Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌓 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:

This is a world divided by blood - red or silver. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power. Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime. But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance - Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.

I'm not exactly sure why I waited so long to read the Red Queen. I know that I wasn't thrilled with the amount of hype that it received and I'm pretty sure that numerous people told me that it wasn't that great. I decided the other day that I would just take the plunge and finally read it to know for myself if it was great or terrible. 

I'm really confused as to why people told me that it wasn't good. From the moment I began reading this book, I was entranced. There is not much that happens in the first few pages but the tension emanating from Mare is incredible! Her personality became clear very quickly. I immediately felt a kinship with her and liked her. She doesn't fall for the intimidation tactics of the silvers and has her own mind although she is humble enough ti see that there are other sides to issues in her world. 

The author does not go into depth when building the world but the slow, steady  progression was the perfect way to set up what things are like for the people. I also appreciated that the author speaks about the difficulties that all of the people in the world are facing not just the poor and downtrodden. It doesn't take the author long to have the book progress into what will become the main story line of the book. I was afraid for Mare and what took place there would mean for her going forward. 

I really enjoyed the characters and the amount of depth that they had. It seemed like all of the characters in Red Queen felt important to Victoria Aveyard because even the minor characters had some sort of conflict that they had dealt with or were currently dealing with. An example of this is that the reader only gets to know snippets about Mare's father but it adds to his character and how it shapes her family. I suspected who the villains were because things just seemed too neat and easy. I didn't believe that things could happen that easily or turn out that well. There are a few characters that I am not sure of their motivations after finishing Red Queen but I'm sure that things were clear up in the sequel. I feel like there was a hint if insta love which annoyed me but since romance was not heavily focused on I didn't dwell on it too much. 

I did feel like I have seen many of the parts of the story before in other books that I am familiar with. I am hoping that the series will diverge from that so that it becomes more unique.