Skip to main content

An Electric Series!




No better way to end the year than with a series BANG!

Victoria Aveyard's "Red Queen" series has been calling my bookshelves home for quiet some time and I

finally decided to dive in and take a peek. I can honestly say, I wasn't disappointed in the slightest.

Readers are introduced to Mare Barrow -- a teenage girl surviving in the throws of a small town

by utilizing the talents of a well-worn thief. Between smuggling and selling items, Mare takes a lead

role in making sure her family survives in the small town by whatever means necessary. She gets

by in her day-to-day tactics with an accompaniment of her dear friend, Kilorn. Both of the teens are

surviving in the best ways they can while avoiding conscription--going off to the front lines of a never

ending war between kingdoms--something far greater than their lives in which they're merely

moving through one day at a time. Until Mare meets a mysterious man one night and everything changes.


Through twists of fate, Mare ends up in the one place she'd never thought to be--the high city in which the

royal family resides. Working alongside her sister, Gisa, Mare is literally thrown into the world of royals

when she stumbles into a pit where women are pining for latest royal majesty's hand in marriage.

Instead of facing sudden death, Mare displays a source of power she had no clue of possessing--

a lightning strike so powerful it had only one source of production, from herself and her alone.

This untimely display of unknown power couldn't have come at a better time-- it initially saved Mare's

life-- she just hadn't known at the time what would become of her life once more.


This series revolves around those born of either Silver or Red blood. Those of Silver bloodlines are gifted

with unnatural powers, either welding control over standard elements or stretching as far as controlling

minds or puppeteering individuals altogether. Those of Red bloodlines harbor no magical abilities at all

and are deemed mere "ordinary" humans -- lower than those of Silver blood, to be peasants and slaves.

Then comes ... Newbloods. Those similar to Mare Barrow--born with red blooded veins, yet displaying

magical abilities similar to those with Silver blood. An unheard of phenomenon among both Silver and 

Red bloodlines. So -- Mare Barrow didn't just stumble into a crowded room and save herself.

She plummeted into a version of the future she had no idea she'd be apart of, let alone leading.


Aveyard does an extraordinary job throughout the series keeping in tune with characters and their

emotions--jumping between main character Mare Barrow in the beginning of the series to delve

further into the minds of other characters, either of Silver or Red backgrounds. The attention paid to

detail is out of this world -- either certain settings, scenes, or battles/wars altogether. I felt throughout

reading the number of books that I was thrown directly into the chapter with the characters and

undergoing what they were experiencing as well. I thought it was a bit repetitive that the reader was

reminded countless times how the characters knew each other and/or were related in certain aspects.

I understand why authors do this as far as starting a new chapter/section or starting a new novel in general,

however, I don't think it's completely necessary at times. A very small detail that occurs throughout the

books, but not very relevant per say in the overall experience.

Overall -- I'd recommend this series! There's violence, bloodshed, death, betrayal, obsession, hope,

and lo' and behold--love. Between friends, enemies, family, and those we'd least expect.

:)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An All Too Familiar House

          Not the usual suspense-thriller synopsis I've become accustomed to when reading Lisa Jewell's novels, however, I was entranced by this novel from the get-co. The House We Grew Up In centers around a mother and her four children over the span of a decade. The mother, Lorelei, has an extensive hobby of collecting items that harbor a memory of time spent with her loved ones. Each and every memory-- meaning each and every item she just happens to come across. Lorelei is in fact a hoarder and it does not get better with time. It gets worse. In addition to Lorelei's intense and overbearing lifestyle, her children forego their relationship with their mother and each other in order to gain a sense of normalcy within their individual lives. One of Lorelei's children committed suicide at a ripe age of sixteen and her other three were simultaneously impacted by the act tremendously. Her other son took to finding a thrilling lifestyle in all the wrong places...
Post a Comment
Read more

Four-Walled Nightmare

I will always and forever say this - Lisa Jewell is the QUEEN of the suspense/thriller genre. I'm sure most who read her would agree with me in comparing her and/or referencing her written ability in crafting a phenomenal read to that of the infamous Agatha Christie in her time. Jewell's 2019 debut novel centers around a young woman by the name of Libby Jones, a competent individual with a safe, bright future ahead. Until, she receives a letter shortly after her 25th birthday informing her of a family inheritance worth a fairly decent price and then some . Jones is introduced to readers as the main character to follow, but other characters soon take stage in a plot-twisting novel where family ties don't always hold true with faith, love, and blood. Jewell has this astonishing ability to craft the perfect chapter, whether it be mere attention to detail, length of pages or strategic craftsmanship of paragraph and dialogue portions leaving the reader wanting more - causing th...
Post a Comment
Read more

All Around the Ferris Wheel

  Megan Miranda's novel, "All The Missing Girls", was a thriller/suspense novel I was happy to inhale from my TBR pile - literally (two days of reading straight through). The storyline follows Nicolette Farrell's life, from ten years prior to drastically moving out of her hometown and present day. I believe anyone can relate when Nic's character spends time reminiscing about how things were during high school vs how much things can change when becoming adults. But, what happens when something you did ten years ago starts to repeat itself - almost too much? It makes you wonder, are we really any different than how we used to be? Or have we just gotten better at masking it? Miranda does an awesome job, in my opinion, by introducing this story in backwards timeline sectioning. Nic's return is broken up into two/three weeks worth of a story (with longer portions towards the end of the novel) but Miranda works backwards in showing the jump between past and present...
Post a Comment
Read more