Review of King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard

King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard

My rating: * * * * *  5/5 stars

Summary: In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl's spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?

Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother's web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.

As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare's heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.

When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.

My Review: In this third installment of the Red Queen Series we once again find ourselves brought into the world of Mare Barrow who has traded her freedom for the lives and freedom of her friends and family.  Mare is now trapped in a painful abusive world where her entire life and every breath is controlled by the one she hates most - Maven the mad boy king whose entire purpose in life seems to be controlling and possessing Mare. He seems to think of her more as a pet than a human being with thoughts and feelings of her own.  

Mare is abused not only by Maven but by the other Silver nobility who now surround her and by her personal guards whose job it is to enforce "the silence" on Mare so she has no way to use her lightning ability and thus has no form of escape.  This book is filled with the details of this next step in Mare's journey as she is tortured and under the thumb of those she hates the most for their treatment of reds and those called newbloods who have powers like Mare when they shouldn't because they are reds not silvers.  This story was completely engrossing to me it had equal parts inner dialogue of characters, action and adventure, engrossing characters that are believable as people yet also fantasy because of their unique abilities and the dystopian society in which they live. 

Aveyard outdid herself in this book for me I liked it as much or even more than Red Queen the first book in this series.  Mare seemed more human in this book; her reactions and relationships with people like Cal, or her sister and parents seemed more tangible and real than how her personality was portrayed in Glass Sword; in that book she seemed untouchable and more aloof not caring about who she hurt to get her own priorities accomplished.  In King's Cage Mare through her captivity seems to gain some of her humanity back and views herself more as a person with special abilities  rather than a demi god whose orders should be followed without question.  As you watch her personal struggle it is easy as a reader to connect with her and you feel as if you are right there with her as she fights to survive and hopefully escape Maven.

Maven himself in this book was a wonderful villain in his own right; his thoughts and actions were really interesting to see because he has such a damaged psyche because of the things his mother did to him in  his infancy and childhood. At some moments the reader can even catch a glimpse of the little good that is left in his flawed character that his mother tried so hard to eradicate. You get the sense that in his own twisted, cruel way he does love Mare; but that love eventually turns into a sick desire to own her and be in control of every aspect of her life; though you really can't call her captivity much of a life it is really more of just existing and her trying to stay alive until she can escape and get back to those she loves and wants to save.  I have to say even though Maven is the villain in this series he really is one of the most interesting and enthralling characters especially because the reader never knows what he might do next and that adds a sense of suspense to the book that really helps draw the reader into the story.

This book was very easy to read. I once again enjoyed the type of font Aveyard used because it was easy to read and didn't lead to a headache which is often my problem after hours of reading a book.  This is my new favorite book in this series so far;  I really thought Aveyard outdid herself in this one especially with the ending which for me was completely a surprise and unexpected. I love that feeling when after you read the last page in a book you physically have to stop for a minute because it rattled you and was not what you were expecting at all.  I like this because every story automatically having a happy ending can get quite boring and stale; I feel that with her ending in this book Aveyard really outdid herself.  

If you liked the first two books in this series you will love this one in my opinion and won't be able to put it down...I know I couldn't (I finished the entire book in two days).  So be sure to pick it up or download it; its worth the price; Aveyard is right now at least my favorite author so far this year. =)