Victoria Aveyard: Glass Sword (Red Queen #2)
"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.
The plot itself is not that bad. Glass Sword picks up where Red Queen left off and action immediately kicks in. Then they go to that island, start recruiting other newbloods and in last 20 or so percent there’s some action as well. All in all, not to bad for a sequal. Or rather, it wouldn’t be, if the book weren’t so damn stretched (I honestly can’t think of a better word to describe how painfully long everything in there seems.) But I’ll come back to that in a bit.
Everyone seems to hate on Mare, and while I really disliked her, I can’t say she annoyed that much. Perhaps I was just prepared not to expect anything after hearing so many rants about her.
But basically everything about her can be summed in these few quotes:
“But still, you feel no remorse for the dead. You do whatever you can to forget them. You abandoned your family without a word. You can’t control yourself. Half the time you run away from leadership, and the other half you act like some untouchable martyr, crowned in guilt, the only person who’s really giving herself to the cause.”
“I don’t know if you love anyone at all,” he snaps, “if you see anything out there but tools and weapons. People to manipulate and control, to sacrifice.”
I get that she was supposed to be unlikeable and an antihero, but unfortunately she was not the likeable-kind of an unlikable character (if that makes any sense). I felt no sympathy towards her whatsoever. I especially hated the way she acted towards her friends and family the whole time, making a show about hot being able to trust them but then trusting a complete stranger. Yeah, well done Mare. For most of the book she plays either a victim or some kind of an invaluable leader, but then tries to be “modest” and calls herself a “stupid little girl” (well Mare, at least least you are right at something). Shortly: Mare is a bitch.
Still I’m glad she wasn’t idolized by other characters and that her actions were recognized as bad a fair amount of times in the book.
“Newbloods, silverbloods, redbloods, it’s all the same, all over again. Some who are special, some who are better than the rest, and the ones who still have nothing at all.”(Cameron, gurl, bless you)
Bearing in mind how much self-centered Mare was, I’m surprised other characters weren’t even less characterized. Still, between her being all self-sacrifice-y and pity partying, we managed to get to know some of the characters a little bit better (although I wish we saw more of that). I really liked Shade, Farley and Cameron, and personally, they were my favourite aspect of this book.
Besides them, the only thing I liked in this book was the combination of a modern, dystopian world and super powers, which we don’t get to see that often so I found it a bit refreshing.
And after anything, I still doubted whether to give this book two and a half, or even three stars. And I might would have, if it weren’t for those three things near the end that completely destroyed this book:
1) It was tedious. I mentioned in one of my previous reviews that I tended to avoid too long books since I can get easily bored and distracted. But the worst thing is, this book isn’t even that long. It’s simply that everything seemes to go on and on and on and Mare’s voice is so dull and I just couldn’t bring myself to care. Even the action scenes felt just... bleh
2) That. One. Death. Ugh. Victoria Aveyard literally killed off one of the best characters and Mare was like ‘oh no I needed [that character], but you know, maybe it was for the best’ all the while throwing a pity party as usual. I can’t even...
3) That other death that’s supposedly important but we never saw what actually happened. It was just like ‘oh look [that character] is dead yay.’ How? When? Don’t know, don’t care, but bravo Mare for doing nothing -__-
If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend you not to because all you’ll do is ruin the series for yourself. If you really want to know what’s happening, reading the plot summary online is probably a much better alternative, trust me.
Lara｜★★☆☆☆
“No heart can ever be truly understood. Not even your own.”ughhhhh I am so angry right now. I just. Can't. Reading this book was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Not because it was heartbreaking or painful, but it simply destroyed my will for reading (and trust me there is always a LOT of that). I don't intend to hate on anyone, but now I understand all those negative comments I questioned before. While first book was dynamic, fun and characters were relatable and likeable, Glass Sword ruined everything I liked in Red Queen.
If the story wasn't told from the perspective of the most annoying character I have ever read about, it might have been better, bearable even. Her narrative was just boring and I realised how much I don't like author's writing style. Plot was extremely dull and non dynamic. There wasn't much going on except dialogues and people going from place to place. For the last few chapters there was some action, but I just couldn't enjoy it and I didn't feel the action itself. It was kind of forced and packed up, with nothing to make it feel like characters were actually in any kind of danger except few rushed deaths.
"Who is he to question my orders? He’s no one. A fish boy with only good luck and my foolishness to protect him. Not like Shade, a teleporter, a newblood, a great man. How can he be dead?"
Mare.
Ew.
I don't even know where to begin.
I had a feeling author was trying to create some sort of martyr anti-hero, but as a result we've got arrogant, selfish and pathetic protagonist with no idea what is she doing. Mare successfully embodies everything I dislike in a character. First thing, she is weak an whiny. Trough the whole book does absolutely nothing but pretends to be some big leader of great importance, while she can't make single choice without pitying herself or wanting to die. God, I can't remember how many times I thought 'well, wouldn't you die already '. She keeps saying how she has changed and became monster and on and on, without thinking about others who had it rougher than her.
Other thing I hated infinitely was her arrogance. She mentioned her importance, like, every second sentence. I get it she is a newblood, but so are like 200 other people who fight beside her. Every time there was something to sacrifice, she was all like 'no, I am the face of revolution, I am too important, let someone of them common people do it'. Oh well, but when something bad happens she despairs and drowns in guilt. I just can't stand characters who cannot stand behind their decisions and suffer the consequences. Like a hypocrite she is, she always prefered newbloods over common Reds(even her family).
spoiler:
“But still, you feel no remorse for the dead. You do whatever you can to forget them. You abandoned your family without a word. You can’t control yourself. Half the time you run away from leadership, and the other half you act like some untouchable martyr, crowned in guilt, the only person who’s really giving herself to the cause. Look around you, Mare Barrow. Shade’s not the only one who died in Corros. You are not the only one to make sacrifices. Farley betrayed her father. You forced Cameron to join us against her will, you chose to ignore everything but Julian’s list, and now you want to abandon the kids back at the Notch. For what? To step on the Colonel’s neck? To take a throne? To kill anyone who looks at you the wrong way?”
There were few characters I genuinely liked like Farley, Shade and Cameron, but everything is directed towards Mare to make her seem tortured and lost. Author haven't given much chance for other characters to develop since the whole narrative is about Mare's mixed feelings toward Cal, her missing Maven or her selfishness. Other characters are painfully sided with no chance of development. I wished to read some parts of the story from different pov's. Maven's pov would be amazing thank you, spoiler:
I wish rest of the series weren't so damn long, but I guess I am going to make myself go trough it. If you read Red Queen and loved it, I wholeheartedly recommend to stop and enjoy in what you read.
3 komentari
Word.
ReplyDeleteStvarno nemam što dodati. Već sam pričala o sMare i neću opet inače će mi tlak skočit XD Mogu vam samo čestitati na hrabrosti, strpljenju i snazi volje što idete čitati dalje ;P
Hvala XD Sad kad sam završila taj serijal mi je jedino žao što sam uopće gubila vrijeme i ljetne praznike na te gluposti ;-;
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A šta ćeš, bar si pokušala i dala joj drugu (i treću XD) priliku. I sad sam tek shvatila da sam komentar napisala na hrvatskom...I don't even know what I'm doing anymore XD
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