{English} King's Cage (Red Queen #3) - Victoria Aveyard

review part 1

For fans of: Snow Like Ashes - Sara Raasch, The Lunar Chronicles  - Marissa Meyer
Published: 2017 (Harper Teen)
Pages: 528

 

Blurb: 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 opinion: I am disappointed. If I had known where this would go, I wouldn't have read it and could have pretended there's only two books. It's like it's a totally different book, compared to Red Queen and Glass Sword.

I'm very well aware of the fact that characters make some developement, but here they don't feel like quite themselves, especially Cal and Mare. I can't even talk about it, because I have no words for them.
What bothers me the most are the different first person POVs, because their narrating voices weren't individual enough. If their names weren't at the beginning of each chapter, I wouldn't have been able to tell them apart. Besides that, it's a sign of bad planning. If the author had known where the story would go and what characters it would follow, she would have chosen a third person POV. (At least that's what I would have done.)

Cameron was... meh. She had so much potential in the previous book, but here she wasn't quite as awesome as I expected. Sorry.

But EVANGELINE!!! I went from "OMG that bitch!" to "OMG I love that bitch!". I definitely want to see more from her POV in the next book.

Then there's Farley. She used to be my favourite character and here her only function was being pregnant.
And why is it that parents in YA books (and not just in those) always have to name their newborns after some dead family member or tragic hero? Come on, don't you know any other names? Be a little more creative!
SPOILER: I was almost certain Farley would die, simply for the drama. But just that it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean that it can't happen in the final book.

SPOILER: When I was halfway through the book I found a little spoiler online which quite misled me. Someone complained how Mare always chooses the wrong brother and I was like: "Wait, what? She chooses Maven?" Well, as it turns out, she didn't. I honestly don't mind who she ends up with, as long as she's happy. But how can anyone think that Maven would be good for her? He's abusive, kept her prisoner and let her be tortured. If anyone thinks that's romantic or finds that attractive, there must be something seriously wrong with them!

The plot lacked some structure and I sometimes had a hard time finding the motivation to keep reading.
I really, REALLY hope the last book will be better and even this disaster out.
In the end this rather some kind of rant and I don't have much positive to say.
  
My rating: 3/5 Buttons