Reader's Corner
Visit this space to see what Mrs. Shelow is reading!
CAUTION: SPOILERS COMING!!
If you are a fan of Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series, do yourself a favor and pick up the third book, King’s Cage. As with Glass Sword (book two), King’s Cage, picks up right where book two left off with Mare taken prisoner by King Maven. Of course, the Maven - Mare - Cal love triangle continues and we learn that Maven has no intention of killing Mare, but rather wants to keep her around as his pet. He forces Mare to deliver a speech denouncing the Scarlet Guard and imploring newbloods to surrender themselves to King Maven for protection. This plan works to an extent, but ultimately doesn’t do the damage Maven intends. Meanwhile, Maven’s court is in open revolt against him with many of the powerful houses, including Evangeline’s House Samos, leaving Norta and forming their own alliances and kingdoms. Of course, storms are a-brewing and Maven’s reign is threatened on multiple fronts. I won’t give away too much more but you’ll have to read the book and see what happens! Also, here’s the book trailer for this book...it’s pretty creepy, but it will definitely get you excited to read Kings Cage. While you definitely won’t be disappointed, there is a major difference between this book and the first two that threw me at first. While the first two books are narrated exclusively by Mare, the third book SWITCHES NARRATORS!! Yes, I said it, the book SWITCHES NARRATORS between Mare, Cameron, and….EVANGELINE! I’ll give you a minute to pick your jaw off of the floor. … What’s crazier is that, after reading her parts, I actually like Evangeline. I know, I know, if you’ve read the first two books you’re world is officially turned upside down right now but it’s true. Ok so, why does Victoria Aveyard decide to switch narrators? After all, things were going pretty well with Mare narrating the first two books, why change things? I’ve thought about it long and hard (I actually put the book down for a few weeks when I came to the first Cameron chapter) and I’ve come up with a few reasons for this. First, while Mare is stuck as Maven’s prisoner there is no way to know what is going on with the Scarlet Guard unless we have another narrator. Cameron is actually a good choice because she’s not a big fan of Mare, Cal, or the Scarlet Guard at the end of book two or the beginning of book three so she tends to reason things out a little better and with less emotion than Cal or even Farley would. Plus, she gives some good perspective on Mare’s character which helped me to like Mare a little more. We see Evangeline, for the same reason - to get information that Mare doesn’t have access to. Without Evangeline’s narration, it’s impossible to know what the houses that have broken away from Maven are plotting and that information is crucial to the plot. Second, if the whole story was narrated by Mare, honestly, it’d be pretty boring. She spends a lot of the first half of the novel bound by silent stone and reading books. Switching up narrators keeps it interesting. Overall, I’m a fan of the switch in narrators, and I hope it continues in book four. And yes, it seems as though there will be at least one more book in the Red Queen saga. Aveyard couldn’t quite wrap things up in three books, and I, for one, am quite alright with that.
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