Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is about a teenage girl named Mare Barrow who lives as a lower-class citizen, labeled Reds after the color of their blood. Living in a classed society, Mare Barrow struggles to support her family as she prepares to be taken as a soldier for war. However, everything changes when she meets Prince Cal, and she’s offered a job at the palace. Surrounded by the world’s most powerful and wealthy families, she discovers that, despite her blood, she belongs with the Silvers. The plot escalates as she’s taken under the wing of the Queen herself, and hidden from the others under the false identity of a long-lost princess.

The novel seemed to be the same as all the other popular dystopian novels: city in ruins, society scrambling for power, and a main character with a special power that makes him/her different from the rest. This is only partially true. Victoria Aveyard’s novel changed my experience with dystopian novels because I’ve never seen a book like this one. She makes Mare Barrow special, but she doesn’t give her the exaggerated qualities that other authors seem to give their larger-than-life characters. Despite her power, Mare Barrow continues to have the ordinary qualities of a teenage girl (brown eyes, brown hair, and red blood).

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. There was action and romance (a perfect combination!). The overall plot of the story developed smoothly and all characters were introduced with enough detail that I was never left wondering who was who. Red Queen is 388 pages of dystopian action and a whirlwind romance that left me frustrated and eager for more. I strongly recommend this novel to those who enjoy dystopian novels and those about a romance amongst the ruins of a world at war.