Review--Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

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.

 

I’ve finally picked up Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series again, starting with Glass Sword. I remember people being somewhat upset with this one for various reasons.  I found it to be a very middle book for the halfway pint. I can only hope book three picks things back up.

Mare and Cal are still reeling over Maven’s betrayal, Maven an his mother forced Cal to kill his father and now Maven is king. They’re prisoners but not for long and are soon joined back with their friend. Now Mare’s singular goal is to find more Red bloods with Silver powers. If they were to build an army, they could defeat Maven once and for all.

But Maven seems to be one step ahead of them, for every Red they save, he kills two more. It soon becomes a race against the clock almost to get to the powerful Reds as soon as they can. Of course not everything goes smoothly for Mare and her friends. Mare herself seems to be turning into a different person, consumed by her desire for vengeance.

Sadly, I found this book to be a little mundane. There wasn’t much action happening with the plot other than trying to save more Reds. We have relationship conflicts growing between Mare and Cal. Then add in Kilorn, Mare’s best friend, who has unrequited feelings for Mare and you have quite the mess. Though, oddly, there wasn’t much romance happening in this story. Mare and Cal have too much history, too many problems between each other to seek a relationship. Though it doesn’t seem to stop them from having the occasional moment with one another.

Since it’s been a few years since this one released I can’t remember what issues most people had. I know a few people mention quitting the series after this installment. To me, this one was just a little plain. The story wasn’t as enticing or exciting. Very little seemed to happen other than trying to rescue people and hitting the occasional wall or encounter with the enemy.

The ending was something though. I mean really when you look at the book three’s title it was a little foretelling and I kind of expected this as the story moved along. I’ll be curious to see what happens net as I do plan to finally finish this series! Though Glass Sword wasn’t as thrilling as its predecessor, it’s not a terrible read, just a little mundane for a fantasy, which is saying something. 

Overall Rating 3/5 stars