Retrying Books That I Didn’t Give A Fair Chance To In My Youth (Because I Was Influenced By The Bandwagons Of Their Time, Or Simply Because I Was A Stupid Teen), Vol. 3: Red Queen

This review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.

Hello and welcome to the third installment of my reread review series called “Retrying Books That I Didn’t Give A Fair Chance To In My Youth (Because I Was Influenced By The Bandwagons Of Their Time, Or Simply Because I Was A Stupid Teen).” Today’s review is on Victoria Aveyard’s debut novel Red Queen, which I had previously read back in 2017 and had given it and it's sequel both 1 star. I decided to give the series a second chance because, well... I was bored?


Let me start by saying that the Red Queen series- because yes, I did end up reading the entire box set- is not one of the worst I've read, not by far. There is much worse fodder out there to hate on than this. Yes, it's a little bit tropey: it has your typical dystopian setting, it has the upper class (Silverbloods) versus the lower class (Redbloods), and then we have our main character Mary Sue Mare Barrow. Mare has red blood. Mare can also create lightning; a power only Silvers can wield. That makes her our stereotypical Chosen One main character.


The writing was probably the weakest flaw for me. Most of the time, Aveyard's writing consists of endlessly long paragraphs with little dialogue to even it out. It was a bit info-dumpy at the best of times, telling more than showing at the worst. And I have to agree with the masses in that the third book, King's Cage, is the best of them all. I gave it the highest rating out of all four mainline books and one spin-off novella collection. Still, I hold that Glass Sword is the worst in the series; reading it felt as if I were reading a draft of X-Men: First Class written by the guys who wrote Madame Web.


Unfortunately, I was not able to push through and finish this series. I reread through the first two books with boredom and mild disdain, hoping that the series would pick up in book three as anticipated. Once I had read book three, I realized that on its own it did not provide enough motivation to continue with the series. As a whole, this series is not very entertaining and the writing is bulky and distracting from the overall plot, in my opinion. To each their own, but these are my individual ratings for each book in the series.


My Ratings:

Red Queen - 3 Stars

Glass Sword - 2 Stars

King's Cage - 3.5 Stars

War Storm - N/A

Broken Throne (Novella Collection) - 2.5 Stars (from Steel Scars & Queen Song)


So that is where I leave you. Again, all opinions are my own, and I completely understand that there are some who genuinely enjoy this series. To that, I say "more power to you."


Other Installments In This Review Series:

• The Raven Boys

• Caraval

• Falling Kingdoms (Coming Soon)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2024 Reading Wrap-Up

Image
Happy end of year everyone! This one has been absolutely crazy for me, dealing with some of the uppiest ups and the downiest downs. I would summarize this year in one word: a rollercoaster. But throughout this year, one thing has been pretty consistent for me, and that would be reading. Through all of the crazy events of my life this year, it was rare when I was without a book (or e-reader) in hand. I actually read so much, that... I read 110 books this year! Go me! I'm very proud of myself for achieving this goal, as I've never read 100 books before, much less 110. My previous record was 79 books in 2021, and my original goal for this year was 80. I credit my ability to read so much more due to two things: one, the Kindle Fire HD 8 I received for Christmas in 2023, and two, my job allowing me ample reading time (while the kiddos sleep, of course). And with so many books comes many feelings, particularly of like and dislike, some of which I felt stronger for than others. Listed...
Read more

The Disappearance of Mekayla Bali

Image
Every person interested in true crime has that one case that sticks with them. The one case that keeps them awake at three in the morning, the one case that boggles the mind. For me, that case is the disappearance of Canadian teen Mekayla Bali. Why? Well, there’s so much coverage of her last movements before her disappearance, and yet no one knows where she is- or if she’s still alive. So, who is Mekayla Bali? Mekayla Margaret Kim Bali (formerly Niebergall) is a Canadian teenager from Yorkton, Saskatchewan. She lived with her mother, Paula, her two siblings, Joshua and Eliyora, and aunt, Rhonda. She had interests such as The Hunger Games and video games like League of Legends. She enjoyed playing the violin and accordion, and nature photography. She wanted to go into a career working with children or animals. She was just a normal teenage girl… However, there may have been something darker going on behind the scenes. Bali had multiple Facebook and Instagram accounts, including an Inst...
Read more

REVIEW: Doctor Who: Series Fifteen

Image
This review contains spoilers. Read at your own risk. A beautiful yet disappointing end to an era. What started out as a collection of some of the best episodes of Doctor Who as a whole turned out to be one giant, meaningless waste. At the beginning of this series, I had so much hope and love for this show. Now all I feel is sadness, confusion, and uncertainty (and a little bit of shame). For me, the series started out great. The Robot Revolution , while somewhat campy, was a good episode to ease the viewer in. Lux was a fun romp that continues with the Pantheon of the Gods storyline, and The Well took one of my favorite episodes and continued it as an indirect sequel without ruining the source material. Lucky Day , in my opinion, was a better Doctor-lite episode than the previous series'  73 Yards  and gave a good insight to what was going on with Ruby Sunday and UNIT back on Earth. The Story and the Engine was a masterful exploration of culture and mythology, and The Inte...
Read more