Red Queen (1) by Victoria Aveyard
The Red Queen 1/3 by Victoria Aveyard (Die Farben des Blutes - Die rote Königin, Red Queen). I read it in German where it contained 506 pages. Originally published 2015.
Mare’s world is clear-cut. People with silver blood are rich. Can do all kinds of magic and kill you if you do something wrong. They rule – and the Reds, the poor population with red blood, ungifted, do all the dirty work for them. Mare’s brothers are soldiers, her sister is the one who carries the family. Mare herself the thief no one likes to talk about. But when the Red Dawn organisation starts to rebel, a prince starts being nice to her and Mare discovers she has Silver powers, everything changes. The royal house paints her, gives her a new name and a fiancé. To use her to appease the country… A lie to raise her up. But as Mareena gets more and more entrapped in the rebellion and the Queen’s net, another lie will put her down.
And another example why you should not support someone because to piss the other side off. Seriously. Never do something just because the opposite’s worse. One day, you’ll wake up and see you’re helping murderers, have sold your soul and betrayed all your values.
And never ever trust a politician. Never ever trust a second brother who has everything to gain and nothing to loose.
Well. I’m glad I’m not in Mare’s shoes because… to be honest, I’d probably have made her mistakes myself. It’s not like she got lessons in politics or something. I like history and learned some basic stuff – which means that I know the best way to stop something is from above, not from below. But Mare never had that kind of education. She’s an idealist, a protectress and an idealist.
Mare is the kind of person who underestimates herself and but tries to work with everything she has for her goals. She tries to see the good in people, burns bright with her belief and trusts too easily. She loves her family more than anything else and once she’s committed to a cause, she won’t stop at anything. Which isn’t that great. But at least her causes are altruistic.
Mare’s biggest weakness is that she… kind of never learned to think with her head. That she never learned that people aren’t black and white, that the people who don’t share her ideals aren’t necessarily bad… and that the people who do can be cruel. She never learned that others aren’t as idealistic as she is, that she can’t expect her friends to bleed and die for her belief. That there are people who think strategically, who fight for themselves and are cold-headed enough to play her like a fiddle. She found out she could get away with a lot of stuff – because she’s been in the shadows for her entire life. She isn’t used to be in the centre of attention. And she isn’t used to know of her powers. And I’m not only talking about the lightning stuff.
Of course she’d fall for that trap.
Spoiler:
But why don’t you stop and question someone who’s just willingly sold out four people? Why don’t you stop and really think what their deaths would bring – not only on a personal, but also on a political level, for all parties? The general was the only person who publicly challenged the queen. And the last person I’d actually say was a hard aim was a minister for taxes.
Whom I really sorry for is Cal. Seriously, poor guy. He’s really a good guy, someone who wants to do as much as good as possible. And he’s played and can’t do anything but loose. He tries to help her – Mare’s angry at him. He has to do stuff he hates himself for, and then Mare comes and hurts him nevertheless. He loves her. And she breaks his heart, uses him and is the reason he ends up with a country that hates him. She and his brother are the reason he lost everything he ever had. And killed his father.
Seriously, that sucks. As much as I like and respect Mare, I hate her for that. And for Lucas. I loved that guy, he was so damn funny! Another good guy she used, who paid for that.
I know that some people are angry at Cal for his decision concerning the rebellion. But seriously, he could have been convinced to find another way – revolution from above or something like that. Baby steps, until the Reds are treated better. And then, after a while, full equality. Because he’s right when he says that a radical change would only lead to bloodshed. Why couldn’t Mare see he didn’t want to do wrong? But rather wanted to do good? Why couldn’t she see how good and altruistic he is? He gave her money, just like that. And work. So that she wouldn’t have to go to war. And he wanted to go to war, with Silvers, to help the Reds. Why the hell couldn’t she open her eyes and see?
Back to the rest of the characters: I like Mare’s family. They seem pretty realistic, and easy to love. Especially Gisa. Poor girl.
I’m curious how this will play out…
Apart from that, there’s a mistake in the book. The Silver’s are far too used to being given everything they want. They wouldn’t have let Maven get them out of that arena without putting up a fight. And, therefore see what happened. Cal’s decision, the fight et cetera. They aren’t used being herded away from something interesting, not like the Reds.
The idea of Silver and Red is kind of well done, by the way.
In brief:
Interesting ideas, realistic characters, tense style, and nicely done content. And a style for the radical and naïve, idealistic and just wrong politics.