Author: Victoria Aveyard
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Personal Rating: ⭐⭐ / ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (2 out of 5 stars)
Even at mid 20s I usually enjoy YA novels as I’m immature like that. However, that did not help make this read enjoyable. I hope that anyone who comes across this page, if there are, will consider that and will therefore take my words with a degree of skepticism.
We begin with our typical heroine who has a problem with authorities, the social structure, and with skills made available because of the poor life she was brought up in. Despite being a delinquent, we will be spared the moral dilemma by the tidbits of information about that past appearing here and there. It would just be enough to justify her physical abilities but not so much as to bring a moral dilemma to the reader. Now we lead to an event, a tradition of this dystopian world, that showcases the power and cruelty of the ruling class. Something threatens the way of life of our protagonist, we learn with her that she’s special, we’ll mingle with her as she lives among said ruling class, she discovers romantic interests as she leaves behind a childhood friend, and we’ll watch her join a revolution that has apparently been brewing and just so happens to be waiting for the perfect opportunity.
Did Hunger Games come to your mind? Yeah. It’s the same plot. There are only two major differences pivotal in this series and those are, one, the ruling class is a monarchy and, two, the class divide is just about having special abilities passed down through their silver blood. From here we collide with other YA tropes like Divergent where our protagonist does not fully belong to either class. You have your familiar sets of characters that corners every mainstream YA novels – the cryptic master, a very obvious villain, some love interests… you get it. The thing is, I don’t feel that there’s anything wrong following the typical formats of a certain genre, but it would really be nice if they can be executed in a way you would remember a novel by. Make the characters more complex, draw up a shocking plot twist, throw some red herring or something. At every turn, I was just begging for something interesting to happen. I just want to care about anything in this world and the dissatisfaction at the end just made me want to stop this series. I literally do not care what happens next… but I do care about the money I spent so I will continue reading.
Conclusion: The characters were hard to like and one-dimensional even though there are signs of attempts to make them more complex, the plot is predictable, the romance is lacking, and climax won’t give you much of a climax at all. The worst part of it all is that it doesn’t even try to be a standalone book. It just feels like you’re reading through the setup so it ultimately just ends to disappoint.
I really am sorry for not liking this. I wanted to, I bought the whole collection in hardcover because it had so many great reviews. Now I don’t know what I feel more – the regret that I did that or the disappointment in the book.
Favorite Quote(s):
“The gods rule us still. They have come down from the stars. And they are no longer kind.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Red Queen
“We were lucky to be born here. Lucky. The word makes me want to scream.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Red Queen
“Their Silver war is being paid for by Red blood.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Red Queen
The Stray Reader 
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