Review: King's Cage (Red Queen #3) by Victoria Aveyard

King's Cage (Red Queen #3) by Victoria Aveyard

Published: February 7th 2017 by HarperTeen

 Rating: 3 out of 5

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Synopsis:

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.
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Review:

I think somewhere along the line I was duped into thinking this series was a trilogy, which is why I've read the series one after the other and been able to keep ahead of the story. I'm also a little confused about the purpose of this particular book and really unsure about the ending...

 

King's Cage is a book of two halves. The first half Mare's captive in Maven's castle unsure whether her friends and Cal survived after she was taken. She wears Silent Stone wristers and has Arven guards. She does try to escape once, to her credit, but the rest of the time she just sits and reads. Quite boring really, if you think about it. Luckily, her voice is joined by two others. Evangeline, the evil once-other-half of Cal, suddenly has a voice. While I disliked her because of her cruelty in the previous books I can safely say I downright hated her in this. Her only saving grace was releasing Mare right at the end. Another voice added to the mix is dull Cameron, who's only objective is to rescue her brother. Even the rescue turned out to be as easy as eating a biscuit.

 

At the end the good guys, if that's what they are, realise they're winning and are ready to put Cal onto the throne. But he doesn't want it. Or maybe he does. Either way, Mare doesn't want him sitting on it, or maybe she does.

 

The ending of this book was nothing more than a catastrophe. All the way through, the characters were swapping their mindset, and with Mare and Cal I had absolutely no idea what they were getting out of all this, apart from the agro. And once the ending happened, I'm as lost as anyone.

I can summise that I think Cal will be King and Mare won't be with him. Cal will marry someone else and Mare still won't be with him.

 

I mean, did Mare really think Cal wouldn't go for the throne? Who does she expect will rule? There is no alternative given, and no internation that the Scarlet Guard will have any purpose once the throne is taken.

 

And now I have to wait until the next book to figure out what's really going on....

 

-CBx

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About the Author

Victoria Aveyard graduated from USC, where she majored in screenwriting. RED QUEEN is her first novel. She splits her time between Massachusetts and Los Angeles.

You can find Victoria Aveyard here:

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