Red Queen and the "Messiah Pariah Syndrome"

"Red Queen" is Victoria Aveyard's debut novel.

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Opening

Since I had nothing to read for months, a relative recommended "Red Queen." The synopsis got my attention, even though it seemed very cliché. However, my doubts about it being cliché were true, and you're about to find out why. (Also, I won't be mentioning every little detail because it's a waste of time and there are some parts of the book that is filler.)

If you read the subtitle and think I'm joking, it's true. She does two-time two boys and causes a war with one. And not just a figurative war where the boys compete for her. No. It's a literal war.

And yes, I will be telling the plot of the story while also reviewing it. And this review is very long, so I'm sorry about that.

I'll also be reviewing characters and other things. So without further ado, let's begin.

Synopsis

This story is about a girl named Mare Barrow whose friend is about to get conscripted, so she goes into a city to steal some money with her sister. However, Mare fails and comes back with nothing. Later on, a "twist of fate" leads her into the royal palace, where she reveals she has superpowers and then becomes a princess. Oh, and what's important is that she's Red, so the royal court frantically try to cover it up by saying she's actually a Silver princess.

So that's that.

Review

Mare Barrow is a 17-year-old Red (Reds are a race of people who don't have supernatural abilities) who makes a living as a thief. However, she's about to turn 18, and that's conscription age for Reds, meaning that any Red who is 18 will immediately be drafted to war.

Before you think that's important, it's really not. What IS important is that her friend, Kilorn Warren (a boy who is Mare's childhood friend) will be conscripted in a week. So there is the conflict. Mare doesn't want that to happen, so she decides to meet up with an old colleague named Will. He owns a black market business, so Mare thinks that Will will (lol) take Kilorn away from the war buy letting him be in Will's cart. However, a strong, empowering, feminist stock action character named Diana Farley (I believe she's a foil to Mare?) comes out of the cart and demands money in exchange for Kilorn's safety.

The war is basically just a fight between the country Mare lives in and people with water powers. And Mare's kingdom has fire powers. I bet you already know whose been winning the war: the water people.

And another thing about the war thing, that doesn't really seem like a big issue in the story. Despite the fact that it's been going on for hundreds of years, nobody really cares about it, and it's just there to cause tension to be honest. I mean, at least the Silvers don't seem to care that much about the war, despite the fact that it's draining the country's resources. Unless there is some deux ex machina that gives the country near infinite resources.

And another thing is that the war should've been over already, because water beats fire? So why is it still going on? And why do you need Red soldiers when you could just use your powers? Oh, right. The excuse is that they are human shields. Um? There is no need for them. You already have "skin healers," so you don't even need meat shields.

I guess the excuse for that is the Silver children is too precious to be killed in battle or whatever.

Back to the story; Mare says yes, and remembers that her sister, Gisa, makes a living as a seamstress. In a Silver city.

Oh. I forgot to mention that Silvers are a race of god-like people who have supernatural abilities, in contrast to Reds. Silvers have a prejudice against Reds because they're weak. Reds have horrible living conditions and Silvers are have better conditions. I'm pretty sure you've heard of that concept in TV shows or other books.

They go into the city and suddenly a riot breaks out because live news reports that Scarlet Guard bombed Silver buildings. Then we discover that Farley is a member of the Scarlet Guard and wants the Silvers know that they mean business.

Also the Scarlet Guard is the series's "secret service." They are a group of Reds who want to stop the Silvers from being racist and oppressive towards Reds.

However, the Silvers get angry and they just attack every Red in sight. I believe they attacked them because the Silvers thought every Red were associated with the Scarlet Guard.

I'll just fast forward to where Gisa and Mare try to escape the city to avoid the havoc and that Gisa gets her arm shot off by a Silver guard because she was caught stealing from a Silver.

Personally, I thought she would've gotten killed because, by the looks of it, the Silvers are heartless.

But I guess if Gisa died, then the author would've thought that would be too dark for a YA novel.

After that Mare goes to a tavern because she is guilty about Gisa's hand, so she steals from random people. But then, she steals from a boy named Cal!

Cal introduces himself as a "servant at the royal palace," which is partly true, because I guess princes do serve their people.

Mare tells Cal about her sob story and Cal gives her some coins out of pity instead of turning her in.

The next day, Mare gets a job at the palace and that's where it gets revealed that Cal is a Silver prince. I knew he would be a prominent character, so it's not a surprise when I found out he was a member of royalty.

Oh, and he's a love interest. How shocking.

Anyways, her powers get revealed during "Queenstrial," which is when girls show off their powers to the prince so that they can have powerful babies. And then the prince choses one of them.

Off topic, but there are different kinds of Silver abilities. Cal is a burner, meaning that he can set fire to things. Another character named Evangeline is a magnetron, meaning she can move metal objects.

So my point is, oblivions should be one of the most powerful Silvers? Because whatever they touch explodes, hence "oblivions." But the thing is, they aren't even important for the rest of the story. They are only mentioned once or twice in the series, but that's about it. And the most powerful Silvers in the series aren't even that powerful, except this one guy who can shut off Silver abilities.

In other words, oblivions have been forgotten about.

Back to the main topic, Cal picks out Evangeline, the girl who can move metal objects. I don't really know what's so beneficial about that, because you can just move metal objects. I believe there was another ability that lets you move anything, so why did you just choose her as your bride? Are the girls with telekinesis dumb or something?

(I just remembered the people who have telekinesis are called "telkies.")

Why did you pick Evangeline? When you could've picked someone who can move anything? Or someone who can literally touch someone out of existence?

Whatever.

Next up, Evangeline starts showing her power, and that's when Mare's powers get revealed. Mare is an electrostatic human. That's not what they are called, but I thought it would be fitting, since she has electrical abilities. And the way her abilities get revealed is, uh, an accident? She just repels Evangeline's magnetism, and that makes the latter look like a clown.

After that, the royal courts decides to shush Mare and all the naysayers by saying that Mare is actually a lost Silver princess who comes from the house of Titanos. I think Titanos also have electrical abilities, but I forgot. However, Mare's dead giveaway is her red blood. So the royal court just removes every record of her blood, and they kill anyone who might suspect Mare is a Red.

I would say that's dumb, but it's not that farfetched. The royal court has been proved to be kind of insane.

Also, Mare wants Kilorn and her two brothers (they aren't important in the story so just forget about them) to not be in the war. The king (Tiberias) agrees. And the excuse to this is that "the king doesn't care about a few Red soldiers."

While that is nice and all, what I don't understand is the king's actions. Why would he agree to some random Red girl, when he doesn't even try to better life for his poorer subjects? And from the looks of things, the royal court has been trying to make her life hell (mostly Elara but still) so why do you just let some peasant girl boss you around?

Oh, right. Because they need to be relevant in the other books.

Also, Maven and Cal are half-brothers. Elara is Maven's mother, and Cal's mother (I forgot he name lol) is dead. And Elara hates Cal because Cal is her husband's late ex.

Oh, and Elara killed Cal's mom because–

Fast forward.

Maven decides he wants to join the Scarlet Guard, so Mare, ecstatic as she is, asks Farley to let him join. At first, Farley is hesitant, but then lets him join because of one sympathetic Red servant, and because Mare says "please." The servant is poked fun at during the "big reveal," which I chuckled a bit at. Mainly because Elara was right about the fact that "it took one servant for you all to let Maven join." Who I'm mad at the most is Farley, because she's supposed to be one of the most INTELLIGENT CHARACTERS IN THE SERIES and she just lets an ENEMY PRINCE join the Scarlet Guard. Are you serious?? Don't tell me you weren't even a bit suspicious of him just because he and Mare were an item.

Afterwards.

The Scarlet Guard gets captured because Cal found them trying to escape after they were told by Maven to shoot up certain people at the castle because the royals were going to have a party, and then they get tortured because Cal and his cronies want to know how many more of them are there or something, Ann Walsh (the servant who told Mare the do's and don'ts about the Silver world) commits suicide because the queen (Elara) captures her and tries to pry information from her using her mind reading abilities...

Speaking of abilities, I'm wondering why Tiberias is in control. I understand that people think fire is "epic and intimidating," but there are so many other Silvers more qualified. The oblivions, the telkies, maybe even Evangeline's family?

But then again, it's mentioned in the book that it's rare for Silvers inherit their mother's abilities. So maybe the royal family consisted only of burners because they rarely obtained their mother's abilities. But then again, the females could just marry someone else to resolve the problem?

Whatever.

...and for the biggest twist of all, Maven is actually evil and has been working for his mother (Elara) the entire time! And that the people Maven told the Scarlet Guard to kill were his political rivals! Wow! Then Elara uses her powers to make Cal kill his father, and then everything gets caught on tape, so it looks like Cal did it because he wanted to become king so bad!

Then Mare is like "oh well I guess." And escapes with Cal, and then they romance at the end of the novel and the book literally ends with "we hate Maven."

Despite the fact there were so many red flags that Maven was actually evil, just because you were blindly in love with him and he was nice to you.

In her defense, she is stupid.

I do want to mention the 2v5(I believe it was 5 people) killing game that Mare and Cal are forced into doing and somehow win (despite the fact that the antagonists had every chance to kill them but I guess not) but it's not that important to the story.

And I know it feels like I rushed things, but that's basically the plot. I know there's a teacher character named Julian I've never mentioned, but he's not important at ALL. Except until the near end when he leaves for somewhere else and left a note on his table that has information about people like Mare and people who will help Scarlet Guard. Also, he's Cal's uncle, because Julian is Cal's mother's brother.

And the only reason he helps Mare is because she acts like his dead sister.

And (another "and") I will be talking about why the subtitle is there next, don't worry.

The Subtitle

If you read the subtitle for this review, then you're probably waiting for me to talk about it.

The reason why Maven betrayed Mare is because Mare two-timed him with his own brother, Cal.

You see, Mare was romancing with Cal. Every time they were together, or when Cal is mentioned, there wasn't at least one sentence stating that Mare loves Cal.

I'm serious, you can check the book. Even when Mare says "I don't like him" she flip-flops and changes her mind into deciding she loves him again. Make up your mind! (I hate her.)

Anyway, that doesn't excuse Maven for his actions. Because after Mare and Cal are captured by Elara and Maven, Maven tries to get both of them killed in a tournament-style execution. Just because he was upset with Cal stealing "everything" from him (Maven was always in his older brother's shadow is his backstory) and that Mare was two-timing him.

There were other ways to resolve the situation, but he decided to do nothing about it up until the last second. And his choice was to kill both of them.

Of course, you can argue that it's Elara controlling everything behind the scenes to make her plan to make Maven king work, then that's fine I guess. If you don't understand what I mean by that, Elara told Maven to not do anything so that she could get Mare and Cal killed. If it's just Maven doing as he likes, then he's an idiot, to be honest.

That also doesn't excuse Mare and Cal though. Mare knew exactly what she was getting into with Cal, and Cal knew exactly what he was getting into. Are you two serious?

After Cal and Mare kill most of their enemies in the tournament, our two protagonists escape the tournament via deus ex machina Scarlet Guard, and then a bounty is place on Cal's head for killing his father. And that Maven is going to send his troops to attack the Scarlet Guard, because he wants Mare and Cal dead.

For obvious reasons.

That ends that segment. Next up, I will be talking about the characters.

Characters

I do not really like any of the characters, since they are all so... weird. I know the author is trying to make the "mystery" element surprising, but it's not, since you can tell what's going to happen in the book, such as the fact that Maven was evil the entire time, and that the author clearly prefers Cal and Mare being together because "forbidden love." And not to mention the characters are all annoying and cardboard cutouts of other characters.

Anyway. The characters.

Mare

I'm pretty sure you all know how much I hate her.

The reason why is because she is always whining and using everything about tools. Nobody confronts her about it, and she never actually does things herself. At least, directly. For example, she makes Lucas (he's a friendly Silver guard) free her friends by asking Julian to use his mind control abilities despite knowing full well that Lucas's life would be in danger if she did that. He dies after being captured by other guards for treason during the tournament execution, and then she pretends like she didn't see that coming.

Of course, nobody blames her for it. She just says a sentence about how she feels bad. Even though she could've done something without getting someone else involved. Someone who TRUSTED you and kept the secret that you were actually a Red.

Furthermore, while she does know what she is doing, she does it anyway. She learns nothing from what she does, so she does what she wants anyway. Just because she wants to make lives for Reds better.

If you want to make a cause that you believe in work, then you have to do it yourself. Don't make other people work for you.

Also, she's not really interesting. Sure, she has lightning powers, but other than that there's nothing that the audience is going to want to know more of her. She's a literal plot device, and the most unlikable character in the book. How ironic.

And by "Messiah Pariah," I mean to say that is how she acts.

She is a pariah (Red) and also a messiah (she's going to be the savior of all the reds!) and yet she blows it by making others do her work for her. I do understand her condition because she's with the Silvers and she's a pariah because of that, but she plays victim almost all the time, and when she discovers she has lightning abilities she thinks things like I can kill all of you.

I absolutely hate her.

I can see her being played by Chloe Grace Moretz.

Cal

He likes Mare. That's his entire character, he likes Mare. I can see him being played by Noah Centineo.

Oh, and he's a nice guy.

Maven

While he was nice in the beginning, there was nothing interesting about him. I'm pretty sure we all knew he was going to be evil because the foreshadowing was all over the place.

His logic is stupid, because he just thinks about violence instead of actually doing things. And he's supposed to be intelligent, and yet his character contradicts that. Like I said earlier, he could've confronted Mare about her cucking Maven. And yet he does that at the end when he reveals his big, evil plan with Elara.

Elara

She's just the evil stepmother. If you removed her, there would be no protagonist. And trust me, Evangeline isn't a threat to nobody. She's just there to ruin the Cal and Mare romance.

Julian

To be honest, he's not interesting. Of course he leaves when the protagonist needs him the most, and of course he's nice to Mare because it's convenient to the plot.

And of course he studies about Reds and Silvers to provide the protagonist with important information. And of course he's related to Cal.

Farley

At first, I liked her because she was kind of cool and "better" than the other annoying characters. She even mocked the idea of staking her revolution on teen romance. The comment after that makes me so mad though.

What I don't like about her is that she has no weaknesses. She just looks cool, she leads Scarlet Guard, but that's about it. There are no weaknesses she has in this book.

Kilorn

He's the character everybody likes in the beginning of the book, but forgets when Mare meets Cal.

Yeah. He's just there to compete for Mare's affections, despite the fact it's one-sided because we all know who Mare loves.

Everyone Else

Just forget about them. Mare's family is just there to help us understand Mare's condition, and I forgot about everyone else to be honest.

If you just have these characters that I mentioned, then it would still be the same plot.

2/5 stars.

I only give it a generous 2 because if you prefer plot over character then it's fine. I just hate the characters more than anything, and it's hard to read for the plot when Mare is like "Cal, I love you!"

If you're reading for the plot then it's an interesting book. Despite the fact that you can tell what's going to happen just by reading the official synopsis.

So that's my review/rant, it's a bit messy, but I'm a bit too tired to fix it no thanks to Mare. Have a good day probably.