Red Queen Book Review

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard was an excellent read and today I would like to write my official review. In this Red Queen book review I’ll be sharing a brief synopsis of the book, why I read it, what the experience was like and sharing a few thoughts.

This review is spoiler free, however, because it is a part of a series I should warn you that reviews of the remaining books in the series may contain spoilers of previous books. I will always try my hardest not to spoil anything in a book I am currently reviewing though.

Trigger Warnings

Since we don’t always get trigger warnings on books I like to give trigger warnings in my reviews. This can help people avoid certain triggers that could hurt their mental well being.

Possible Triggers in this book are:

Slavery
Murder
Poisoning
Torture
Violence

For a list of the triggers I look for you can check out this link here.

My brief synopsis is I really enjoyed this book. The Character development, the world building, and the overall plot was fantastic. I love a good “Damn the Man” theme in a book and this book absolutely covered that for me.

The characters and their personalities were my absolute favorite part of the book. Seeing their growth, the deception, and how the personalities mixed was perfection. Victoria Aveyard does a fantastic job of making the characters feel real.

I was disappointed that I didn’t feel the range of emotions like I do with other books. However, that didn’t stop me from reading the remainder of the series and I’m glad I did.

For a more in depth review, read on.

Synopsis and Author

Red Queen is a story about Mare Barrow and the classist society she lives in. When it’s revealed that Mare is special like those in power she must learn to navigate through life in the palace with all it’s deception.

Victoria Aveyard is a young adult fantasy writer based in Los Angeles. In Spring of 2021 she released the first book in her next series, Realm Breaker. Right now Paramount is developing a series based on Red Queen for streaming.

How I Found Red Queen

Quite honestly, it was the cover that first drew me to this book. I loved the simplicity of it when I saw it on my Libby App. Then when I read the book description I knew this would likely be something I would enjoy.

My Reading Experience

Before reading Red Queen I had been reading mostly Sci-Fi, Post apocalyptic, and dystopian genres. So switching to a more fantasy based read was a bit of a transition that took a bit of getting used to. It was a good thing that the story picked up pretty quickly.

The world building in this book was fantastic and done along with the story so as the story moved along you were able to understand what each of the locations looked like. I actually prefer world building to go along with the story.

I really enjoyed the characters in this series as a whole. There were some characters that had me narrowing my eyes at them because I didn’t know if I could trust them. In some cases I was right and in others I was very wrong.

Victoria Aveyard did a fantastic job with the character growth and throwing in some twists and turns. The story wasn’t predictable at all to me in this book.

What I Didn’t Like About Red Queen

For the first book of the series there wasn’t much that I didn’t like. I was frustrated with the ending of the book, but that’s on the fact that cliffhangers always leave me frustrated. Especially when I’m using Libby or a library to read books. I have to wait for the next one.

However, the cliffhanger was a necessary part of the book and the series as a whole. This is not a fault of the author and instead a fault of my own impatience to finding out the rest of the story.

It was a good thing that I read this series long after it had been finished so that I could continue to move through the series. Instead of what I’m doing now with a couple of series and having to wait months and up to a year to get the next part of the series.

I also didn’t get super emotional with this book. I like books that make me feel every range of emotion. While this was a great story and I liked the characters I personally didn’t feel the range of emotions.

What I Loved About Red Queen

What I loved most about Red Queen was the introduction of characters. While there are a lot of them, the introduction of new characters in the story was steady throughout the story and easy to follow and keep straight.

Some characters made me fall in love with them only to be completely heart broken by their actions. Others had to grow on me because I didn’t fully trust them. The mix of personalities and how they interacted with each other was fantastic and realistic.

I also enjoyed the setting of the book. A classist society where one group is fighting to survive and the other is living high on the hog. It’s great to see how a society like that tries to make things fair and the rebellion that can grow from it.

My Favorite Parts Of Red Queen

My favorite part of this book was the last few chapters. The twist that came out of it was fantastic and completely unpredictable. I was not expecting it and I like being surprised by a plot twist.

The detail in description of characters, fashion, and the setting was perfect. Just enough to give you a start while leaving enough out that you could let your imagination fill in the gaps. When world building is done in this way it makes setting the scene in your mind a lot of fun.

My Ratings For Red Queen

Now for my ratings. I do not often give 5 stars. A book has to blow me away, change my life, or make me ugly cry for me to give an overall 5 star writing. I also like to rank a couple of different things in order to give a better understanding of where I stand with this book.

For world building I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars. Hands down the world building in Red Queen was fantastic. It made it possible to understand what the world looked like while leaving just enough room to use your imagination and move the story along.

In character development I give Red Queen a 4 out of 5 stars. Each character was truly unique and brought something vital to the story. It was like watching a great TV show or movie and you got to really get a feeling of who the characters were and what motivated them.

In spice this book is a 1 out of 5. Not a lot of spice in the book while there are absolutely a few moments of tension romance and spice were not the driving factors of this story. I did like the fact that the main character’s goals were never romantic in nature.

Overall I give this book and 4.5 stars out of 5 and that’s because I didn’t get enough emotionally from this book. It was a great story, it offered twists and turns, was unpredictable, and held my interest. I just wish I had more of an emotional attachment to the characters.

Final Thoughts On Red Queen

Red Queen was a fantastic read that I couldn’t put down and had me reaching for book two in the series as soon as I was finished. The setting, the drama, and the character development was great.

Like I had previously mentioned though, I like a story that has me so attached to the characters that I feel a range of emotions. Especially by the end of the book. I did not get that with Red Queen.

However, this doesn’t cloud my recommendation to read the series. Like most series, the further you read into it the better. I loved how the ending left me in suspense and wanting more.

Find out everything I read in 2021 with spoiler free reviews here.

Have you read Red Queen? What are your thoughts on it? Let me know in the comments below. Follow us on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your favorite Book boards.

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Red Queen Book Review – What I Thought

Trigger Warnings