Review of Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

* * * * 4/5 stars

Summary: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 Review: Glass Sword is the second book in the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard.  In this book the reader is thrown head first back into the world of Mare Borrow who is a red civilian in the Silver kingdom where the Silvers (they are called red or silver based on the color of their blood) are the ruling masters over the reds in Mare's world.  Mare is in trouble because she has an ability that only the silver ruling class is supposed to be born with.  Mare and other reds with abilities like hers are called newbloods and are greatly feared by the Silvers who want to eradicate them from society because of the abilities they have and the fact that they are inspiring others like them and normal reds to revolt and try to take back the country that was once their own.  

Mare and Cal (a silver prince who was betrayed by his brother Mare's ex-forced fiancee) are running for their lives while also working with a revolutionary group to find other newbloods and rescue them before the new mad king Maven (Cal's half brother who betrayed him ) can get to them and kill them in his pursuit to get Mare back as a prisoner who he and only he can have complete control of.  This book was well written by Aveyard and there is a lot of inner dialogue with the characters feelings about what they have to do just to survive and stay away from Maven.  A lot of it is very emotional like how they feel when they have to kill other silvers or reds who are on the side of the mad king who is pursuing them.  In the beginning it was interesting to hear what they were feeling and how they dealt with different almost impossible situations where they had to kill or be killed. But sometimes as a reader I felt like the inner dialogues got really almost repetitive and I would have to push through boredom to keep reading and finish the chapter; more action or delving into the plot more would've been more enjoyable to me as a reader thats why this book did not receive five stars from me.  

Overall though the book though not as good as the first one (Red Queen) in the series was enjoyable and I finished it in one day.  If you enjoyed Red Queen then I would definitely recommend jumping into this book and enjoying the ride.  Aveyard truly is a good writer; and I will happily read more of her books in the near future if she writes them.