Synopsis:
In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl’s spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?
Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother’s web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.
As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare’s heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.
When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.
Review:
This series had a series Hunger Games feel to it. Not like the plot was the same but you get this build-up of anticipation from book one and two but by the time you get to book three you are looking at the book with utter disappointment. I expected more. A lot more.
Don’t get me wrong, after the way Glass Sword finished with the focus on Mare and Maven, I dived for this book wanting nothing more to finish reading it asap. I had that need. The need to know how this was all going to play out and how it was finally going to end…. And then I started reading. I was a massive fan of Red Queen and well Glass Sword kept me mildly entertained but I don’t even know where to start with this review. I felt like it was finally cheat day and I was going to reward myself with dessert at dinner, only to get halfway through the cake to find a dead insect in the actual cake. I was enjoying this, why did it have to get ruined!!!
Okay enough ranting, maybe I should actually tell you what I thought about this book.
To start with there are a few chapters from Cameron’s POV. Why? There was no need for her character to have a POV she wasn’t that interesting. Over all I felt that Cameron was just snide and rude to everyone – such a life hater. Every time I turned the page and read her name on the top of the next chapter a ball of annoyance grew in the pit of my stomach, her chapters dragged on and I almost wanted to skip her chapters entirely. But I have a soul and I can never do that to books and I have the dying need to know everything.
Speaking of POV’s, there was one from Evangeline, who almost single-handedly saved the book for me. No really I think she amazing after I finished this book and needs to be in the fourth installment a lot for me to read it. Who am I kidding I will probably read the 4th book anyway, the need to know always takes over. Anyway! Evangeline still maintains that bad bitch, don’t even look at me attitude which is brilliant but you are able to experience her on a whole other level where you learn why she is molded into this Queen-to-be hard-ass that we have known from the start. Unlike the other characters she maintains her beautiful terrorizing personality from Red Queen
Let’s get Mare out of the way, cause she is sitting in the back of my through like bad taste. I carried tremendous hate for her in this book, she didn’t develop, didn’t mature, and had the though process of a 5 year old. I don’t know if it’s just me but I found her character unreliable and at times she was sulky. Let’s face it if all the though process where taken out of this book it would have been sooo much better, less talking more action y’all!! The start of the book where she is Maven’s captive she spend most of her time whinging, being a smart arse. Let’s honestly think about this for a second. Maven’s obsessed with her, like creepy keep her as my pet obsessed, at what point do you not think okay I can use his obsession and get into his good graces and work towards more ‘trust’ and eventually freedom. Nope, she sat in the cage and thought she was funny as shit. This whole capture/obsession thing just didn’t play out well at all. Aveyard could have carried this out a lot better considering the amount of time (and chapters) that Mare was in Maven’s clutches. Or I could just be after that dark edge that you sometimes get in a novel. If you know any dark stories let me know, maybe I need to get this out of my system! Enough of Mare, let’s talk about anything better. Have you ever seen grass grow?
Let’s talk about the build-up that was the start of King’s Cage. So Maven has Mare locked up to fuel his obsession and obviously his ego. Like I said this needed to be a lot darker, Mare need to not speak or at least be smart, let’s be honest if it is going to go on for as many chapters as it did, there has to be something to it. Please just make Maven the villain already and not a try hard. Don’t get me wrong I completely understand where Aveyard is going with the story and that was not leaning towards Maven and Mare relationship wise, but Maven’s mother was more malicious then him. I needed more heated arguments between them, or at least Maven asserting his command over to kiss his boots, wash his feet, walk behind him with a chain around her neck bringing out her inner Princess Leia and Jabba the Hut or something. You know there is a line in the sand where you can cross over to the dark side and well that never happens. I need more emotion depth to these characters, I needed to feel something. After all not all characters are meant to be loved
What I did enjoy is the politics of the world that Aveyard had built, it was really well done. You get to experience and read more about the court system, their world and also learn a lot more about their powers. And let’s not forget the epic battle scenes but I won’t go into details about that cause you may want to read the book after all.
Wow I sound harsh but it’s not the end of the world, I still appreciate Aveyard but I need more then this G rated book of thoughts that I read. Maybe the next book?
Rating: 3/5
Publisher: Harper Teen
ISBN: 9780062310712