Red Queen Book Review

Hey everyone!

My amazing cousin recently told me she'd begun reading one of the books on my top ten list(see My Top Ten Favorite Books) and I felt as though that was the perfect reason to write a review for Victoria Aveyard's thrilling quartet, The Red Queen Series. 

The series is a perfect blend of The Hunger Games meets Divergent meets The Selection, while being completely original at the same time.

The main character in the quartet, Mare, is of a race of humans discriminated against based solely on the color of their blood, which is red. Now you may be thinking Isn't red blood normal? Well, yes, but this is exactly why it's seen as less in the kingdom of Norta. There is a superior breed of humans who have evolved to have silver blood, and with it, magical properties. 'Silvers' as Aveyard calls them, are born with different gifts depending on which family they come from, such as fire, supernatural speed, or the ability to control metal. 

Everything is cheery for the oppressive Silvers, and hopelessly dreary for the oppressed Reds until one day a genetic anomaly is accidentally uncovered in a very public setting. Mare Barrow, a peasant from a Red family, exhibits the gift of lightning, far surpassing anything ever seen in a Silver family.

In an attempt to cover up this potentially catastrophic discovery(only for the high and mighty Silvers - I hate most of them, though there are a few good ones @CalandJulian), the royal family concocts a story about how Mare is the long lost daughter of a revered army general. Mare's life is toppled upside down as she quickly transitions from a life of stealing to provide for her family, to the life of a pampered noblewoman. 

The King and Queen insist she marries their youngest son to further authenticate their story. While Mare battles the trifles of life as nobility, and the fear of impending marriage, darker schemes are coming together below the surface, that once uncovered, will change the course of Norta, and possibly the rest of the world as it is known.

Oh, aslo, Mare might have a thing for the older, and WAY cuter prince, Cal.

This series is beautifully written by Aveyard and the storyline is so incredibly deep and twisted, you'll find yourself crying while refusing to set down your book at the same time.

We meet so many characters that are deeply flawed but beautiful because of it. We lose many we've grown to love, and the ones left grow so much themselves, they're nearly unrecognizable by the time War Storm, the final book, comes along.

I cannot stress enough how much you need to read this book if you are a lover of dystopian/fantasy.

The ONLY complaint I have about this series is the ending - I promise I won't include any spoilers, but the ending just didn't do it for me. It's like Aveyard couldn't decide how she wanted to end it so she had the characters be like 'Meh, I haven't decided yet' The End. Like WHAT. You can't do that woman!

But, even with the somewhat lacking ending, this series is still AMAZING.

I'd definitely have to give it at least a 9/10.

Let me know how YOU feel about this series in the comments below!

Thanks for sticking with me to the end, if you made it this far.

And a special shoutout to my cousin, she's my BBB(Best Book Buddy)<3