Review Revision: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

OK. I was wrong. Red Queen isn’t as terribly awful as my first review claims. My dear readers, I have a confession to make: sometimes I make the mistake of reading and judging a book as an adult writer, instead of considering the literary needs of teenagers. Sometimes, after dashing off a hasty adult-biased review, I’ll find myself thinking about the offending story-world long after I’ve finished the book, and I’ll think, “Maybe I’ll give it another shot.” (This happens more times than I care to admit.)

Red Queen was one of those books. I think the reason why I initially didn’t like it the first time around was due to the novel’s audiobook version. The reader had a perfectly fine voice, but for some reason, every time she took on the condescending tone of one of Mare’s enemies (mainly to say something like, “Watch yourself, little lightning girl”) it drove me up the wall. After suffering through several hours of this, I finally just had to turn off my car’s CD player three-quarters of the way through. Which brings me to my second encounter with the story: not as bad as the first. Instead of the listening to the audiobook again, I checked the book out from the library. Without the reader’s voice in my head, the “little lightning girl” insults didn’t bother me quite so much, and I actually found that I didn’t really mind the love triangle—considering that it doesn’t end like you think it will! By finishing the book, I was also able to learn that Aveyard allows Mare to see that not all Silvers are terrible people, in fact, some of them are kind and generous. She even allows one of the story’s major antagonists to die with a kind of redemptive grace.

However, that does not mean I don’t still stand by some of my original criticisms. The story has obviously been done before: misunderstood heroine, polarized dystopian society, political situation cobbled together from historical events, etc. But you know what? Teens aren’t going to care. The fact that the story reminds me of The Hunger Games isn’t going to bother them. In fact, they’re probably going to be thrilled to find a new favorite read. So, Ms. Aveyard: I’m sorry for giving your book a bad review the first time around. Let’s hope that the sequel doesn’t disappoint!

Another Generic Knockoff of Popular YA Tropes

Source: Publisher Website

Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard (HarperTeen, 2015, 400pp.)

In a distant time and place, people are judged not for the color of their skin, but for the color of their blood. In the dual-class society of Norta, the magic-endowed Silvers rule over the lowly Reds—until a divergence appears in the form of the novel’s sassy, red-blooded heroine. When Mare Barrow defends herself with spectacular powers during a moment of unexpected peril, she draws the attention of the royal family. The royal family, in turn, decides to use her as a propaganda tool to quell their rebellious subjects, and bring her to the royal palace to pass off as a long-lost Silver princess. After Mare reluctantly allows herself to become integrated into Silver society, she is contacted by the Scarlet Guard, a Red rebel group that the Silvers see as a terrorist organization. At great risk to herself to herself, her friends, and her family, she agrees to help the Guard weaken the Silvers' malevolent death-grip.

Now, I am sure that there are hundreds of teen readers out there who are the perfect audience for this book. If you like The Hunger Games, read it! If you like X-Men, read it! If you have a soft spot for generic love triangles, then by all means, knock yourself out. But as to my own opinion as a writer and adult reader? I hated it. I was bored from start to finish, and I’ll tell you why.

Red Queen is nothing more than another knock-off of current popular YA tropes. The writer takes a generic, misunderstood heroine, drops her into a generic dystopian society rife with vague injustices, and then gives her superpowers. Meanwhile, generic high school villains crawl out of the woodworks to bully her. The story itself is powered by events ripped straight from the news and history books. Now, while it’s perfectly okay to model a story from events taken from the news or from history, a good story will be so seamless that the reader won’t be able to take the story apart piece by piece and tell you exactly where everything came from. So, if you dislike love triangles, Mary Sue heroines, and bland villains, steer clear. If you are, in general, an unquestioning fan of romance and dystopian adventure, give it a shot. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you. Recommended for Ages 14-Up.