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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?

I decided to carry on with this series straight away, and also read Glass Sword in audio format. As I’m not driving much at the moment, I’m only listening to audiobooks when I run, walk and occasionally do venture out in my car. However, I’m still challenging myself to read an audiobook per month, and I’m also trying to gradually make my way through this series! I just about managed to read the whole of Glass Sword in February, although these books keep getting longer, so I only hope I can do the same for King’s Cage in March.

The main thing I took away from this book was that it felt so slow. I’m not sure if it’s just the fact I read it over a longer period of time, but I just don’t feel like much happened. Red Queen was packed with action compared to this one, and Mare’s situation was constantly changing. However, with Glass Sword, I felt like most of the plot could be summarised very quickly and in very few sentences.

No one is born evil, just like no one is born alone. 

The slower plot did allow for more character development, however, which I enjoyed and felt was needed after Red Queen. Although I felt like I knew Mare quite well in the first book, I just didn’t know enough about the side characters to invest in them. But in Glass Sword, we definitely get to spend more time around everybody, which I really enjoyed. The only thing I have to point out is boy, does Mare get annoying in places. Especially towards the end, she is so full of self pity. I could always see where she was coming from and sympathised with her, but it did feel repetitive to read about in places.

Even though the plot was a little slow, we did have a few action packed scenes which were amazingly written, especially towards the end. Aveyard also knows how to write a harrowing scene, which left me feeling empty and hollow in places. The only slight disappointment I had was guessing the ending purely because of the name of the third book in the series…

It is worth pointing out that the plot of Glass Sword allows for a lot more exploration of the world, which I found myself really enjoying.

 They become that way, through choice and circumstance.

Overall, there was a lot to like about this book, but it had a little bit of sequel/second book syndrome for me. But hopefully that means King’s Cage is going to pick up once more and be more on par with Red Queen! I may also start reading these partly in physical format to see if that makes me feel any differently about the last two in the series.

★★★★
3.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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