Second Book Syndrome Strikes

Glass Sword

By Victoria Aveyard

Series: Red Queen (Book 2)

Hardcover: 464 pages

Publisher: HarperTeen (February 9, 2016)

ISBN-10: 0062310666

ISBN-13: 978-0062310668

Approximate Lexile: 725

 

Publisher’s Blurb:

The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they've always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.
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?

My Thoughts:

 Honestly? Many of the things I praised in the first book are missing from this one. The present-tense narration is becoming annoying, but, of course, the author must stick with it because that’s how she started. More annoying is the derivative nature of the narration. District 13-type headquarters? Check. Heroine experiencing guilt? Check. Heroine and male love interest sharing a bedroom because they have nightmares? Check again. Major character sacrificing themselves to enemy control in order to save others? But of course.

 

I like the root story, and want to see where this world ends up with the addition of the “Newbloods” as a rogue factor in the Red vs. Silver society. I just really wish the author had found a more original way to tell the story. Instead, she got out the checklist from How to Write a YA Dystopian Trilogy Tetralogy and just made sure to tick all the boxes. Sad, because this could have been really fresh and exciting.

 

Possible Objectionable Material:

 Violence. Lots of it. Blood, both red and silver. As mentioned, characters sleep together, but the indication is that it’s not sexual. Another couple is definitely sexually active.

 

Who Might Like This Book:

 Fans of the genre, of course. Any boy who likes Katniss or Tris will be fine with this. Appropriate for tweens and up.