26 Apr 2018

Red Queen Read-Along Update #2


Synopsis:

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.


This read-along is coming to an end on Monday but I promised you a second update before I post my review so here we go.

I'm currently in chapter 24, on page 306 out of 388 

BUT I'll only summarize my thoughts about chapters 12-21 now to leave something to reflect on in my review too.

There have been quite a few twists along the way regarding the characters. Mare, of course, as one would expect, joined the Red Guard; no surprises there. On the boy front however, I don't even know what to think. Both the princes stand on the opposite side to where I would have imagined them to stand. And Kilorn – he is an enigma to me. In the beginning of the book he was straight out scared of fighting in the war and now he is in the midst of things completely willingly. Go figure. 

Actually I don't mind getting something else than what I expected, it keeps the whole situation interesting and it keeps me guessing. I have this feeling Maven is not who he makes himself out to be. There is a reason why the line "Anyone can betray anyone" appears in the book so many times and I'm about 70% sure Maven is leading Mare by the nose. Then again, maybe I'm mistaken, we have yet to see if I'm right or not. 

The politics is intriguing, especially because all of the characters are caught up in its net. You can't help but look at the happenings from two angles – the thing is, on some level I understand Cal's reasoning too. There are no clearly good choices, nothing is white or black and probably whatever happens, there will be bloodshed.

We still don't know much about Mare's power, my main question – why does she have it?? – hasn't been answered yet. I'm not sure we'll get an explanation in this book, maybe in the next one...? 

I'm still captured by the Red Queen and can't wait to see how the first book ends. A non-cliffhanger ending is too much to hope for right??


A character I like: Julian!! Let him be okay, please.

A character I hate: (and NOT love to hate!) Evangeline. She is clearly jealous of Mare and she has anger management issues. 

A character I want to see more of: I will go with more characters here, Mare's brothers. We only know them from Mare's thoughts and from a brief meeting when Mare visited her home once. I'd like to know more about them.

I hope you enjoyed this update post, you can expect my full review of the Red Queen next week!

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