Kinda a Disappointment: Glass Sword

Review: Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Title: Glass Sword (Red Queen #2)
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Pages: 444
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publish Date: February 9, 2016
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Dystopian

Synopsis: If there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different.
Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control.
The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.
Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors.
But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.
Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?
The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.

This is NOT a spoiler free review. Beware of mega-spoilers! 

I finished Glass Sword on Sunday, and I'm still trying to figure out my review for it. Don't get me wrong, Glass Sword was a good book... it was just lacking something.

When I began reading it, I thought it was so much better than Red Queen. It was better written, the characters had grown, it was just better. But then something happened. I don't know what it was or why I began feeling this way, I just started to not like the book.

The plot didn't do it for me

I found that it was highly confusing, and the writing style really didn't have me caring about anything. I lost interest in the characters. I didn't care if Maven captured Mare or if the Newbloods died. It was lacking feeling.

I can pretty much summarize everything that happened in the middle of the book. They hunted for Newbloods. That was basically everything that happened. It was boring!

There was really no drama and the action was the same thing over and over again. Kilorn hunted while he began to "despise" Mare, even though the first time they talked after months they became fine with each other. The Newbloods strengthened their powers.

And there was some sort of weird romance thing going on between Mare and Cal. She would sleep in his room, but that was it. And they occasionally kissed, but that was it! I would totally love for Mare and Cal to get together!! I ship them so much! Glass Sword needed some sort of romance.

The confusing bits... confused me

Sometimes as you were reading along, there would be, like, jumps in the story. Like it wouldn't explain how everything happened, it would just say that it happened. And that was hella confusing. I had to go back and read so many parts because I was like WHAT?

Like when Mare killed the Queen. How did that happen?! I still don't understand. I wanted to see how she died, because Mare supposedly strengthened her powers but the next chapter was like, oh, she's dead! We didn't even get to see it! It was so confusing. And then, in that same scene frigging Shade died. It really didn't make any since. It was kind of like it was written for a TV show or something.

I feel like Glass Sword was over-hyped. I had high expectations for this novel and they fell short. Honestly, I regret buying it. I would've rather had Red Queen because I like that one. I guess that goes to show that you shouldn't buy a book before you read it.

About the Author

After growing up in small town Massachusetts, Victoria attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She graduated with a BFA in Screenwriting, which is exactly the degree being sought after in a recession.
She tries her best to combine her love of history, explosions, and butt-kicking heroines in her writing. Her hobbies include the impossible task of predicting what happens next in A Song of Ice and Fire, road trips, and burning through Netflix.

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