I recently was able to read Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard. There was a really long wait at the library, and it was finally my turn (since I was waiting for King’s Cage at the same time, I get to read that next. I thought it was a great book. Since this a continuation of the Red Queen tetralogy, there may be spoilers for Red Queen in this review.
When this book begins, Mare and Cal have just escaped from the Bowl of Bones. They are with the Scarlet Guard, but there is still a distance between them and everybody else because of their different abilities, and because of what they did in the first book.
Mare becomes more of a leader in this book, and she sets out to go find all of the other people like her: reds that have the genetic mutation that gives them abilities (called newbloods). This is a dangerous mission, and some people end up getting hurt. Mare takes some of this burden upon herself in the form of guilt. At times, it separates herself emotionally from some of her friends, like Kilorn.
Mare and Cal grow together as a couple in this book, although things aren’t always rosy. They both seem to have some growing to do. I really like them together, but sometimes I had to say “Mare, you’re so stupid!” Not only with regards to Cal, but with regards to some of her other relationships as well. But she does admit that she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and she does have to make some very difficult leadership decisions. She never wanted to be a leader, but leadership was thrust upon her anyway. I also think that other people unfairly placed blame on her for things that weren’t entirely her fault.
Throughout the book, the characters go through several different trials, and the struggle between silvers, newbloods, and reds widens. The world is complex and the plot twists are interesting. In addition, Aveyard is not afraid to kill off some of her babies (sorry).
Towards the end of Glass Sword, I was a little frustrated at Mare because of how she kept thinking of herself as selfish and how she alienated the people that were close to her. We are left with a cliffhanger at the end of the book (fortunately, King’s Cage is available for me to read now), and Mare makes a decision that shows that she is at least trying to do the right thing, even though she doesn’t always know what that is.