Book Review: Glass Sword

Following on from the first novel in the series, Red Queen we follow the mind of the unusual Mare Barrow once again in Glass Sword. The novel begins immediately from where the first book left off, with a bang. Trapped by her Red blood status but with her Silver abilities, she tries to run from her former friend, love and Prince; no longer sure if Maven is truly who she thought he was, she is constantly on the run from his pursuit of her. Along the way, she discovers that she is not the only one of her kind; essentially she begins building an army, training and understanding herself and others like her, although at points Mare becomes unrecognisable. Changed forever by the actions of Maven and his mother, Mare has started to become exactly the kind of monster that she so desperately seeks to overthrow. Through being betrayed so many times, she’s no longer able to trust or form regular friendships to the point that she doesn’t truly believe or trust in herself either. The majority of this book is based around military tactics, such as training, planning and attempts to takeover the Kingdom. Mare has a genuine understanding of the difference between right and wrong, although through the lengths that she goes to protect others, she creates a ridiculous amount of pressure on herself to be stronger, faster, cleverer... By doing so, she begins to lose her purpose and her sense of self. Her own mind is tearing her apart.

There is a lot of character development for Mare in Glass Sword; she begins to hone her ability and build an army, although as I’ve said, she does start to lose her sense of self, unfortunately. This is what helps the reader to remember how truly young she is, how strong and how much life has thrown the world into her face. As a reader, it is difficult to witness characters that were previously loved and trust begin to betray Mare, although ultimately it is unsurprising due to the world being at war. Mare is both a thinker and an actioneer, which at times does lead to her personality taking over the plot at times as the world is told purely from her first hand perspective and so naturally, Mare does miss some vital points in some cases. It was interesting to see her relationships develop, particularly between Cal and Maven, the two Princes. This second part of the series is definitely more focused on action rather than romance, although both sides of the story are beautifully written, with the reader constantly wanting more information and clarification on thoughts, feelings and intentions. I liked the realistic portrayal of the relationship between Mare and the Princes, how both Mare and Cal mourned the loss of the boy that they believed that they knew; it is so important to remember just how young they all are, as that is the key reason why each of the three 'main' characters have such explosive reactions to the various situations that arise.

Overall, I wasn't as impressed with Glass Sword as I was with Red Queen, but regardless it was still a fantastic read. Victoria Aveyard really knows how to craft a villain, as well as set the scenes for war and add many more characters in the midst of this. The final chapter of this book absolutely saved the whole novel for me; not only was it a cracking cliffhanger, it was beautifully orchestrated. One of issues that I had throughout this book was the amount of emphasis on military operations; as much as it was interesting to appreciate how much organisation and planning is put into staging a rebel group, it came to a point where it was difficult to differentiate rebels from the crown, as both sides were concerned with military tactics. I would have preferred to see more character development of those other than Mare, but ultimately this book felt like it was written to be the bridge between worlds; with Red Queen as pre-war and Kings Cage destined to be full on warfare. The introduction of more characters was welcome, particularly the newbloods as they add another angle to the story, although I would've loved to have chapters told from the first person by characters other than Mare to project more of an overview of the whole story, as opposed to just one perspective. Farley, Shade and Kilorn all had excellent character development and added so much to the story that I found myself wishing for each of them to have a chance at narration. This book wasn't quite flawless, but the ending resulted in it being an easy 4 stars; I can't wait to start Kings Cage now!

 

Book Review: Beautiful Broken Things

First of all, the cover art of this novel is not only quite unusual, it’s so simple yet eye-catching that it literally made me want to read it straight away. (Yes I’m one of those people who judges a book by its cover and I know that is a terrible habit, ha). I liked the fact that this is a Young Adult novel that isn’t about love and instead is about friendship; how opposites can attract. Caddy and Rosie have been the best of friends for over ten years, staying close even though they attend different schools. Caddy attends a private girls’ school and Rosie the local comprehensive. As a result, Caddy is extremely shy, most likely because she is always with Rosie and doesn’t make much of an effort with her schoolfriends (and she doesn’t really know any boys… at all). She dreams of being more confident and outgoing, like Rosie, but it doesn’t come naturally to Caddy; she’s genuinely does prefer fading into the background a little although she doesn’t seem to struggle with making friends, as Rosie isn’t her sole friend, but she seems to prioritise her to all of her school friends, often rebuffing their invitations for social events, choosing to see Rosie instead. In fairness, Rosie does seem like a good friend, but on the surface they don’t seem to have much in common, if anything. For a sixteen year old girl, Caddy seems to have a lot of freedom as she goes to a lot of parties and gets drunk fairly regularly, too.

So, Caddy makes a plan. She wants to become more interesting, have ‘significant’ things happen to her, such as losing her virginity and getting a boyfriend. In short, she’s a typically selfish and spoiled teenage girl. She compares herself to her sister Tarin, who is diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and Rosie, who lost a sibling. Caddy thinks that this makes them interesting – the issue that I had is that mental illness and tragic events aren’t interesting, they’re not something to be trivialised or misunderstood. Neither of those things are easy to live with, but Caddy doesn’t seem to be able to realise that. When Suzanne, a new girl at Rosie’s school joins in their friendship group, Caddy is immediately jealous, certain that she is going to lose her best friend. At this point, I found Caddy to be infuriating; she is the definition of me, me, me and that’s always irritating but she does start caring for others more over the course of the novel. The novel is told purely from Caddy’s point of view, so all of the character development is described through Caddy; to start with, we see the three girls in a group of friends, at the cinema and various tourist spots in Brighton before seeing more of an intimate, three way friendship. Caddy and Suzanne bond surprisingly well, although Caddy’s intentions are good, I wasn’t convinced that she liked her that much to being with; she found her ‘interesting’ as Suzanne has suffered a difficult upbringing. That said, it was great to read a YA book that covers drug and alcohol abuse, relationships, mental health and domestic violence without sugarcoating the issues; it showed the high and lows of teenage life.

Suzanne is everything that Caddy would love to be; beautiful, funny and sexually active. Caddy is sensitive, kind and well meaning, but she also encourages Suzanne too much, which is why the two girls become closer than Rosie and Caddy ever were, often sneaking out their houses late at night to see each other. Together, the two girls are pretty dangerous and seem to have no sense of safety; not a good combination. However, as the plot developed so did their friendship and I liked how they connected regardless of class or privilege. Caddy’s parents weren’t supportive enough of the friendship at all, which really irritated me as Caddy truly did try to be a good friend to Suzanne, although sometimes she definitely judged situations wrongly. Suzanne wasn’t the best influence on Caddy, but in fairness she seemed to really want to impress Caddy and keep her as her best friend; the three way friendship seems quite strained at times, particularly as Rosie started to feel deliberately excluded from the others, although Caddy wasn’t impressed to know that they both talked about her behind her back, too. I loved the fact that the novel was more about relationships in terms of friendship than the romantic kind; it makes a nice change. The introduction of Suzanne into Caddy and Rosie’s very stable friendship was a nice touch and definitely took the novel along a different path. In all honesty, Suzanne makes the plot what it is; she adds a level of excitement and fun that wouldn’t be there otherwise.

Overall, this book was a pleasant surprise; I can see why the author has described it as a ‘love story without a romance’ because that summarises the book completely in its entirety. It is a funny, cute and heartbreaking tale of teenage friendship, one that explores emotions, situations and the difficulty of starting to grow up. The three girls learn a lot about themselves, each other and the consequences of their actions. I loved the friendship between Rosie and Caddy as it wasn’t only solid, it felt real; even as some cracks started to show, ultimately they had each other’s backs and it was lovely to see their closeness develop further. The relationship between Rosie and Suzanne was nice to see too; as much as Rosie could be dismissive of Suzanne’s struggles, she was always honest about her misgivings about Caddy getting into trouble, and ultimately Rosie was a lifesaver. Caddy and Suzanne’s friendship was incredibly close, but also a bit of a surprise as on the surface, they had absolutely nothing in common, but a Caddy was a great listener and offered up her time whenever it mattered. Between the three girls, they were daring, reckless and realistic and that’s what made the novel enjoyable. I read this on a long journey and it was perfect; easy to read but full with interesting moments, both good and bad. The ending had me pretty emotional, too. I give it a good 4 stars because I liked the characters and the writing style, but it’s a little too young for me to give it 5; not trying to sound harsh, haha. Definitely give it a go!

Book Review: One of us is Lying

It feels like I’ve been loving YA recently and honestly; that’s not a bad thing at all! There are so many amazing pieces of work out there in the YA genre and this one of the best that I’ve read so far. There are five teenagers all stuck in detention, yet whilst they’re in the room, one of them dies. The question is, how, and who? Typically, no one points fingers at the teacher, yet everyone seems to pick on each of the teenagers, desperate to have answers and find out whodunnit. The dead teen is a notorious gossip, known at the school for writing nasty and vindictive blog posts on an app about other students. The four teenagers who survived detention each have a secret, and each of them fits the stereotypical American teen mould; a geek, a jock, a criminal and a princess. This book is addictive from the get go, with events constantly happening, from page to page. One of the things that I absolutely loved about this novel was the characterisation; it took a few chapters to start understanding who was who as there were so many characters, but once the foundations were in place it was interesting to see how certain characters developed, particularly as many of them fitted into a stereotype at the start of the novel, but they evolved as the novel progressed. 

The writing style of using multiple narrators through diary entries works really well, particularly as the four narrators are the four accused students. It was a great way to see into their minds as well as the outside world from their point of view. From the cover artwork, to the blurb and finally the eventual text, this was a completely addictive read as you were constantly focused on guessing the truth of Simon's death; an unlucky accident, or cold-blooded murder? Due to his reputation as a cut throat gossip, it is no wonder that the police are convinced that it was murder, but the real questions are how, who and why. Simon was hated by so many students, but the four students who were with him in detention that day all have their own secret that they would be desperate to hide from the world. Simon never mentions names in his posts, but initials; just enough of a detail to guarantee that everyone will know exactly who he is talking about. The four students speculate between themselves why they got detention for having phones when the phones they found in their bags weren't their phones; who planned to get them all in one place and where they all simply there on purpose? The novel looks at all possible angles, with the narrative voice giving insight into each of the four students in turn, with just enough information given to make you wonder endlessly who was the culprit. Who was reckless enough to murder another student.

The writing style of diary entries worked really well as it allowed the reader to see the story from different points of view; however this also made it difficult to ascertain which one of the students could've been the murderer. That said, I loved that it was hard to determine what was going on, but I wish that there had been more of an angle from the Police's line of inquiry, especially as they seemed to be so inept. This book covered a range of topics across its pages, including sexuality, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, relationships amongst many others. To begin with, the characters do seem quite on-dimensional but as their personalities formed they became not only more realistic, but more likeable (or not, depending on which character you focus on). I liked that not a single character was perfect; they each had a flaw that added to the plot; Addy and Nate definitely had the most character development and growth of the four students, with Cooper and Bronwyn seemingly more interested in their careers and futures but the foursome's relationship does increase a lot during the accusations, which was also pleasant to see, rather than fighting and blaming each other.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book; it was almost impossible to put down due to its fast paced writing style and interesting plot. Until the characters were fully developed, it was a little confusing to work out who was the narrator at one time; to start with the narrative style was very similar. That was a slight irritation, but as the chapters did state the name, date, time and location of the narrator that was something to just sit back and flow along with. After a few chapters, once personalities and ideas started flowing, the book flowed with more ease. I love a book that constantly forces you to guess what is going on, or who the culprit may be and this book doesn't stop doing it; even the ending was a surprise regardless of the fact that I'd guessed it, as the book wasn't solely about Simon's death; it was about growth. Growing up, finding yourself, supporting other people were key aspects to the narrative that didn't involve that detention and what had happened to Simon. It's a memorable book for me; it's one that I've already recommended to friends and I simply enjoyed it, I liked the unpredictability of the characters and the plot and I also liked that it wasn't a stereotypical high school novel, there was much more to the whole book than meets the eye. It's an easy 5 stars from me, I recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA fiction.