YA Book Club :: RED QUEEN

I'm very excited to join Tracey Neithercott's YA Book Club today for the first time! Can you believe it - that the YA Book Club stars have never previously aligned before now? But finally, they have.

This month's selection: RED QUEEN by Victoria Aveyard. The timing was perfect, because I got notification that my hold had arrived at the library the day I saw Tracey's announcement.

Let me preface this review by saying that I am horrible at writing reviews.

Or perhaps this: I probably wouldn't be horrible at writing reviews if I hadn't spent so much of my undergraduate and graduate career in the realm of literary and political theory analysis, which makes me want to not write reviews.

As I read now, I am constantly thinking of the elements of fiction, how the writer accomplishes (or doesn't) something, but reviews? Few and far between. Even on Goodreads, I'm more likely to give a rating than write paragraph after paragraph (although I've gotten better and now at least try to write a sentence or two).

So. RED QUEEN.

Another preface: I love Epic Reads and could watch Tea Time all day long. I suppose that's where I first heard about RED QUEEN. And then saw its gorgeous cover. I mean, the cover alone...

And while I heard a lot of good things about RED QUEEN, I also heard some not-so-good.

Okay, another preface: I don't read a lot of fantasy.

Okay, let me stop with the prefaces and get right to it.

I enjoyed this book. I liked it. I will probably read the next book to find out what happens. I enjoyed the world and the characters and the betrayal - ooh, especially the betrayal. It did remind me a lot of The Selection books by Keira Cass, which were not among my favorites. Like I said, I don't read a lot of fantasy.

But I didn't love it, I won't purchase a copy, and I won't rush out to buy the second book. I mean, this isn't RUBY RED, people. I will put my name on the library hold list mainly to find out what happens with the romantic elements of the story. But I do think that if you write fantasy, you should probably read this to see what all the fuss is about. And maybe to remind yourself that you are a great writer.

I'm sorry that I can't go into specifics because I returned the book to the library a couple of weeks ago and the details are a little hazy.

So, awesome review, huh?

What did you think of RED QUEEN?