Tuesday, January 5, 2016

review & mini discussion: glass sword, by victoria aveyard

Title: Glass Sword
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Synopsis: (straight from the book)

Fragile as a sword made of glass... and as deadly.

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?

review - 5/5 stars

i don't know how she did it, but victoria managed to make glass sword even better than red queen, and it was by far one of the best books i've read so far in 2016! (well, i actually read this in december because i won an arc, but it released in 2016 so yea) i hope you all love it as much as i did!

one of the main things i loved about glass sword was all of the new characters we got to meet, and especially that most of them were the new red-silver recruits! i feel like they added a lot to the storyline and action throughout the book. we are also introduced to their fascinating abilities, and they're all so interesting and complex! we also get a few new ships in this book *wink wink*

whereas red queen had lots of plot development, glass sword is where we start to see some major character development. don't get me wrong, the plot develops well in this book, but it was more focused on the characters, especially the scarlet guard. it was well-paced throughout the entire book, and the action scenes were FABULOUS. we also get to see LOTS of new things within the scarlet guard, which was nice because we didn't get to see as much of them in red queen. 

i thought that the story was very well-written and paced, there was not one point in the book where i got bored! (which, for me, is saying a lot) the storyline flows really well, especially considering this book picked up right where red queen left off.

i honestly don't have very many complaints about this book, except i do wish these books had maps though. i started to get confused as there were more and more new territories introduced throughout the book. it would be easier to understand if it were narrowed down a bit.

THE ENDING.
the ending was not what i expected, and i don't know how i feel about it (i won't say what it is because spoilers). it ended on a HUGE cliffhanger! i need book three ASAP! i thought that the book was going to lead up to a spectacular ending, but then victoria was like "lol NOPE just gonna leave you hangin there till 2017." the ending was iffy for me, but i think it will set an amazing path for the third book, and there will be lots to build on, so i'm excited to see where it goes!

lets just say that i'm really glad this series isn't over yet, and that we still have TWO WHOLE books left. i can't wait!

mini discussion (spoilers ahead!)

PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE READING UNLESS YOU HAVE FINISHED THE BOOK!

*i'm only going to discuss certain points in the book that i either loved, found interesting, or hated & need to rant about, so it may be a bit choppy because it will skip from one part to another- i'm doing this to keep the discussion short, because i could go on forever!*

CAN WE TAKE A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE HOW CUTE SHADE AND FARLEY ARE? OTP OTP OTP. i loved them so much, they were perfect for each other, i ship it i ship it i ship it. oh, and we can't forget mare and cal! i've sort of been team cal since red queen, so i'm super pleased with this. 

shade's "jumping" ability is SO COOL, and it came in handy a lot throughout the story. in that case, all of the abilities came in handy. each new power was like a piece of a puzzle and once put together, would make the scarlet guard invincible, and i thought it was incredible. i loved how they got to travel around to find and train the new recruits! i think this was the main reason i loved glass sword more than red queen. cameron, nanny, gareth, nix, ketha, ada, harrick, all of them were amazing additions to the story. 

julian and sara are back! yaaayyy! im so happy, because julian is one of my favorite characters! i'm hoping he will play a main role in the next book. as for sara, even though she can't speak, i hope we will get some insight from her on coriane so that we can understand what exactly happened to her.

I'M SO MAD THAT SHADE DIED. HE DID NOT DESERVE THAT. shade was my favorite character throughout the book, he was always so caring and kind and brave and smart and sassy and everything i could ask for in a fictional character. i honestly think he could have done great things in the upcoming books, but i guess he won't ever get that chance. :( at least he went down fighting. buuuut thankfully, ELARA IS DEAD! muahahaha. 

so, that ending. what?? why?? they went through so much trouble, even creating their own army just to end up with mare back in maven's hands. it seems like it was all for nothing. don't get me wrong, i know this will be built upon in the next book, but i still wasn't happy with it. 

okay, so that was my first discussion. sorry it was mainly focused on the characters. in my defense, glass sword does seem a little more focused on characters than plot. anyways, have you read glass sword? if so, what did you think of it? comment, i'd love to hear what you thought!

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