Author: Victoria Aveyard
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: February 9, 2016
Pages: 444
Format: Hardcover/Own
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.
Review: I thought this was an interesting sequel to Red Queen. I have to say, I think I liked Red Queen a bit more than I liked Glass Sword, but Glass Sword wasn't awful. I think my main gripe with Glass Sword is that it felt repetitive for a fair chunk of the book. We got some interesting scenes in the first quarter of the book and the last quarter but the middle was all the same.
For about half the book we are just following Mare, Cal, Kilorn, and Farley around as they try to find and rescue all the Newbloods mentioned in the book Julian gave Mare in Red Queen. To me this was kinda boring. We kept going in loops. Go on mission to find Newblood, found Newblood either alive or dead, avoid getting found by Maven and his military, go back to base. Repeat. While I loved that Mare was super into trying to save the Newbloods, the fact it was literally the same thing over and over bored me a little bit. Though we do get some interesting new Newblood characters and powers out of it. So I guess it wasn't all bad.
I also found Mare to be kinda insensitive and ridiculous in this book. I get it, I do. She was betrayed by so many people in Red Queen. But she's going to have to trust someone eventually. She can't go through life never trusting a single person. She might think its better to have no one to trust but its not. If she wants to be sad and alone, then sure, go for it. Push every single person that cares about you away. If not, you really need to get over yourself Mare and learn to trust. Not every single person in the world is like that. Also, stop acting like everything revolves around you. You are not the only person in the world with feelings about certain people that died. So just stop.
All that being said. I thought how the beginning and ending events took place were really interesting. We see Mare going from hanging out with her family to being locked up by someone close to her. But then it turns out to be some elaborate scheme. I was definitely surprised not only about her getting locked up, but the scheme behind it as well. Did not see it coming. And the end. I definitely did not see a prison break coming in this book. Though its super cool it did. We get some awesome characters back that we were worried about at the end of Red Queen, and we learn there's a whole scheme behind those locked up in the prison as well. And it was all a part of a plan to use people against Mare eventually. Definitely didn't see that coming.
I was shocked at some of the ending. Like who Mare and company manages to kill. I really thought said person (I'll spoil things if I say who) would be around for all four books. And if said person died, it would be in book 4. So I was shocked by said enemies death. But I was also shocked and saddened by the other death that happened. Again, I'll spoil if I say who, but I was really sad seeing this person who was close to Mare die and really thought he'd be around longer since it was just at the end of Red Queen that Mare was reunited with this person. I think that death broke my heart a little.
Lets see. Maven. Maven really creeped me out in this book. Like I think I've officially on Team Cal now just because of how creepy Maven seemed to me in this book. He is so obsessed with Mare. Determined to get her back. I was just really put off by him and his words in this book. I really think so far Cal is definitely the better choice. He grew some in this book. He realized despite wanting to be loyal to his silver blood, after all that happened, he couldn't. So he finally is willing to help Mare and the Scarlet Guard in saving the Newbloods. I was happy to see his growth, but also seeing him be able to still use some of his military intelligence and strength he had for a better purpose. He lost some stuff, but was also still able to keep a part of himself. It was nice.
I'm not really sure where we are going with the ending to this book. The way it's written, you'd think Mare is going to die based on Mavens words. But obviously we know she isn't going to die since this series revolves around her. I'm definitely interested in how this ending scene with Maven plays into things in King's Cage!
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