REVIEW: Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard

Publication Date: February 10, 2015

Publisher: Orion
Source: Book Purchased by Reviewer
Guest Reviewer: Doris aka La Chiquita

Buy it at: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of

those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.

But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win

Damn this book for being so good! Damn its sexy cover for luring me to buy it in February! Now I have to wait until 2016 to get book 2! Damn it! I don't know where to start about this flipping book because it's been a whole 48 hours from when I read the final page of the epilogue and I still think about this book. Lets start with the negatives.

1. If you are a fan of the Game of Thrones franchise you will have an ah-ha moment at the way the royal structure is set up. Once the correlation of the two stories are made you can't pull away from it. I wanted it to be not so obvious, I would have had less of a bad taste in my mouth if the resemblance was more distant and hints of loved characters and not shadows. Since I made this correlation it ruined a lot of the plot line because it became too obvious what needed to happen.
2.  If you enjoyed the Hunger Games, you will smell something similar to Katniss and Gale in Red Queen. Mare and her BFF Kilorn grew up together and Mare is trying to figure out how she feels for him when she's thrown to the lions. They have this back and forth draw to each other that I hope Victoria takes in another direction than the expected.
3. You can tell this is her debut novel. Not knocking her writing, I ate this book so quickly I can still taste the pages in the back of my teeth. There were moments where she had a killer line, and then kept drawing out the idea farther than it needed to. I found my self skipping those lines. I didn't want to let it take away from the meat of the story.

Phew, did that hurt you guys as much as it did me? I really liked the story though. This book really made my imagination work overtime. From the super cool powers to the scenarios that the royal families travel through. At first I thought it would be a medieval world, no electronics, no cars, limited passage and manipulation of the resources. But then you find out the world is a little more third world modern than completely medieval. The amount of poverty Victoria weaves in her tale makes you feel the dirt under your nails, the smell of mud under poorly made shoes, the sound of an empty stomach who has forgotten the feeling of being full.

The range of powers in this world is pretty awesome too. My favorite has to be Mare's electricity. If the literary powers that be except prayers in the next book she will have leather whips that are conductive to her electricity. They will wind up her arms and slowly coil out when she needs to attack. If you were a mutated red who could have power which would you want? Would you want a traditional power like the silvers share? or something never before seen, untamed? If I was born silver blooded I would want to be a whisper, and if I was a mutated red I would want to be like a super shield. I would be able to protect others from strangers ability kinda like what Bella can do in twilight.

Then of course the love interest. TRUST NO ONE! That is all. If I write anymore I will give it all away because that's what they do to you, they get you invested just to mess with you and hurt your feelings. Oh hum! When does the second book come out.... *looks at good reads* [enter facebook distraction time] only 2016... the stories continues, le sighe.