YA Review: Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Glass Sword (Red Queen, #2) by Victoria Aveyard
Published by HarperTeen on February 9th 2016
Pages: 448
Goodreads

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?

May contain spoilers for RED QUEEN

4 Nuts

Just like when I was writing my Red Queen review, I am writing this Glass Sword review after having marathoned the book in less than 24 hours. When it comes to Victoria Aveyard, the only thing that can stop my binge is a need to get up 100 pages before the end to go to work for two hours (then come home and finish the book).

So let me answer the question I know at least a few of you are asking: No, Glass Sword is not as good as Red Queen. But neither does it suffer from second book syndrome. Glass Sword is a perfectly solid second book in a series, but it lacks the wow I got from book one.

Here’s the deal: Glass Sword was never going to live up to Red Queen for me, and that has everything to do with Maven. I adore Maven, he’s my favorite character. He’s cunning and he’s kind of a nerd, the exact opposite of his brother. Sure Cal is good with electronics and junk but for the most part I always saw him as a jock. So when Maven went bad I was surprised but not really turned off. After all, my numero uno book boyfriend IS The Darkling. With Mare on the run we get almost no time with evil Maven, and that’s where the book seems to suffer.

First, Mare is spending all of this time with Cal (blech) who I never liked. He just grates at me, especially after spending so much time with Maven previously. It’s so clear that they’re meant to be these juxtaposing characters and that kind of got on my nerves. You don’t have to make them perfect opposites so one is an alternative for the other. Never mind that the whole love triangle thing gets out of control here. And dear god, enough of the arguing please! That’s the biggest reason I hate the idea of Cal and Mare.

On the other end, Mare’s family is one of the best parts of the book. I love her father  to pieces, and Shade of course. The other brothers and Gisa don’t really get enough page time (I’m hoping for more in book 3) and her mom is pretty much a general mother but it’s nice for a main character in a fantasyish store to actually have a complete family. That doesn’t happen often enough. The newbloods are also pretty cool, and their little gang reminds me quite a bit of the X MEN. Sweet, fantasy X MEN, I can dig that.

There’s a lot to love in this book. Mare has a lot to deal with and I only wish that the romance was dialed back a little bit with Cal (because he’s irritating). For the most part though I really liked this book. After all, I did marathon it. I can’t wait for book 3 now. On with the waiting. *sigh*

What do you hope happens in book 3? Share in the comments.

From my shelf to yours,

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