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Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen (Red Queen, 1) Hardcover – February 10, 2015

by Victoria Aveyard (Author)

7,003 ratings

Book 1 of 4: Red Queen

Editors' pick Best Young Adult

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The #1 New York Times Bestseller

Graceling meets The Selection in debut novelist Victoria Aveyard's sweeping tale of seventeen-year-old Mare, a common girl whose once-latent magical power draws her into the dangerous intrigue of the king's palace. Will her power save her or condemn her?

Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood--those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.

To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard--a growing Red rebellion--even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.

Print length

388 pages
Language

English
Publisher

HarperTeen
Publication date

February 10, 2015
Grade level

8 - 9
Reading age

13 - 17 years
Dimensions

1.4 x 6.1 x 9.1 inches
Lexile measure

HL740L
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up—Seventeen-year-old Mare Barrow lives in a world where one's lot in life is determined by the color of one's blood. She was born a Red and has to make a living by pickpocketing and trying to dodge "the conscription" and being sent off to fight an ongoing war. Mare's resigned herself to the fact that she'll always serve the Silver, a genetically gifted group of people with supernatural abilities. A chance encounter with the prince causes Mare to suddenly find herself at the royal palace as a servant, where she discovers in front of everyone that she also has a unique gift. She is Red and Silver, and could be just the spark the Reds need to rise up against the oppressive Silvers. The king and queen quickly cover up Mare's anomaly by presenting her to the rest of the Silvers as a long-lost princess and betroth her to their second-born son. Now Mare is torn between playing the part of a Silver, and helping out the Scarlet Guard rebellion. The story has touches of the usual dystopian suspects. However, it's formulaic elements are far outweighed by the breakneck pace and engaging characters. There's a bit of teen romance, but luckily the characters are self-aware enough to realize its frivolity among the story's more important plot points. A solid debut from Aveyard and a welcome addition to the plethora of speculative teen lit.—Kimberly Castle-Alberts, Hudson Library & Historical Society, OH

Review

“Fascinating world building... Readers will be intrigued by a world that reflects today’s troubling issues concerning ethnic inequality, unfair distribution of wealth, pollution, warfare, political corruption, and the frightening power of the media.” -- Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

“ [Aveyard] sets her audience up for a gaspworthy twist that reconfigures nearly every character’s role and leaves Mare with no one to trust but herself... This blend of fantasy and dystopia will be an unexpected and worthy addition to many genre fans’ reading list.” -- Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“Aveyard weaves a compelling new world of action-packed surprises... inventive, character-driven.” -- Kirkus Reviews

“A volatile world with a dynamic heroine.” -- Booklist

“A sizzling, imaginative thriller, where romance and revolution collide, where power and justice duel. It’s exhilarating. Compelling. Action-packed. Unputdownable.” -- USA Today

“Breakneck pace and engaging characters.” -- School Library Journal

ASIN : 0062310631
Publisher : HarperTeen; 1st edition (February 10, 2015)
Language : English
Hardcover : 388 pages
Reading age : 13 - 17 years
Lexile measure : HL740L
Grade level : 8 - 9
Item Weight : 1.2 pounds
Dimensions : 1.4 x 6.1 x 9.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #8,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews:
7,003 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		71%
4 star		18%
3 star		7%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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CCJHB

Red Queen is the peak. Downhill from there. Save your money.

Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

The Red Queen which is the first book in this series is fantastic. I would describe it as a Hunger Games meets Harry Potter story. I was hooked immediately and tore through the first book but unfortunately that’s where this series peaked. Book two was meh and books three and four were terrible. First, they should have been combined and this should have been a trilogy. Second, they just seemed to drone on and on with so many unnessary scenes and story lines. Finally and most frustratingly is that after reading these books it’s appearant Miss Aveyard has never been in love and has quite possibly only experienced terrible relationships. She excelled in describing the disfunctional relationships between the characters but all the emotional moments just fell flat. All the romantic relationships within the book were luke warm at best and unfortunately you are forced to read all four books to figure that out. I had such high hopes for this series after reading Red Queen and was thoroughly disappointed. If you don’t mind ending in a cliff hanger I’d say Red Queen is an enjoyable beach read, but save your money on the next theee books. You won’t get the satisfied ending you expect after spending $45 and countless hours reading.

151 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

Holy Plagiarism, Katniss!

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book is awful. AWFUL. It rips off at least two other books (Red Rising and the Hunger Games) and an ungodly number of tropes. If you liked The Hunger Games, you will probably like this book... or maybe hate it because while I didn’t think The Hunger Games should sit next to The Immortal Bard on my bookshelf, it was decent. (I speak only of the book, not the series.). The Red Queen is a butchery of it.
I don’t like not finishing a book. It feels...wrong, but I could have stopped about 1/3 of the way through. I thought I had it all figured out, but sometimes an author will surprise you at the end with “I deliberately misled you! Don’t you feel gullible?” That was not the case here, and the junior high-esque sentence structure probably should have tipped me off to the lack of highly cerebral twists at the end. Yep, I feel gullible.
Tl;dr: I read this entire book. I want my money and my five hours back. There is no sex in this book, but don’t worry. You’ll still feel screwed afterwards.

74 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Would get flagged for plagiarism by anyone with a brain

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2018

Verified Purchase

This book - if it were based on a creative paper in school - would have gotten the author's butt kicked to the curb for copying so fast her head would have spun.

All of the elements of the story that work are lifted with shocking lack of disguise from the Hunger Games. I liked the Hunger Games but I'm far from a superfan, and hadn't read it for YEARS, but immediately certain things in the book just made me roll my eyes. Trade in 'Seam' for 'Stilts', and take all of the character development components that work for the Hunger Games, and that is about the only redeeming feature of this work.

Plot holes you can drive a truck through? Yes. Condescending stuff about how the heroine (using that term loosely) bleeds inside, being just self absorbed and emo enough to make it 'young adult' fiction? Someone doesn't think much of their readers. Not to mention how clearly this person is angling to sell movie rights by incorporating what I can only describe as sound-bites of comedic relief into the action scenes, which a) don't really work, and b) just make the book worse.

90 people found this helpful

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Rambling Reader

Entertaining, though not entirely original.

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2015

Verified Purchase

Over the years I have read a lot of adult and young adult fantasy/urban fantasy. Given my experience with the genre, patterns start to stand out.

In the Red Queen, some of those typical F/UF patterns are definitely presented, which DID make me say "hmm" when my mind was led to other series that I had read.

THE PLOT: Overall, there are some details that make this world unique. The division between the people, into the Silvers and Reds brings something new to the table and gives a little bit of the author's own flair. However, it follows the traditional setup of today's young adult dystopia when she creates the conflict between the HAVES (Silvers) and the HAVE NOTS (Reds). The Silvers are born with powers (literal, social, and political) as well as privilege. Their unique magical abilities make them "deserving" of ruling the world and too special to die in the midst of the long-running war in their world. The Reds are ordinary, and they take up the burdens of the world such as the heavy working with a conscription deadline of 18- if they do not have a job at that age, it is off to war they go.

THE CHARACTERS: Mare Barrow, the main character, is OK. There is a lot that happens in this first novel, a lot of hard truths and experiences that set her up for some overdue character development in 2016's sequel, The Glass Sword. Some of her issues put her on the pedestal next to Suzanne Collins' Katniss and Veronica Roth's Tris; she becomes caught up in a revolution and hasn't found her footing between being a pawn, a revolutionary symbol, or standing on her own two feet and being a real person-- not a tool. There are some characters that readers will love, and others that they will love to hate. Aveyard does a decent job with her other characters, making it easy to form an attachment (and a clear preference) between the two princely brothers, Tiberian (I won't tell you his other name and spoil things) and Maven.

THE TWISTS: I won't ruin things and go into specifics, but there were a few major twists within the novel. The most important one is both surprising and unsurprising. When this twist was revealed, I could understand why Aveyard made this move, and it made sense for the purpose of her plot. At the same time, I did not LIKE this twist and had hoped it wasn't coming. It sets up the rest of the major conflict for the second book, but readers may find themselves frustrated when they have to adjust their view of a previously lovable character.

THE ROMANCE: There's enough of a romantic spark to provide some conflict for Mare and move her relationships forward into complication. She is the basis of three different romantic interests. One with an old childhood friend while the others entangle her with the two princes. Aveyard toys with the reader, making it seem clear (at least to me) who Mare should be with, and then almost gleefully ripping that away. In some ways, I think that this is good for the reader. Too often we get set into our own ways and beliefs of how a book should turn out, and it can be refreshing (though disappointing) when we have to adjust and be open-minded to pairings and characters that we didn't root for in the first place. Plus, it also lets you root for a relationship despite the odds, if you don't want to give up.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: Overall, I enjoyed the book. There were enough familiar patterns that I could make some predictions about where the main story arc would take Mare, but not enough to ruin my experience of reading the Red Queen. For those of you with the spare money, time, and an avid love of F/UF, check out RQ. It's worth a read, and with the sequel coming out in the next month and a half, interested readers won't have long to wait for the new installment. I hope Aveyard continues to distinguish her storyline within the second book, and help pull Mare out of Katniss and Tris' shadows.

56 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

debbie sargeant

Not really worth it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 29, 2017

Verified Purchase

When given this book, and its sequel as a gift I was highly optimistic however as someone with a particular love for fantasy, it is with a heavy heart that I say this book, and its follow ups are truly not worth the read. Whilst the overall concept of this book is exciting and intriguing, the plot and characters both truly let it down.

The plot itself, is predictable, slow moving and quite frankly boring, taking a good quarter of the book for anything to actually happen, and the middle of the book being entirely pointless. The characters on the other hand are even worse. The heroin, Mare, has such a hero complex it is actually painful to read. Not only does she elevate herself above the silvers based on her red blood (hypocritical as blood is the reason silvers elevate themselves in the society, and what causes Mare to hate them in the first place) but she also appears to think that the entire world revolves around her. I honestly have not detested a character this much for a very long time - it got to the point that within the second book I was agreeing with the opinions of the characters who are clearly meant to be enemies: Mare is nothing but a brat. The other main characters within this book, of Cal and Maven, are rather likeable in comparison; odd considering Maven reminded me slightly of a young Prince Joffrey from Game of Thrones. I truly wish there was more character development by both of these, other than the wholly predictable revelation of which brother is good and which is bad. Similarly the plot twist, of which the prior revel concerns, is utterly useless. It was obvious that a certain characters death was meant to be heartbreaking, but quite honestly I was more upset that the author didn't take the time to kill of Mare.

Overall, a good concept, but really not worth the read if you actually want to like any of the characters that you are reading about.

31 people found this helpful

Miss K. Southern

are forced to do the dirty work (be it mining or fighting in the war) ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2018

Verified Purchase

I recently received a copy of 'Glass Sword', the second book recently released in this series, and having held onto the first for quite a while I thought it was time to actually get through it. A lot of people compare it to 'Red Rising' in terms of concept and I can see where these similarities come from. Though more fantastical than sci-fi (there are elements of both) the very root of the story is the same. Reds, the commoners, are forced to do the dirty work (be it mining or fighting in the war) and Silvers/Golds are above them in every way. Both are stories of a society divided by class and branded by their colour but the similarities end there. I have to say this book is a bit of a slow-starter. It takes quite a while before any of the real action happens and then when it does, there's another long build-up until the next big event. The second half of the book is much better in terms of adrenaline-pumping action and full of plot twists but you need to make it through the first half first: Aveyard's introduction to the world she is building. She does a good job with bringing everything together and combining what sounds like an almost medieval hierarchy with a very futuristic dose of electricity and technology. Parts of the book felt like the magic was a kind of sorcery while others felt more like a genetic advancement. My favourite thing that Aveyard got absolutely right was characterisation. It was difficult to know who to trust and who to like, and there is no black and white in Aveyard's world. The big plot twist at the end was pretty unexpected and it's easy to see why there's such a big divide between which characters readers likes. I had to take some time to write this review because I feel SO betrayed, yet I'm hoping to read more about THAT brother (no spoilers) in the next book. This is all a big misunderstanding, right? This was a promising start to the series, though I'm hoping to dive into the action straight away with the next book!

7 people found this helpful

James Hockley

A unique concept

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

The Red Queen is the first book in the ‘Red Queen’ series by Victoria Aveyard. And what a great first instalment it is, too. At its core, this is a story of discrimination, and the fight of the repressed against their superior magical masters. Our protagonist is thrust into the upper-echelons of society when her unexpected powers materialise, and from there it is a fight to stay alive and to stay true to her roots. This tale of revolution in a techno-medieval fantasy world is surely a compelling one.

The Red Queen positions itself in quite a different groove. It is a story about Mare, who is a Red, and her struggles when she is elevated to the position of faux-Silver. In binary terms, a Red is someone without magical powers, a class of downtrodden by the magical Silvers. But Mare is actually magical herself – a quirk of genetics – and hence she is smothered as a faux-Silver to hide this anomaly. But Mare stays true to her red blood: cue rebellion, revolution, and all sorts of fun.

One of my favourite things about this book is the environment in which it is set. Most of the time it feels like we’re walking through a classic fantasy environment – perhaps a touch more renaissance than usual, but still. At times though, we are sent spinning by the existence of TV screens, security cameras, and other modern devices. It’s a really cleverly woven environment, and when we approach the capital city, the imagining really steps another level. Some of the ideas are brilliant, and I enjoyed my time in this fantasy world greatly.

This is also a really well written book, with very few mistakes, a nice flow, and a certain ‘page-turner’ quality. It is written in fist-person (which is not my favourite), but it is done pretty well and I enjoyed the story nonetheless. Mare is an easy-to-get-on-with lead character, and she is supported by a great cast of other characters too. All in all, a really comfortable read.

But comfortable does not imply leisurely. Oh no. This is a well-paced novel with twists and turns coming in all the right places. The ending in particular is very nice, with a great warping of events, and some really emotive scenes. This is nicely setup for the rest of the series.

So, was there anything about this that I didn’t get on with? Well, the use of first-person was quite annoying (personally speaking). I think there are a few things about first person that are frustrating, the worst being that it is sometimes hard to catch where an inner-monologue ends and where speech starts. The other thing that first-person does is to lend itself to more substantial inner-dialogue, and this can get a bit cumbersome at times. Overall this book certainly works, but I would personally have preferred a different perspective.

In terms of story, there are probably only a couple of things that I didn’t get on with. There is one particular scene that sticks out, where Mare elopes with another key character in something of an ‘easy rider’ style. It was all a bit indulgent, and the slightly ‘50’s taste of the scene was just really out of place compared to the rest of the book. If they’d gone on horseback, maybe this would have settled nicer.

And finally, some of the revolutionary planning that is cooked up is wildly juvenile. The romantic in me would like to believe that the plan ever had a chance, but it’s one battle where the head doesn’t need to work very hard to quash the heart’s over-optimistic nature. To pin a plan of that size on an act which is so volatile is surely crazy, and that fact is catching. It didn’t ruin the story, but hey. Hopefully Mare learns from that fanciful mistake.

But overall this is a great book – well worth a read. It has all the right ingredients and is well executed, with flashes of beauty. This looks to be an extensive series, and you can be sure that I’ll be reading on!

7 people found this helpful

Amar

Spoiler Free Review

Reviewed in India on February 16, 2019

Verified Purchase

Product: The book was Brand New and had no damages on cover and Pages.

Review: The story is set in a fictional world, The Kingdom Of Norta where two types of people live,
People with Silver Blood (these people have special abilities like controlling water or metal etc) and People with Red Blood (these people have no special abilities and are treated as slaves by the silver blood).
The story revolves around 17 year old girl Mare Molly Barrow, a RED BLOOD, she hates how Silver Blood people treats the Red Blood people and she want this to be changed, she wants that the Red Blood and Silver Blood should be treated equally. But she does not know that she posses a deadly talent of her own that could change the entire situation. The Silver Blood people hides Mare from the Red Blood people by declaring her a long-lost Silver Princess. Now Mare has a chance to demolish the empire from within and to end this all but this is not so easy as her own life is at stake. At what lenght is Mare willing to go to end this.
Find out what happens when Mare Barrow enters the Game of Lies and Betrayal where "Anyone can Betray Anyone."

29 people found this helpful

Rosie Martin

Entertaining but forgettable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

The premise is great and the book starts well, a mixture of underdog grit and determination, classist privilege vs disadvantage of low birth combined with fish-out-of-water wonder for the main character. The silver abilities are sometimes cliche but there are a few gems thrown in and this makes for some exciting battles and has a dark, Hunger Games feel in the early chapters. Unfortunately though the story descends into tedious and often quite dull planning and politics without a great deal of action or danger. The fantastical, bombastic, potentially exciting abilities of the characters are often ignored in favour of plain dialogue. Some plot points are rather farfetched for a fantasy novel, esepcially the inconsistent use of technology. At attempt at a quasi-technological, quasi-medieval post-apocalyptic society of class systems but without the infrastructure or a solid history to back it up. Our main character never truly feels in danger of, well, anything, so it's difficult to root for her safety and survival as it's more or less expected by the next chapter. She feels more like an observer to her own fate than an active participant and as a reader-surrogate there isnt enligh focus on how this feels and makes her feel (see: the Power by Naomi Alderman for stellar writing on a similar ability).
The love triangle is boring and frustrating, most of the time wondering why our heroine has been written to fawn over certain lazily-written characters who are at best irritatingly privileged and at worst complicit in her family's devastation.
Entertaining but forgettable.

One person found this helpful

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