Right off the
bat, I have to say that given how much I loved Red Queen, I
definitely went into reading Glass Sword with a great deal of excitement
and anticipation. That being said, while I definitely think that Glass Sword
is a great book, I unfortunately didn’t love it quite as much as I loved Red
Queen.
Glass Sword definitely hit the ground running by picking
up pretty much right where Red Queen left off, which I really liked and
appreciated about this book; especially given the way Red Queen ended.
This book as a whole is definitely very action packed, and that’s also
something that I really enjoyed about Glass Sword, particularly at the
beginning of the book. That being said, while the overall plot of Glass
Sword is very action packed and entertaining, I did think that the plot of
the book started to feel slightly repetitive after a while; since such a large
part of the book’s plot focused on Mare and the others traveling around the
world in search of the people on Julian’s list of New Bloods.
On the positive
side of things, I really enjoyed the variety of characters that were introduced
throughout the course of the book as Mare, Cal, Kilorn, Shade, and the other
members of the Scarlet Guard traveled around the world in search of the people
who are New Bloods, like Mare and Shade, that were on Julian’s list. I also
thought that Aveyard did a great job of coming up with a lot of really
interesting and cool abilities for the people on Julian’s list to have. However,
I have to admit that Mare really frustrated me at times throughout the book;
especially in terms of her reactions to some of the people’s abilities. It really
annoyed me that Mare was automatically expecting all of the New Bloods on
Julian’s list to have powers that they would be able to use in a fight like
she, Cal, Kilorn, and Shade all have. Plus, the fact that she basically
automatically assumed that the people on Julian’s list would all join the
Scarlet Guard and come with them once they found them also really frustrated me.
Don’t get me wrong, I can definitely understand Mare being worried about the
possibility that Maven might find the New Bloods on Julian’s list that didn’t
go with them and kill them; especially since Maven did indeed kill some of the
New Bloods on Julian’s list before Mare and the others had even found them.
However, I definitely think that Shade had a point when he pointed out to her
that the New Bloods that didn’t join them were capable of defending themselves
if Maven found them and tried to hurt them; as well as telling her that joining
the Scarlet Guard simply might not be the right thing for them to do, in terms
of their happiness, and their lives in general.
On a somewhat
related note, I have to say that I really loved the interactions between Mare,
Cal, Kilorn, and Shade throughout Glass Sword. I especially enjoyed the
interactions between them early on in the book, because I found them rather amusing
at times. Personally, I found the whole thing about Cal being afraid to go into
the water rather amusing; but at the same time, I can definitely understand his
hesitation to do that, too. As Mare acknowledged in her internal narrative, Cal’s
powers are the ability to manipulate fire; so, going into a body of water would
make him vulnerable. While I enjoyed all of the lighthearted moments in this
book, I also really enjoyed the more serious and angsty moments throughout the
book as well. I felt like Cal, Kilorn, and Shade really did a great job of talking
some sense into Mare whenever she got upset about some of the people on Julian’s
list not wanting to go with them; or when she was initially disappointed about
the fact that Ada Wallace’s abilities are enhanced intelligence and enhanced
memory, until they pointed out to Mare that Ada’s abilities to learn and
remember things very easily would come in handy as they helped teach her new
skills. While I’m glad that Mare became more accepting of Ada’s abilities as
the plot of the book progressed, I’m also glad that she wasn’t entirely
comfortable with Ada being the person who piloted the plane as they flew around
the world in search of the New Bloods on Julian’s list. I wouldn’t be
comfortable flying in a plane that was being piloted by someone who learned how
to fly planes simply by reading about how to do it either.
Even though I’ve
always had very mixed feelings about romance in YA books, especially
books that are straight up YA romance novels, that go all the way back to when
I was a teenager, and I was actually a part of the target demographic for YA
books in terms of my age (I’m thirty-two years old); the evolution of Mare and
Cal’s relationship throughout Glass Sword is actually something that I
really enjoyed about this book. I thought that Aveyard did a great job of
executing the writing for Mare and Cal’s relationship throughout the course of
this book; and I’ve definitely really enjoyed the romance aspect of the Red
Queen series in general so far due to how Aveyard handled it in both Red
Queen, and this book. That being said, Mare not telling Cal and the others
about all of the things that Maven was doing to torment her throughout the book
is something that really frustrated me about this book. While I understand that
Mare was trying to shield Cal from all of the horrible things that Maven was
doing, I definitely think that she should have told Cal and the others about
Maven’s actions immediately; especially since they were all in danger of Maven
hurting them in some way, or possibly even being killed by Maven and his
people. Not telling Cal and the others about all of the things that Maven was
doing to torment her as they searched for the New Bloods on Julian’s list was simply
a really stupid thing for Mare to do, as far as I’m concerned.
The whole
reveal of Maven’s betrayal of Mare and the rest of the Scarlet Guard at the end
of Red Queen is definitely a big part of what left me feeling very
excited to read Glass Sword after I read Red Queen the first time
in December of last year. While I was very excited to see where things with the
series in general were going to go after the events that happened at the end of
Red Queen, I was definitely especially excited to see where things were
going to go with Maven in this book. Unfortunately, I have to say that the
biggest complaint that I have about Glass Sword is that while Maven
definitely has a big, looming emotional presence throughout this book when it
comes to the internal struggle that Mare and Cal both experienced throughout
the book; I was really disappointed by the fact that he barely has a physical presence
in this book. By not having Maven be physically present for the most part in this
book, I feel like he lost a lot of the complexity and intrigue that he
demonstrated throughout Red Queen. I feel like Maven went from being a
very nuanced, morally gray character like he was in Red Queen to pretty
much just being a straight up villain in this book, and that really frustrated
me.
Personally, I
really wish that Aveyard hadn’t written this book solely from Mare’s point of
view. I honestly think that she should have written Glass Sword
partially from Maven’s point of view, and perhaps she could have also written the
book partially from Cal’s point of view as well. The main reason why I really
wish that Glass Sword had been written partially from Maven’s point of
view is because I was left with a lot of questions about how he was able to
track Mare and the rest of the Scarlet Guard’s whereabouts so closely, and know
what they were doing throughout the course of the book. I also felt like Maven
lost a lot of the complexity that I thought he had as a character in Red
Queen by barely having a physical presence in this book; since we as the
reader didn’t get any kind of glimpse into Maven’s mental and emotional state
as he was doing all of the things that he did offscreen to torment Mare.
Maven’s actions
really took an incredibly sick and twisted turn in this book when he killed a
baby, and left a note with the baby telling Mare that he was going to keep
killing New Bloods at one point in the book. Since we didn’t actually see him kill
the baby “on screen”, I’m not entirely sure whether or not the reader is
supposed to assume that he killed the baby himself; or if he simply arranged to
have someone kill the baby for him. That being said, regardless of who actually
killed the baby, that was still an incredibly sick and twisted thing for Maven
to do. I don’t know if it was Aveyard’s intention to turn Maven into a
straight-up villain who’s incapable of being redeemed as the series continues when
she wrote this book; but after reading Glass Sword, I’m honestly feeling
extremely skeptical when it comes to the question of whether or not Maven can
be redeemed in any way by the end of the series.
That being
said, at the risk of coming across as being a truly horrible person who’s
completely devoid of a soul, I do have to applaud Aveyard for being willing to
take Maven’s actions in this book to such sick and twisted extremes. While I’m
a HUGE fan of the YA fantasy genre, one of my most frequent complaints about YA
fantasy books is that even though there are a ton of great YA fantasy series
out there, I feel like most authors don’t do as much with the premise of a
series as I think they could have; which in my experience has often been the
case when it comes to world building, or how villainous the villains in a YA
fantasy series actually act. However, in the case of the Red Queen
series, and more specifically this book, I think Aveyard has definitely done a
great job of portraying Maven as being a genuine villain who actually does
truly villainous things, instead of playing it relatively safe when it comes to
the writing for a YA book. Even though the fact that Maven barely has a
physical presence in this book really frustrated me, which I do think caused
him to lose some depth and complexity as a character; I still love the fact
that Aveyard actually had Maven do some pretty sick and twisted things in this
book, instead of having the characters talk about how bad Maven is without
actually having him do anything all that bad, which is something that I think
some YA fantasy authors can be guilty of at times. People have told me that a
lot of Maven’s character development takes place in King’s Cage, and I’m
really hoping that will prove to be the case since Maven barely had a physical presence
in this book; which really did cause Maven to lose some depth and complexity as
a character, as far as I’m concerned.
Considering the
fact that Shade was just revealed to not have died fighting in the war like
Mare and her family had previously believed at the end of Red Queen, I
was really disappointed by the fact that Shade was killed off towards the end of
Glass Sword. As far as I’m concerned, having Shade die in this book kind
of made Aveyard revealing that he was actually still alive at the end of Red
Queen seem like a rather pointless plot point in the series, and it made a
part of me wish that Shade had just stayed dead. That being said, I definitely
have to give Aveyard a lot of credit for how she handled the writing of this
book in terms of Mare’s reaction to Shade’s death. I was really glad that
Aveyard made the fact that Mare had basically just gotten Shade back at the end
of Red Queen, only have to him actually die so soon after being reunited
with him a big part of how Mare reacted to his death in this book.
I honestly can’t
put my finger on exactly why I feel this way about Glass Sword, but even
though I think this book has some really great emotional material throughout
the book, I still feel like it didn’t have quite as much heart as I thought Red
Queen had; which was one of the reasons why I love that book so much. When
it comes to Red Queen, Mare had a lot to deal with by basically having
to do a lot to help take care of her family who are all very down on their luck,
initially by being a pickpocket. The fact that Mare helped provide for her
family this way definitely led to a lot of interesting tension between her and
the rest of her family, especially since her mother disapproved of her actions.
Once Mare’s powers were discovered, she had to deal with leaving her family and
the rest of her life as she knew it behind, without originally telling her
family the truth about her powers, and why she was leaving. Mare having to deal
with pretending to be a Silver, and the Cal/Mare/Maven love triangle that
developed throughout Red Queen was also very enjoyable and emotionally
engaging. Glass Sword, on the other hand, definitely has some very
emotionally engaging elements to it; but Aveyard seemed to put so much emphasis
on the action part of the plot that I ultimately feel like Glass Sword
didn’t have quite as much heart to it as Red Queen did, which ultimately
diminished my enjoyment of this book a little bit.
All things
considered, despite the fact that I didn’t love Glass Sword quite as
much as I loved Red Queen, I still think that it’s a great follow-up to Red
Queen. Even though I love the fact that the overall plot of this book is
very action packed, the plot did start to feel a little repetitive after a while
since a large portion of the overall plot of the book revolved primarily around
Mare, Cal, Kilorn, and Shade searching for the people on the list of New Bloods
that Julian had compiled. I also feel like Glass Sword didn’t have quite
as much heart as I thought Red Queen had. That being said, there are
still a lot of great interactions between Mare, Cal, Kilorn, and Shade
throughout the book. Plus, even though I’ve always had VERY mixed feelings
about romance within the YA genre, I once again found myself really enjoying Aveyard’s
writing for the romance between Mare and Cal in this book.
As far as I’m
concerned, even when it comes to most of the complaints that I have about this
book, I still have to give Aveyard a lot of credit for the overall execution of
the plot of Glass Sword. I especially feel that way about how Aveyard ultimately
handled Shade dying in this book after having been revealed to still be alive
at the end of Red Queen. Even though I definitely have to give Aveyard major
credit for having the overall plot of Glass Sword be very action packed,
I still feel like this book could have benefitted from having more moments
throughout the book where the action slowed down a little bit, and the
characters just interacted with each other. I also think that the book could have
benefitted from having a little bit more character development for both the
main characters, and the people on Julian’s list that Mare and the others were able
to track down throughout the course of the book.
While I also
have to give Aveyard a lot of credit for having Maven do truly villainous
things in this book, the fact that he did those things “off screen” and barely
had a physical presence in this book ultimately caused him to lose some of the
complexity that I thought he had as a character in Red Queen. I’m really
hoping that the things that people have told me about a lot of Maven’s
character development taking place in King’s Cage will prove to be true;
especially since I really missed him as a character in this book. His absence for
most of this book and not being able to actually see him do the things that he
did throughout the book, and not being privy to his current thought process is
something that I found rather disappointing about this book. That being said,
much like the ending of Red Queen left me feeling very excited to read
this book, the ending of this book definitely left me feeling very anxious and
excited to read King’s Cage. As far as I can tell so far, Aveyard
definitely has a talent for ending the books in the Red Queen series in
such a way that they leave you wanting more; but thankfully both Red Queen
and Glass Sword left me wanting more in a good way.
That being
said, my final score for Glass Sword is 8 out of 10.
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