King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard
In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl’s spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?
Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother’s web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.
As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare’s heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.
When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.
I felt a little cheated at first. The Red Queen series was supposed to be a trilogy. Somewhere along the way, it was quietly changed into…a quartet? A quintet? At any rate, I have spent all these months since I read Glass Sword being hyped to see how the series wraps up in King’s Cage. Oh well. I got over it. More books to read I guess.
Though I’m not sure my heart can take the stress any longer. I never see the twists coming if Victoria Aveyard is writing. I’m kind of as stupid as Mare in that way. But there were a lot of twists in this book and So. Much. Stress. It took me a little bit to get through this book because I couldn’t handle the book’s stress on top of regular life stress. I need the next book like yesterday. In some ways I wish I hadn’t started the series yet so I could just read them all at once.
A lot of people didn’t like Glass Sword that much and were hoping King’s Cage would be better. I liked Glass Sword a lot and I thought King’s Cage was just as good. I think Red Queen is still my favorite of the three, but I don’t have a lot to complain about with this series. Mare doesn’t bother me as a character. I don’t find her annoying or self-centered. I think expecting her to be a well-rounded human being at seventeen, eighteen years old is a lot to ask of a character. People who don’t like Mare will most likely be pleased to know that you get two other narrative viewpoints in this novel, though it’s still mostly Mare.
Side note that has nothing to do with King’s Cage: Victoria Aveyard is pretty anti-Trump on Instagram and you can really feel why in this book. I’d image it’s difficult not to write about a rebellion against an oppressive regime and really come out on the side of someone like Trump. I try to keep politics out of my blog, but I have to give Victoria props: the dedication page features a quote from Hilary Clinton and the acknowledgements close out on thanking everyone, many by name, fighting the good fight. You go girl! So proud of you using your platform and your art to fight!
Also, I maintain that Victoria and I are going to best friends one day. Girl is GOALS.
