In Aveyard’s second instalment of her fantasy series Red Queen, we return to the Kingdom of Norta. After the events of Red Queen, Mare, Kilorn and Cal are on the run from the evil and wicked King Maven. As a Newblood, Mare has Red blood (the colour of common people in Norta) but also the superhuman powers of the elite Silvers. With a list of the others who share her Newblood status in hand, Mare embarks on a mission finding and recruiting these individuals to the rebel organisation, the Scarlet Guard.
Glass Sword did not lose momentum, as the second in the series. While the plot twists were not as severe as the first novel, there were some unexpected and unpredictable turns throughout the novel. I missed the quick witted and snappy humour of Mare in the first novel; I found her internal dialogue to drag a little in this book, it didn’t add much to the story, and it was a tad frustrating hearing her talk so dramatically even for the more relaxed scenes – it lost its gravitas.
“Attend to your own fate, Mare Barrow.” “And that is?” “To rise. And rise alone.”
Victoria Aveyard, Glass Sword
However, the core characters started to develop quite a bit, and while there were lots of new characters presented, I enjoyed learning more about the established characters while being introduced to a variety of new ones. I would say that my favourite character is Maven, only because I think that he is quite complex, and I think that there is more to him.
I’m interested in what happens as the series unfolds, and I can definitely see myself reading it all – I’m already a couple of chapters in to King’s Cage, the next book in the series, and so far so good!
Overall, I’m really glad I continued reading the series’s second instalment and would recommend you to do the same if you enjoyed Red Queen!
Rating: 4 stars
Fiction for Teens 