Book Review – Red Queen

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Konnichiwa, minna-san!
My sincere apologies for disappearing for so long from the GR and blogging community, but college work is time consuming ;__;
I will try my best to keep it up when I return from Easter break to uni, but I have exams, so it seems unlikely. Anyhow, let’s move on and do another fun review, this time in the form of an alphabet commentary.

A is for Aveyard, the author who promised us so much, but gave us another hopelessly troped-up YA novel.

B is for Barrow, a family that is incapable of having members named after anything other than abstract nouns, animals, or the Eight Wonders of the World.

C is for Completely Confused, which is what I was when there were three guys in the running for the romance. Thankfully, the Tenth Commandment of YA saved me – the heroine shalt not covet more than two men at a time; if she does, one of them shalt be a complete villain.

D is for Dramatic, which is what the writing tries desperately to be, but executes badly.

E is for Electricity screwing up what should have a been a medieval fantasy world but is instead a poorly executed setting.

F is for First Friday, the equivalent of the Hunger Games’ Quarter Quells in the book, only with LOTR characters.

G is for Green Eyes, which is how I knew Kilorn would be important later on. That and his name – just look at it, a random collection of consonants, In YA, that means he is of paramount importance.

H is Head-desk, what I did when I realised I had predicted the plot in the first ten pages. I totally saw everything coming, and I’m not joking.

I is for Indecisive Idiot, a mild word to describe a heroine who can’t see the potential pitfalls in spying for a rebellious organisation in the castle when the queen is a literal mind-reader. There are no words.

J is for Julien Jacos, the mysteriously alliterative tutor who is there just not to be listened to when he gives sensible advice.

K is for Kiss, something that lasted for all of two seconds but is used for more than twenty pages to blackmail Mare and actually turns out to be a major plot point.

L is for Lost, a descriptive noun for both the heroine and my interest in this series.

M is for Maven, who is still my favourite character despite everything he does.

N is for Nickname, the thing that Mare complains about the most out of all the problems she could have picked. Seriously, would anyone other than her spend time being infuriated for being called “little lightning girl”?

O is Oddly Convincing, the repercussions of the turmoil caused by revolution and uprisings.

P is Plausible, what Mare and the Red Guards think Maven’s plan for the coup is. Really guys, you were hinging your takeover of the government on one teenage boy’s prediction of another teenage boy’s hormones?

Q is Questionable, how literally everything is. This includes the very premise of the book that electricity runs a bunch of things, but DNA is not a properly understood concept.

R is for Red, which is what you will see when faced by the incredibly stubborn stupidity of the MC, and her absolute refusal to take other perspectives into account. Did you think I’d say something about their blood?

S is for Shade, the brother who you know is most definitely not dead because everyone is so sure he is. Again, YA rules state that people described as handsome and brought up in the story about a million times are important to future plotlines.

T is for Tiberias Calore the Seventh, a prince named after a yet unheard of Transformers robot. His personality is rather similar too.

U is for Underwhelming, an apt word for all the non-main characters and the so-called plot twist.

V is for Violent, which is what the book wants to be, but is actually what the MC is.

W is for Warring States, the default setting for any fantasy book these days. This one is no exception.

X is for Xenophobia, an affliction we seem to have been spared for now. There’s a very thin line between this book and a bad Final Fantasy game.

Y is for YOLO, what I was thinking when I bought the book. Never again.

Z is for…I’m not even going to try.

Bonus Ridiculous Quotes:

“Do what you want, Kilorn.” My voice is cold and mechanical, like the wires and circuits trying to switch back on.

His kiss is not at all like his brother’s. Maven is more desperate, surprising himself as much as me. He knows I’m sinking fast, a stone dropping through the river.

Farley frowns. “A coo?”
“A coup, a coup d’état. It’s a history thing, a before thing,”