Review: Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Title: Glass Sword

Author: Victoria Aveyard

Edition: Orion, 2016

Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis

If there's one thing Mare Barrow knows, it's that she's different. Mare's blood is red - the colour of common folk - but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court wants to control. Pursued by the vengeful Silver king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join the rebellion. 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?

DISCLAIMER. THIS REVIEW WILL HAVE SPOILERS.

It's been a while, but my lovely friend over at booksandclevernxss.blogspot.co.uk has finally finished Glass Sword and now we're going to talk about it together like we do with so many books.

The Book

Me: I couldn't believe how big this book was. It's the size of a hardback, but in paperback, which somehow makes it look even bigger. We had a good time just laughing at the size of it and taking pictures. I think we were too excited to actually start. 

Alice: It is really huge, which is good in a way – lots more story to enjoy – but it's also part of the reason I took like 2 months to finish it! But yeah, much fun was had on twitter that day :P

Maven

Me: We've got to talk about Maven. I have such mixed feelings about him but I think they're mostly due to how I can't quite let go of the Maven from the first book. I really believed he was on Mare's side and I'm still shocked at how quickly and suddenly he's completely turned around. Now, he's kind of terrifying. I know I'd never want to meet him so I can't imagine how it must be for Mare, who thought she knew him, thought he was her friend. 

Alice: Some part of me still thinks he IS the Maven from the first book, and in some parallel universe maybe he is. But in the real world, I love him as a character – but I'd never want to spend any time with him. 

The Newbloods

Me: I was intrigued to find out what powers the newbloods could have that would terrify the silvers so much. The silvers have all these amazing powers, yet there are people out there more powerful than them? Having said that, it's probably not the powers of the newbloods that scares the silvers, it's the fact they are reds.

Alice: I loved finding out all the different newblood powers. That part of the book, and the bits in Red Queen where we discover the different powers that silvers can have, was very reminiscent to my favourite part of Breaking Dawn in a way. Aveyard exposes us to the newbloods very naturally though, and I never felt like she was forcing superpowered people on us just 'cause it would look cool. The thing is, I can see why the silvers are scared – they should be – but at the same time, the newbloods won't be able to keep up their stealth attacks any longer, I shouldn't think, and might start to lose their edge.

The Ending

Me: I had to re-read the epilogue because someone took so long to finish. But it's horrifying. And doesn't give anything away. Obviously there are loads of questions that need answering, and someone needs to take Maven down, but for now, I'm just anxious to find out whether Mare is okay. And I want to know how she plans to get away.

Alice: In a way, I feel like we were always heading in this direction: there was no way Aveyard would keep Maven as a background villain, antagonising the heroine just off-screen. It'll be interesting to see Mare perform the same kind of balancing act in the third book as she did in Red Queen, under very different circumstances.

Kilorn

Me: Well. Kilorn certainly knows how to play the double agent. There are two sticky notes in my copy of Glass Sword. One is on the page that mentions a sword of glass because I'm a sucker for a title drop, and the other is when Kilorn locks Mare and Cal in a jail cell. Accompanied by a pencilled "HE DID NOT JUST DO THAT?!?!"

Alice: Kilorn is my favourite. If Mare doesn't want him, I do! He's a lot cleverer than I gave him credit for, I think, and was a really important part of this book. I also really appreciate how he worked through and accepted the fact that Mare doesn't love him 'like that' and didn't try to force her to, even if that meant he spent about 75% of the book fighting with Mare and being rude to Cal.

Shade

Me: It was not fair at all what happened to Shade. How dare you bring him back only to take him away again! That's just cruel, not just to me reading it, but to Mare. It was so unnecessary.

Alice: I'm really sad about Shade, because to Mare, she finally had all three boys: Cal, Kilorn, and Shade, and they were clearly shown to represent very important, very different aspects of her life. Also he had such a cool power, probably the one that I'd want if I could choose.

Cal and Mare

Me: I'm a huge fan of good old romance, but I also love it when stories have a bigger focus. In this book though, the lack of romance between Mare and Cal was really frustrating. I loved their chemistry from the very beginning of Red Queen, and even in the moments Mare shared with Maven, I think my heart still wanted her to be with Cal instead. Now that Maven's gone all power hungry, I'm definitely on team Cal. 

Alice: It's just typical that this is where we disagree! One of my pet peeves in YA is 'misjudged romance' – like in Red Queen, Mare and Cal's budding romance was so clearly Not a Good Idea, because both were engaged to other people, so that really put me off. It probably says something about me that the idea of Maven/Mare intrigues me far more than Cal/Mare... But I'm also loving how much Cal and Mare's relationship change over the course of this book, not only in terms of becoming closer, but as the plot progresses and we discover the pair have a lot of different ideologies, and how that affects their relationship and the book as a whole. I wish we had a little more focus – maybe even Cal's POV – on how Cal's world has completely changed. The glimpses we get through Mare are great, but I'd love to know more. Similarly, I'm loving how Mare has slowly become more ruthless over this book. She's on a knife-edge between righteous and unnecessary violence right now, and barely remorseful for it, and it's amazing.