Book: Red Queen #2
Editorial: HarperTeen
Year: 2016
Pages: 444 (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780062310668
Mark: 8,5/10
ABSTRACT
If
there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different. Mare Barrow’s
blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to
control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to
control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her
escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers
something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.
Pursued
by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other
Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But
Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of
monster she is trying to defeat.
Will she
shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have
treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?
The
electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle
between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always
known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.
PERSONAL VALORATION
Justification
"Glass
Sword" is the second book series "Red Queen" written by Victoria Aveyard. It is a
series that belongs to the genres of young-adult (YA), fantasy and apocalyptic
futures. A series which deals with inequality, injustice and rebellion in
a dystopian world in which divisions take place according to the color of the
blood (the red ones being the harmed and the silver ones, the beneficiaries).
You can read the review of the first book here. Obviously, throughout this text there
may be spoilers of the first volume.
Plot
In this book, the story of the first of
the books in the series is recounted: Maven's betrayal, Shade's reappearance,
and the union of Mare and Cal to the Scarlet Guard and their desire to find the
New Bloods before the first. Thus, we moved away from the palace and the
nobility that was in "Red Queen (# 1)" to get into the escape,
fighting, recruitment and conflict. Mare must make vital decisions about her
relationship with the two brother princes (love triangle alert), her desire for
revenge, her role in rebellion, her identity as Mareena, Mare or the lightning
girl, her possible monstrous nature and her political ideals.
Characters
Although the characters that appear are
the same that appear in the first novel, we can observe quite important
psychological changes in each one of them.
Mare: she is in constant internal
conflict, which leads her to seclude and isolate herself in order to protect
herself from betrayals (remember, that everyone can betray you) and others from
herself. It is interesting to observe how little by little Mare gets lost and
moves away from the character that was in the first of the books.
Cal: lives rejected by the rebels of the
Scarlet Guard for being the silver prince and for his own palace and family for
supposedly being the murderer of his father. His only sincere relationship
seems to be the one he have with Mare with the aim of getting revenge on Maven.
Maven: although we do not observe him
directly, we perceive his evil and corrupt nature, his desire to find Mare and
destroy the Scarlet Guard. He is the perfect villain because he produces in
equal parts hatred and grief.
Kilron: remains the particular Gale of this story (based on "The Hunger
Games"), feels envious of not having any ability to contribute and the
relationship between Mare and Cal.
Other characters that are totally
worthwhile are Farley (we can see her leadership and important role within the Scarlet
Guard) and Shade (he is the best brother Barrow of all and that's it), as well
as other Newbloods who are recruiting and with whom they are forming a small
family
Atmosphere
Although the first book seemed to me a
fusion of worlds and plots that I had already read in other books, this second
book surpasses the clichés and is much more original. Thus they go much deeper
into Norta's country and into the war and the revolution that is taking place.
Abandoning the more regal world to know the trenches, the fields and the bases
has been a way of knowing more in depth the movement of the Scarlet Guard as
well as the role played by the different characters within it.
Writing
style
In this book I have not noticed any of the
things that bothered me slightly in the previous book: I have not seen so many
repetitions of sentences or so many superficial reflections of Mare (there are,
but they are much more substantial). Thus, the writing of Victoria Aveyard is
fast, fluid and very dynamic. It combines action and reflection and brings a
very balanced rhythm to the book as a whole. What I do have to admit is that
she is the queen of the cliffhangers: that ending is not an ending, it is a
true declaration of intent for the next book ("King's Cage #3"). I
CAN NOT WAIT!
GENERAL COMMENT
"Glass Sword (#2)" is a very
promising sequel to the series YA, “Red Queen”. The royal world of the first
book is abandoned to observe in the foreground the war and the rebellion from
within the Scarlet Guard and the recruitment of Newbloods by the hand of Mare
and Cal. This book surpasses the chiclés that were in “Red Queen (# 1)” and
exploits both the protagonist and the rest of the main characters to create a
very powerful plot. In this way, this series that addresses the inequality of
classes, injustice, monarchy and skills in a dystopian world in which there are
divisions by the color of blood is undoubtedly an indispensable reading.
-R.
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