A Review: Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Warning: This review contains spoilers; read at your own risk.


“If there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different.”

Glass Sword, the sequel to Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen, started right where the story left off, with Mare and company fleeing from Maven and the rest of the Silvers. The same elements that made Red Queen so likeable continued in this sequel and we continued to learn more about the characters that we loved in the first book.

What I Liked About It:

• We learned even more about the characters we were introduced to in the first novel, allowing readers to better understand their motives and choices. We were also introduced to a large amount of new and lovable characters. 
• The plot was just as unpredictable as the original. There were so many things that happened that had me at the edge of my seat as I was reading it. The fight scene at the prison was amazing, as was the cliffhanger at the end. I can't wait to find out what happened with Cal, Kilorn, and the rest of the group after they were (hopefully) let go. 
• The death of the queen. She was by far my least favourite character and I was incredibly happy to see her go. Especially since she was so evil. 

What I Didn't Like About It:

• Shade's death. He was my favourite character and it hurts to see him gone. That being said though, I like seeing what it has done to Mare and look forward to seeing how it continues to change her in the next book. 

Once again, I loved this novel. Aveyard did an amazing job making Glass Sword just as good as Red Queen. I continued to love these characters, this story, and this world overall. Can't wait for the next one!

Rating: 4/5

What did you think of the book? Do you agree or disagree with my rating? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

A Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Warning: This review contains spoilers; read at your own risk.

“This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.”

A world where those with silver blood, those with special powers, rule over the weak with red blood. This book has an overall similar plot line to many other popular YA novels, but Victoria Aveyard manages to take these elements and weave them into an original story, one that I happened to love.

What I Liked About It:

• The characters were extremely complex and many were quite likeable. The quote “anyone can betray anyone” is a recurring theme throughout the novel and as a result it was incredibly difficult to know who to trust and who not to. Many twists occurred throughout the book as well with betrayal after betrayal.
• The many twists and turns. As mentioned above, betrayals occurred frequently throughout the book and constantly kept me on my toes. I never knew what exactly to expect. Maven's betrayal, and the subsequent death of the king, shocked me despite the fact that I was expecting him to be evil.
• Cal and Mare's fight scene in the arena at the end of the novel was, in my mind, absolutely fantastic. The book had been a bit slow in places, but the huge amount of action here was well-worth the wait.

What I Didn't Like About It:

• A little slow in places, but the pacing was fairly good.
• Maven's betrayal. I loved the character throughout the book and was really hoping he would turn out to be trustworthy. However, the twist was huge and leaves a great plot for sequels.

Overall, I loved this novel. The world-building was great, the characters were interesting and complex, and the plot was full of twists that continued to surprise me. Already eagerly part-way through the sequel, and loving that as well.

Rating: 4/5 (really liked it)

A Review: The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

“Greta is a duchess and crown princess—and a hostage to peace. This is how the game is played: if you want to rule, you must give one of your children as a hostage. Go to war and your hostage dies.”

I started reading Erin Bow's The Scorpion Rules with such high expectations. Unfortunately, I was severely let down. The idea sounds fantastic, but the book was incredibly boring and I had to force myself to finish it.

What I Liked About It:

• The original premise was promising, and the first part of the book (while being extremely slow) seemed like it could lead to a fantastic story 

What I Didn't Like About It:

• The characters were extremely boring and under-developed. It was difficult to tell any of them apart, and most seemed to have no role in the story whatsoever. Diversity is great, but if the characters don't have a point in the book it's better just to keep them out. None of the characters were likeable either. Greta, the main character, had nothing special about her character. For the entire book her classmates treated her like she was a queen though they had absolutely no reason to. For the life of me, I can't figure out what is supposed to be likable about her character. 
• The love triangle was, simply put, just stupid. First of all, I hate love triangles in novels. I don't see how they add anything to the story, and in this book it was no exception. In fact, this book may have the most useless love triangle ever. The first half of the book sets up one person as Greta's love interest, and then out of nowhere she suddenly realizes she's madly in love with someone else. No hints earlier in the book at this second relationship and no explanation to how Greta fell in love with this person. The development of the entire relationship was just awful. 
• The second half of the book seems like a completely different novel than the first half. Tons of things start to happen that just don't make sense in the world created in the first half of the book. I was very confused throughout the second half and managed to just skim through most of it as I didn't care about it anyway. 
• Finally, like many reviewers half mentioned before me, the insane number of times goats were mentioned throughout the novel was a huge problem for me. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew more about the individual goats than most of the human characters.
  

Overall, the idea was great and this could have been a fantastic novel. Unfortunately, Erin Bow just didn't deliver. The story was incredibly slow, the world-building was awful, the characters were boring and unlikeable, and the plot was extremely confusing in many places. I was shocked when I found that this book was getting a sequel. While I normally go out of my way to get sequels to my books, I can't figure out why one is necessary here and I definitely won't be reading it.

Rating: 2/5 (it's okay)