First Published: February 2010
Publisher: Orion
Series: Red Queen #1
383 pages (hardcover)
I'm kind of conflicted about how I feel about this book. On the one hand, I really wanted to like it; on the other hand, it didn't blow me away and was pretty unoriginal and predictable. Yet, when I finished, I wanted to read more. What?
Here's the lowdown: Mare Barrow is a Red -- an ordinary human who bleeds red blood. She lives in her little village called the Stilts, serving the noble Silvers, who are extraordinary humans with unique abilities (controlling fire, water, metal, reading minds, incredible strength, etc.) and they bleed silver blood. Mare despises the power imbalance between the Reds and Silvers. Especially with the never-ending war going on between their kingdom of Norta and other kingdoms, Reds are getting slaughtered by the thousands on the fields while Silvers command, safely far away from the battlefield.
Mare finds out she is going to be conscripted to the army soon. Desperate to get out of this predicament, she tries to get some smugglers to, you know, smuggle her out of the country. However, the price is very, very expensive. Mare doesn't have that much money. Her life is suddenly turned around though, when a chance meeting with a stranger winds up with her having a cushy (relatively speaking) job at the palace serving the royal family.
During the Queenstrial, in which the heir to the throne, Prince Cal, is to select his future wife, an accident happens in which Mare finds herself thrust into the spotlight in front of the most royal and noble Silver families in the kingdom, and she unleashes lightning and electric abilities she never knew she had. This is absolutely shocking to everyone because she's a Red and Reds aren't supposed to have any special abilities.
The royal family freaks out and makes up a cover story for Mare, saying she's a long lost Silver noble who has lived her entire life thinking she is a Red. For some reason, they decide she should be betrothed to the younger Prince, Maven (something about keeping a close eye on her)? Mare now is trying to live amongst the Silvers as one of their own. During all this, a rebellion called the Scarlet Guard is becoming a threat to the kingdom and of course, Mare finds herself caught up in that mess as well.
This book is like a mixture of a bunch of other books, and thus, I did not find anything original in it. We have some Hunger Games vibes, what with Mare shaping up to be the face of the rebellion a la Mockingjay style; some Pokemon or X-Men style abilities; Game of Thrones kind of world; and though I've never read Red Rising, I heard it's almost exactly the same story; and The Selection with their way of choosing a Queen. This story has NOTHING original about it. It's all bits and pieces of other stories sewn together. That's probably why it felt like there's some gaping plot-holes in the story.
The characters are very one-dimensional and suffer from a few overused YA tropes. Mare is a Special Snowflake, the "chosen one" to end a rebellion in an oppresive society -- definitely seen that before. There's also nothing likable about her -- she's stubborn, rude and not a nice person -- yet boys are falling for her left, right and center. Of course. We have the male leads who are all coincidentally gorgeous and perfect. And all the villains are absolutely villain-y. Like, are they even real people? They're always smirking and cackling with laughter that their evil schemes are going as planned. You know, evil people generally don't know they're evil ... Everyone in this book was just so cartoonish.
And yet.
Despite all my complaints and whinings, I kind of look forward to the next book. Seriously, I don't know why. Well, maybe I know why. I love all the elements of other books I mentioned above like Game of Thrones and whatnot. I like the pieces. I'm just not sure I like the way they were put together in Red Queen. But I want to keep reading, which is kind of weird. I'm pretty sure I'll know how the rest of this series will pan out though, because Red Queen is severely lacking in originality. Bet next book, which will slow down a lot in terms of pace, they're going to delve deeper in the Scarlet Guard organization and hunker down in the SG headquarters plotting stuff, and it'll be in the third book when they actually do anything.
Anyway, I'm not eagerly awaiting for the sequel, but I am awaiting it, haha.
My Rating: 2.5/5
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