! I assume you're going to read the second book too?

I was certain to do not continue with the series, but then...THE PLOT TWIST. It was just...crazy. I mean, I was so sure that Cal was the bad guy. I didn't think about Maven, because he was so cute and so nice. But....to be honest I like him even more this way xD I mean, he was just too nice and too much like a little beaten puppy, but this plot twist made him clever and evil....yeah I think I'm obsessed with evil people as well.

Of course, I will continue reading this series!

Cal is so sweet, I really like him and I don't get why you don't like him? I didn't like Maven. Not really, at least. I trusted him, though. And I was betrayed by him. I don't know how often I read "Anyone can betray anyone" but I never really believed it - till this really mean plot twist happened. And I hate Maven now. How could anybody be so selfish, power-hungry and scheming?! And you like him! I cannot understand this! 

But lets talk about our little love triangle. I normally dislike such love triangles very much, but this particular one I enjoyed. I think that both Maven and Cal leave her in the end is so special.

I was so annoyed by this sentence -.- I feel like there were a lot of sentences that were repeated over and over again. This was pretty annoying and after some time it got ridiculous.

Cal was just...I don't know. I feel like he was too mainstream and every time he showed up, I was annoyed by him. He was such a random heir. Maven wasn't pretty unique, too, but I didn't feel bored while reading about him. I thought he was a great companion, but the plot twist gave him such a great personality, its insane!

Love TRIANGLE? I feel like there were four or five guys who wanted to be together with Mare, although she wasn't really nice or clever. The end was okay, I think every other ending would have been unrealistic. However, Mare says there's nothing more than the hatred about Maven she has in common with Cal, but I find this hard to believe. To me, it sounded like Cal and Mare were as good as together but Aveyard didn't write it because it would have been unrealistic. I bet they start kissing during the first pages of book two.

I hope they start kissing during the first pages of book two - or preferably a bit later.

I called it love triangle because Mare was just interested in two guys as her boyfriends, the others were just friends, at least in my opinion...

Let's talk about her brother who came back to live. That was ridiculous, wasn't it? And how everyone else in the rebellion survived. Not quite realistic... :/

That's was unnecessary! And the explanation was so stupid. I mean...Victoria are you serious? I don't see the need in such a ridiculous plottwist. I mean...she also could have written something like "Shade vanished and nobody knows where he is" and then he, big surprise, shows up at the end. I think his alleged death was some of the most stupid aspects in this book.

And the Selection part! Let's talk about this scene where there's this kinda mini-casting where Cal has to choose the woman he "wanna" marry...

I HATE the similarities to The Selection, even though I liked The Selection. That was not necessary or at least not in such a dimension! We do not need Selection 2.0 - that's writing Keira Cass right now. But I think the main difference between those two books is that in Red Queen exists a real rebellion! 

And what do you think about Cal's fiancée. She is a bitch, isn't she?

Evangeline was such a bitch! But I feel like she's a copy of Celeste. Although she was pretty entertaining xD
The rebellion aspect was quite cool, that's true! I liked Farley and Walsh and all the other guys from the Scarlet Guard. In general the Scarlet Guard was my favorite aspect in this book. I feel like the only logical and relevant things are happening during the time the rebels show up. And I liked Julian. A LOT! He was so cool and I hope he'll be in the next book too.

Farley was my favorite character! She is such a strong and impressive woman, I just had to love her *_*

And Julian is great, too. I liked that, even though he's got so many secrets, he is still the most loyal person.

Would you say Red Queen is fast pace?. I don't think so - at least it the beginning. But later on I couldn't stop reading!

I don't know if it was because I read it during a school week, but it took me forever to get through the first 100 pages. I just was too confused and it was very dull during this time, but as you say, especially towards the ending it got really intense and fast paced. I think the ending is in general the only reason to give this book a positive ranking. For me, I was very disappointed, although he ending was pretty good. But I think I'll give this book a 3 at a five stars. I liked the ending, but the book in general wasn't a great one.

What do you think, Maura?

I gave the book 4 stars. Even though I didn't enjoy reading it at the beginning, I think it got better and better. And at the end it was amazing and it left me quite devastated. I had a little book hangover and was so sad that it was over.