Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ½
This has been on my To Read shelf for a long time. So when I saw it on the Staff Recommendation shelf at the library, I picked it up.
Mare Barrow lives in a world separated by blood, red or silver. The Reds are the commoners who live most of their lives in poverty. Silvers live luxurious lifestyles with their special abilities (essentially superpowers) which Reds don't have. As a seventeen year old girl living in the run down Stilts, it seems like nothing in Mare's life will change. Until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here she is surrounded by the people she has despised her entire life, but in front of some of the most important Silvers in the country, Mare discovers she too has a special ability. An ability that threatens to destroy the balance of power between Reds and Silvers. The royal family, fearful of Mare's potential with her ability, hide her in plain sight by declaring her a long-lost Silver princess now engaged to a Silver prince. Mare knows that one false move would mean her death but within the Silver walls she is confined to, she silently helps the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, to bring down the Silver leadership. However, the life she's living is full of betrayal and lies and Mare has entered a dangerous dance. It's Reds against Silvers, Prince against Prince and Mare against her own heart.
After reading the synopsis for this story I had hope that the story would be just as good, and for the most part it was. This story, in my opinion, had such a slow and boring beginning. It almost seems like a huge part of it could be cut out and there wouldn't be any difference in the overall book. Despite this, the plot eventually got me hooked and by the end I was desperate to know how things would play out.
The one thing that really bothered me about this book though was the characters. In all honesty, they were flat. Even Mare had a simple backstory that was never really explained in a thorough way. It was like the history of any character was briefly explained once and then was almost never touched again. For me to become attached to characters, I need them to have meat. I know, what a weird word to use, but it's true. These characters lacked the meat, or the extra something, that would leave a lasting impression on me.
Victoria Aveyard writes this story pretty well despite there being things I would change about it. I've heard that her writing only improves as the series goes on and I am interested to see if that rumor is true. I will most likely read the over books in the series since I am interested in the plot and I'm hoping that I will become more attached to the characters as well.
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