Monday 15 February 2016

REVIEW: Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Pages: 464
Format: Paperback
Source: ARC
Publisher: Orion
Release Date: February 11th 2016
Genre: Dystopia, Fantasy
Buy The Book: Amazon - Amazon UK


Mare's blood is red - the colour 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 the prince and friend who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by the Silver 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?

My Thoughts:
I have a really mixed relationship with this book, and I’ll be honest, I really expected (and wanted) to enjoy it more than I did. There is no denying that Victoria Aveyard is a great writer. Her descriptions and world building are wonderful. But this story just isn’t drawing me in the way I want it to. Whilst I had a few issues with Red Queen, I enjoyed it overall and was excited for more. But this sequel let me down a little. 

Glass Sword follows Mare on her new mission, finding new bloods, and giving them the choice to join her. Along with Farley, Shade, Kilorn, and Cal, she travels to the various addresses of these new bloods and attempts to recruit them before Maven gets there first. Whilst I expected the recruitment stage to take up some of the plot, it actually ended up being the majority of it. Once I was over halfway into the story, I was tired of the team turning up in a new city, finding more new characters. The recruits themselves were interesting, but the introductions to them and their abilities were quite fleeting, so I felt as though I didn’t really get to know them. 

As I expected, there was tension between Kilorn and Mare in this book. Reading Red Queen, I predicted that he’d be the cliché ‘best friend who’s actually in love with protagonist’, and I’m pretty disappointed he turned out to be exactly that. I didn’t really enjoy his scenes and I found him to be a little too bitter and whiny throughout the book, exactly like Mare herself. 

The one character I actually massively preferred this time around was Cal. I didn’t much care for him during the first book, but he really stepped up in Glass Sword. Although there is a love-interest plot between him and Mare, it didn’t impact negatively on his character the way I worried it might. The only complaint about him that I have is that I simply wanted more of him. He’s honest, even when it’s brutal to be so, and a lot of the time, he’s one of the few characters talking and acting rationally. 

There is a conversation at the end of the book, in which Cal tells it like it is to Mare. He finally says the things I’d been thinking about her character throughout the book, and I was so pleased that paragraph was included. I couldn’t help but feel proud of him for being the one to stand up to Mare and point out that her attitude is wrong. 

The ending of this book redeemed it a bit for me and added an extra crown to my final rating. The last few chapters were thrilling, filled with twists, and kept me on edge. I just wish that the rest of the story had managed to capture my attention the way that the ending did. There was a moment that tore my heart out, and the epilogue left my mouth hanging open with a major cliffhanger. Whilst the ending was fantastic, I don’t know if that alone is enough to keep me excited for the next installment in the series. 

Royal Rating:



  

2 comments:

  1. This review is very disappointing. I wanted to see you flailing and talking about how good it was. The reviews haven't been so great for this one. Makes me sad. I'll still read but I wanted more from the reviews I've been seeing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I feel so bad for not enjoying it more, but I just wasn't drawn into it. I've seen plenty of other bloggers adore it though!

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