Red Queen
is a book that stands out for its twists on the usual YA stories. Not
everything is what it seemed, or so we are promised. Alliances will be broken,
enemies and foes can’t be tell apart, but in its core, how different is this
novel from the rest? Are the characters people or plot devices? Does it fall to
the seemingly inevitable clichés of slut-shaming, abuse and so much more that
we see so often in the YA genre?
I was
really intrigued by Mare at the beginning. She was a flawed character that
owned it, never tried to sugar coat her nature and I found that extremely
refreshing. I love characters who are not perfect, I did however found annoying
that as the story progressed, Mare did horrible and inexcusable things out of
spite and jealousy and yet tried to pass it on as a noble cause, taking the
role of a martyr. Gone was the girl who owned up to her mistakes. That… was not
really cool with me.
As
friendship goes, Mare has one friend!
...Who takes
part in the love square.
Don’t get
me wrong, I love friendships that turn into romance. There is something so
lovely about building that kind of love with a person who is already so close
to you… but Kilhorn is a love interest, not a friend. His purpose in the novel
is to put conflict in Mare’s other romantic relationships, he’d act all
possessive when she talked or was with other guys and kind of tried to guilt
trick her into staying with him.
She has no
other friends or even mentions of acquaintances, even though she went to
school. She should have known somebody, shouldn’t she? Yet her whole world is
her family and Kilhorn, only the basic necessary to move the plot along, she
has no interests, passions or aspirations. What does she do all day? Does she
pick-pockets people all day until it’s dinner? Her thoughts on what she did to
help her family by stealing people who were as poor as her upset me because she
has no thoughts about it at all!
Even though
Mare steals everyday from people who work their asses off to take some food for
their families, she never considers just how wrong it was, never felt sorry for
her victims or had second thoughts about what she did. She was only ashamed of
it because it reflected poorly on her, because taking from people who could
work was the only thing she knew how to do, but never felt bad for the people
she stole from, which fit Mare’s selfish personality but didn’t help while
creating a compelling character.
Other
female characters: HORRIBLE
This was a
point that failed miserably in the novel since there is a huge amount of
girl-on-girl hate and slut shaming, with no purpose for the novel whatsoever.
Basically any female who wasn’t Mare was an evil, manipulative and overall
horrible person. Really, the minute Mare gets to the castle every girl is out
to get her for no other reason than to pin girls against each other!
"From the way her fingers tighten, I can tell she wants nothing
more than to wrap her hands around my throat."
Mare described them all as fake, the
friendships girls had between one another were not such, since they only tried
to backstab each other, making Mare the only “good” person there (remarked by
her love interests).
"Before I have a chance to take a breath, a pair of girls steps in
front of me. Their smiles are fake and cold, just like their eyes.
Mare, and
every girl in the book hates each other without even meeting, apparently it’s
an understatement that all girls are horrible, backstabbing and fake.
Her
relationship with Evangeline and Cal was particularly troublesome for me,
because Mare pursued a relationship with the crown prince regardless of him
being engaged, because his fiancé was a “bitch”. So we are supposed to root for
this girl, because after all Evangeline is such a horrible person! Well, that
didn’t settle well with me, not to mention when Mare wants to kill Evangeline’s
brother even though she suffered a similar lost just recently, and yet, what
are her thoughts about it?
"If all goes to plan, he’ll never hug his sister
again. Evangeline
will have lost a brother, just like me. Even though I know that pain firsthand,
I can’t bring myself to feel sorry for
her. Especially not with the way she holds on to Cal."
So I even
though she knows exactly how horrible that will feel, she’s ok with killing the
person Evangeline loves the most because she’s holding her crush’s hand…
The love
interests were alright, though I won’t divulge much because of spoilers. I
already mentioned my issues with Kilhorn, but I did however (and I’m guessing
I’ll be a minority here) had a problem with Cal, the crown prince. Even though
Mare is engaged to his brother, Maven and he shows he cares about her, Cal
still pursues Mare even when she tells him to leave her alone. She acts
possessive around her and jealous when she is talking with Maven, not to
mention the fact that he likes to prove Mare wrong constantly! He’s not happy
unless he has shown her how much better he is at something.
Diversity:
Some
As a
futuristic world, Mare is described as having brownish skin, and some Silvers
have different skin colors, but nothing was specified. Differences laid in the
blood color, rather than skin which was a cool idea in my opinion.
To sum up
this investigation I’ll say that, although Red Queen presents fun and
entertaining writing with a lot of plot twists and mystery, the very core is
the same as countless stories seen before, 2/10 in my score.
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