Book Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Series: Red Queen #1

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopian, Fantasy

Main themes: Betrayal, Society, Power

Rating: 5 stars

A society ruled by Silvers because of their superhuman abilities, deemed superior to the ‘ordinary’ and degraded Reds who live in poverty and are treated cruelly- just a brief outline of this dystopian world had managed to grab my attention and spurred me into giving Red Queen a try. I’m glad I did, because it became one of my favourite reads of 2015. 

Red Queen is told from the point of view of 16 year old Mare Barrow, a girl who is far from perfect and the unlikely protagonist but for me, this made her narrative all the more interesting. She was born a Red and so is no stranger to hardship; every day is spent trying to survive until the next. What Mare, along with everyone else, doesn’t realise though is that she is a diamond in the rough. This becomes apparent as we see her journey through the pick pocket with a bleak future, to the girl with the powerful and dangerous gift that threatens to disrupt the unequal balance of power within Norta.

The story was quite fast paced and so within a few chapters I found that I was already experiencing a whirlwind of emotions; which was great. I also liked Aveyard’s writing style as it flowed and was well constructed, making the story come across as both unpredictable and enthralling.

Overall I really enjoyed Red Queen, it was a fantastic read. One of my favourite things was the parallelisms that could be drawn between their society and ours. The fundamentals of their whole system was so easily comparable to that of our own, making the story relatable and thought provoking. It’s a book that has left a long lasting impact as even now, questions and thoughts concerning the characters will pop into my head every now and again. In fact, I’m still recovering from the major betrayal which was the plot twist of all plot twists. It’s definitely worth the read, I think this novel has a winning formula.