Book Review- Kings Cage/ Red Queen series
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| Kings Cage by Victoria Aveyard |
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Title: Kings Cage
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Published: 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction
Plot: ♥♥♥♥♥
Characters: ♥♥♥♥♥
World Building: ♥♥♥♥♥
Flow: ♥♥♥♥♥
Synopsis
In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl's spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?
Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother's web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.
As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare's heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.
When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.
Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother's web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.
As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare's heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.
When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.
Review *
Kings Cage starts right where Glass Sword left off. Mare is Maven's prisoner, the Scarlet Guard has recouped from their mission in the prison, and Norta is still in a war with the Lakelanders.
For those of you who have made it this far in the series, I would that it's pretty obvious that the entire series, save Red Queen, is a very character driven book. The plot tends to lack a lot of momentum, and at times seems like it's only there to keep the characters in a cohesive movement forward.
The first, oh 300 pages of Kings Cage is very much character drive. The only real progress we see is from Cameron's point of view within the Scarlet Guard. They are able to capture a Silver city, Corvium and in turn rescue Cameron's little brother. At the same time, Mare is stuck in a weird prison in Whitefire castle under Maven's watchful eye. Both points of view are odd, because the series of events that happen aren't fluid like in most multiple POV books.
Mare's time stuck in the silent stone manacles was frustrating, in a really terrible way and in a satisfying sense at the same time. Through the whole series, she's been able to overcome all of the obstacles she faces; Queenstrial, finding the Newbloods, breaking into a prison. You'd think at the end of book 2 that she's a badass. Oh no my friends, four Silence guards and some silence stone really cripples your spirit. She does make attempts to break free, which are awesome, but she succumbs to realizing that she's stuck under Maven's mercy (or lack of).
As a Maven stan in this series, I enjoy her imprisonment because it adds to the deranged boy that Maven is. I like my characters dark and twisty. His weird obsession with Mare continues and bleeds so others notice, such as Evangeline. The very shaky hold on his kingdom starts to fall apart despite all of the steps he takes against the red guard to beat them into submission. In an effort to regain control and also play a card that would hurt the Scarlet Guard, he does the most annoying thing possible. He decides to ditch Evangeline, and Mare, which has me raising my brow a bit, and decides to very hastily marry the Lakelander princess to end the civil war that has been going on for centuries.
Now Iris is a character I look forward to seeing more of because I like her very sharp observation of the situation she's stepping into. She certainly comes off as a very smart individual aware of the snake that Maven is and the rats that wish to assassinate him. I think she's the character I'm most looking forward for the POV of in the final book.
As for the Scarlet guard, they certainly felt like an afterthought for the first 300 pages. They regrouped after breaking into the prison, still had the same continuous frustrations with Command keeping everyone in the dark and trying to work around Maven trying to dismantle their organization. The sudden hold on Corvium seemed very out of the blue for me, I don't know if it's because we were in Cameron's POV, who has been extremely adamant about not being used by the Scarlet Guard as a weapon or if it was because Mare's POV had nothing regarding the movements of the rebellion.
Cameron's motive through the book was an odd character to get into, I think mostly because she was somebody who achieved, for the most part, her objective. Once she rescues her brother, her fate within the Scarlet Guard and life in general was super grey. Although she does fight in the final battle at Corvium on the SG's side, there seems to be so much left unsaid about her. I don't know if we're getting set up for the final book or if her arc is just going to fall flat.
Once Mare is saved, I think the story seems to completely transform. The guard is in Piedmont striving, their rebellion stable. It's like sitting in the eye of the storm, where Mare and Cal have someone bigger to rely on with their cause. There is sunshine and laughter, they establish a relationship finally.
Then the final battle of the book back at Corvium happens and everything goes to crap between Mare and Cal. The exiled prince's true colors come out, and in my opinion we finally see how manipulative he can be. He gets an opportunity to claim his throne and despite what he's told Mare almost 3 books, the temptation is too much and he actually tries to talk Mare into going against everything she stood for. The epilogue made me cry because I felt so terrible for Mare to finally allow herself to have feelings and Cal betrays her.
The 'alliance', and I use quotes because I don't buy it for a second, between House Samos, Queen Anabel, and Montfort is super fishy to me. I appreciate getting to see a bit of Davidson's colors, as he mentions to Mare that it's easier to defeat your enemy by dividing their alliances and conquering. House Samos clearly has their own agenda and they couldn't care less about anybody else as long as they have a crown. Queen Anabel I don't think would succeed with her mission to get Cal back on the thrown without support of either party. Between the trifecta of intentions in the rebellion, I don't see how they're going to work together.
It definitely makes me interested in War Storm and I will more than likely pick up the final book but probably not when it first comes out. I'm excited for all the new POV we will get, especially Maven and see the climax of Mare's story.
Red Queen & Glass Sword *
Now I'd like to start my mini-review of the first two books in this series by stating I actually enjoy these books. I understand there are people who do not care for this story and/or, Victoria Aveyard herself. I came in way late to the Red Queen game, starting this series last year (2017). Personally, I don't think it's okay or necessary to be negative over a book regardless of the feedback for or from the author.
To get into the actual series, the Red Queen was my favorite book so far and I think it's for pretty obvious reasons. In the first novel we get all the world building, we get to see Mare go from living in the slums of her village to a 'lost' princess. I loved getting to know and see all the silver abilities and how the silvers and reds are segregated.
I didn't really trust the Scarlet Guard at first, I thought Farley was way too reserved. Watching Mare learn from her mistakes was really interesting and throughout the stories I think is what makes her most relate-able. The torment from Elara was a little lack-luster but all the same I thought it was a good ending to the first book.
Glass Sword I really didn't care for as much as the first book. The pacing was super slow for me. There was a lot of uncertainty which drove me a little nuts. I did like the introduction of new bloods and getting to see all of the abilities. It reminded me of X-Men, with the SG being the institute, Mare as Professor X, etc. I like that we get to see more of the Scarlet Guard command, but I still don't trust them which I think gets resolved a little bit in Kings Cage.
Maven's side of the story seemed to just be there to conflict against the Scarlet Guard in a very two dimensional way. There would be rebellion, then Maven would one up them. Mare gets the list of new bloods, then Maven is hunting new bloods. For me it came off as "Oh yeah, we have this villain." If you get stuck on the second book, I do think it's worth it to continue through it because the prison break is awesome and getting to see different parts of Norta is interesting aswell.
I have not, and currently don't really intend to read the novella attached to this series. I may change my mind after reading War Storm. If any of you have read it and feel like it really adds to the main series let me know.
Have you guys read the Red Queen series? Will you be picking up War Storm? What are your thoughts?
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