Red Queen by Victoria AveyardRed Queen is a slow-starting, yet thrilling novel about how one girl can change the future by challenging the unfair government.
In the novel, your fate is determined by the color of your blood. If you have silver blood, your life will be filled with unbelievable power and royalty. However, if you have red blood, your life will be filled with disappointment and injustice. Mare Barrow, the story’s main character, begins her life as an ordinary red girl, but is discovered by the silver government to have powers greater than any silver. Mare’s superior capabilities present her with a unique set of challenges, because she doesn’t fit in with reds or a silvers.
One of my favorite parts of the novel is the denoument, since it is so unexpected. The characters you loved from the beginning start to turn against the characters they have been allied with the whole time. The ending is a cliffhanger, but it is a perfect setup for the sequel, Glass Sword.
Although I loved Red Queen for the most part, in my opinion, there were a few downsides. The author chose to leave out some crucial information about the main characters and also chose to leave a lot of unanswered questions at the ending. While some people might appreciate the mysteriousness, I personally wish the questions were answered at the end of the novel. Another challenge was that usually it takes me less than a week to read a book, but Red Queen took about three weeks for me to read, since it started very slow with little action. However, around the sixth chapter the pace starts to increase, and many plot twists happen until the the completion in chapter twenty-eight.
I thought the author chose great diction, and I would definitely recommend this novel for seventh to tenth graders, but anyone who loves action-packed, dystopian novels will undeniably love Red Queen.
- Avery Wyrick, 8th Grade
March 8, 2017