Red Queen — Victoria Aveyard Review

An action packed sequel keeps the Red Queen hype train going at full speed — despite a few bumps — to it’s finale. *Red Queen spoilers*

Red Queen was one of my most memorable reads last year. It wasn’t my favourite read and I’d say it barely made my top 5. Still somehow I kept coming back to the world of Red Queen where reds (poor, no powers) and silvers (rich, special powers) battled it out. I remembered the struggle of Mare longer and more vividly than for most books. To this day I still haven’t quite figured out why I’m so intrigued.

Glass sword picks up where Red Queen left off, in chaos. A lot happens in this book and we are introduced to a host of new characters. More specifically the “newbloods”, people with red blood who possess unique special abilities. This book is about the struggle of Mare and Cal to get back at Queen Elara and Maven.

The plot is decent, there aren’t major surprises but no big issues either. I’m interested in how this is going to end eventually because I do see one problem. The newbloods have powers that are almost too strong. Even if they do end up overthrowing the silvers there’s the threat of a newblood takeover and nothing will change for the ordinary reds who live their day to day live in poverty. I’m not quite sure how Victoria Aveyard is going to solve this issue of ‘overpowered’ newbloods but I’m hoping she’ll be able to pull it off convincingly.

The characters are decent, we get more development from Shade, Mare’s brother, and we see some progress in both Mare and Cal. Kilorn’s contribution still seems to be limited to a source of conflict for Mare. I hope he gets a more prominent role because at this point I’m not sure why he even exists.

I’m giving Glass Sword 4/5 stars because it is a solid sequel to Red Queen and it develops these two books into a strong series that can hopefully end on a high note with the last book.