Review: Glass Sword - Victoria Aveyard

Hi!

I got a copy of this book via Netgalley for free in an exchange for an honest review, so here's my review of this book!

Thank you Orion Publishing Group!

P.S. I'm sorry to all of my portuguese viewers, but I will talk about this book in my July Wrap-up.

Title: Glass Sword

Writer: Victoria Aveyard

Published by: Orion Publishing Group

Pages: 464

Red Queen #2

Summary: From the NEW YORK TIMES number one bestselling author of RED QUEEN.

If there's one thing Mare Barrow knows, it's that she's different.

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 wants to control.

Pursued by the vengeful Silver king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join the rebellion.

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?

Red Queen Series:

Book 1 - Red Queen

Book 2 - Glass Sword

Book 3 - King's Cage

Book 4 - Untitled

Buy the book here! 

P.S. This review contains spoilers!

I read 'Red Queen' in the beginning of this year, and even though it wasn't the best book I've ever read, I did liked it, and the ending made me really excited for 'Glass Sword'. Well, let's just say what a disappointment...

Don't get me wrong, 'Glass Sword' had good moments and there were some parts when I was really enjoying it, but overall I don't think it was as good as the first one. Actually I can summarize this book with one simple sentence: Mare, Mare and Mare.

Mare isn't the best female main character and I really think she just did dumb things in 'Red Queen', but I truly expected that she would grow a little bit... but no. This book was all about Mare's wishes and how everyone had to follow her ideas, how she didn't want people to see her in a different way than the others, but at the same time wanted them to follow her orders. This are just a few examples of the drama that came into her head and had no sense at all!

Since I'm already talking about senseless things, let's talk about the romance.
Mare still loved Maven, even though he is a awful human being? And didn't want to love Cal but slept with him every night and kissed him? And didn't want Kilorn to fight and jeopardize his life because, of course, she can decide who can endanger their lives and Kilorn's life couldn't be put at risk?

How can I like this book if every decision the main character does is stupid and the romance around her is just crazy in a absurd way?!

I don't think I'm team anyone, certantly not after 'Glass Sword', but there was a couple that I actually liked in this book: Shade and Farley. They were cute together, but of course, Victoria Aveyard had to ruin that for us. By the way, I knew Shade was going to die because that was so predictive! He was funny, kind and always saved the day, he was basically the one character that everyone liked.

'Glass Sword' was not the best, but I have to admite that I liked some of the events in this book and how everything is coming together in this series, more precisely the newbloods, the different abilities that we see and how the characters are fighting for equality.

The ending was just awful. I really hated it and it made me feel sick, simply because of what Maven did to Mare, but I have to admit that it was a good ending, in the way that the readers will want to know what happens next.

Honestly, I think this book could had been so much shorter, because even though it had some big events, there were a lot of pages filled with nothing, or also called "Mare's stupid thoughts", and there were two sentences that Cal said to Mare that can actually summarize the entire book in a deeper way than "Mare, Mare and Mare", and they are the following:

"You abandoned your family without a word. You can’t control yourself. Half the time you run away from leadership, and the other half you act like some untouchable martyr, crowned in guilt, the only person who’s really giving herself to the cause. Look around you, Mare Barrow. Shade’s not the only one who died in Corros. You are not the only one to make sacrifices. Farley betrayed her father. You forced Cameron to join us against her will, you chose to ignore everything but Julian’s list, and now you want to abandon the kids back at the Notch. For what? To step on the Colonel’s neck? To take a throne? To kill anyone who looks at you the wrong way?”

“I don’t know if you love anyone at all,” he snaps, “if you see anything out there but tools and weapons. People to manipulate and control, to sacrifice.” 

To conclude, I can just say that 'Glass Sword' was not what I expected, but there were some scenes that almost made this book good. I'm intrigued to find out what will happen next in 'King's Cage' (funny how the title of the book makes sense after you've read 'Glass Sword') but it will not be on my "can't wait to read" list.

I gave 'Glass Sword' 3 stars on Goodreads after I realized that there was too many things that I didn't enjoyed about the book, and most of them were because of Mare.

This was my completely honest opinion and I hope you liked it!

Bye, Ana.