Congratulations on the take-off of your writing career and the debut of your bestselling Young Adult novel Red Queen! I love how Red Queen focuses more on character development and world building rather than romance. The overarching social issues presented in the book were never glossed over by the budding romance themes. Once the romantic elements began edging towards center stage, it didn’t feel forced; it felt organic and well-worth it. I thought this book was fairly entertaining. It had a number of heart-thrumming, powerful action sequences, an exciting climax, and the cliffhanger at the end of the book made for an excellent setup for the impending sequels. What made the book interesting for me to read was the touch with aspects reminiscent of an X-Men comic — namely powers, mutations and sociological subtext. The heroine of Red Queen, Mare, encounters Silvers whose powers range from telekinetics and powerful "strongarms" to various people who can bend fire, light and water to their will. The ‘Silvers’ ups the action and the stakes, while also positioning the newcomer Mare as a true underdog to root for in this oppressive society. I thought it was clever …show more content…
Mare’s family are nothing short of pathetic and woeful, Maven suffers from ridiculously deep complexes, the evil queen gives Maleficent a run for her money, Cal finds himself unable to reconcile the disparate roles of lover and warrior, and the king remains obdurately out of touch with his people. The undercurrents of Roman insanity and cruelty in the society of the novel, such as a gory tradition analogous to Roman gladiator fighting, make parts of the novel slightly sickening — we are also introduced to a woman who has had her tongue cut out in the manner of the ill-fated Lavinia of Shakespeare’s horrific Titus