My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher: HarperTeen
Summary: The poverty stricken Reds are commoners, living under the rule of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.
To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from The Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.
Mare finds herself working in the Silver Palace, at the centre of
those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.
But power is a dangerous game. And in this world divided by blood, who will win?
I think it's fair to say that I wanted to like this one far more than I actually did. The cover caught my eye many months ago and since the ARCs rolled out I've seen all manner of glowing and orgasmic reviews. So it's with great disappointment that I say that I just was not captivated by this. To show how far I went to try with this one, I began reading it and when that palled, I tried the audiobook as I thought that perhaps listening to the story would energize it for me. I gave up at 85% then decided to finish it as I'd come so far & needed to tie it off.
Clearly, the franchise doesn't need me but I have to say this felt formulaic. And not in a familiar comfortable kind of way but in a way that felt like boxes being ticked off on a YA success list. So many things that I was bored and then there were things that never were made real but kept existing as window dressing. My biggest peeve, the war. Silvers are prosecuting a war and use Reds to fight it. I'm still unclear as to what the war is about, where this war is taking place and exactly what the other Silver faction is like or after. As this is supposed to be a very relevant part of the story and is to inform so much of our main character's actions, I needed this to be clear. In the end, I basically stopped caring because it's seemed the author didn't. The characters were another matter and I won't go on about them here because again, I failed to connect with or ultimately care about these people. These characters aren't grey they are starkly black & white and for the most part, that never appeals to me. In the grand scheme, I'll admit that I'm not the target market for this book. Then again, I am one adult of the legion who do enjoy reading YA, so maybe I'm part of the target market afterall, I handed over my cash for it so I can say it fell short of my expectations. As such, I won't continue with the series but I will keep my fond memories of an exceptionally beautiful cover that left me anticipating the book's arrival for months. As a marketing success, I salute you Red Queen.
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