King's Cage is the third book in a series. I reviewed the first two, RED QUEEN, and GLASS SWORD already. Sooo, if you don't want anything spoiled in the land of Victoria Aveyard's madness, (madness you may ask, to which I gleefully manically laugh), then do not read this review. Cool? Cool. Coooooooooooool.
An amazon summary, "The #1 New York Times bestselling series!
In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen series, rebellion is rising and allegiances will be tested on every side.
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.
Perfect for fans of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series, King’s Cage is the third high-stakes installment in the #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen series.
And don’t miss War Storm, the thrilling final book in the bestselling Red Queen series!" AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
First things for freaking first. The chapters have names under them when they didn't before. I feel like this is one of the number one things you can do to make all my red alarms go off as a reader, that the main character is GOING TO DIE. SPOILER MC SPOILER, when Allegiant by Veronica Roth did it (which, I did a book review on! SHAMELESS LINK) I went overdrive into red alert. It was the finale of the series. Going into this book, I knew that this wasn't the last book in the series so I was like WHOA, WHOA WHOA WHOA, WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE!?!?? ...and I'm not going to tell you how this conflict I have resolves, because, you know, no spoilers. :D Just know that this PEEVES me and will continue to PEEVE me when a book series goes from one narrator to suddenly ALL THE NARRATORS.
Anyways.
...but there was one character's head that we got into that I was SUPER STOKED for because it was SO WELL WRITTEN (no, not Cameron), felt truthful, and just made a lot more things going on elsewhere in the world kind of do the clicky click thing like making sure your seat belt is secured before you go trundling off in a car, ready for grand adventures. Also, this xkcd comic makes me LOL sad when talking about car adventures: https://xkcd.com/1075/ ...you're welcome.
...anyways. STILL PEEVED.
At the end of the last book, Mare traded herself to Maven to save everyone else who was with them. This book begins with her life in Maven's cage. ...it gets weird. I kind of don't want to get into it. As much as I want to ridicule Mare for finding herself so simultaneously unworthy or undeserving, she did act in a way that she felt was right? I have to give her some credit for going with her gut? AT THE SAME TIME, I find this extremely problematic. I kind of just want books to stop teaching young women to "sacrifice themselves for the greater good" rather than fighting for themselves. ...I just felt like Mare almost immediately gave up. ...anyways. It skips over to Cameron in the Scarlet Guard camps, how the newbloods are doing, what the Scarlet Guard is doing, and the information they get intermittently about Mare's condition. How it affects everyone.
So the book becomes a weird place of with Mare & Maven, or hanging out with Cameron & the Scarlet Guard. There are a few kind of amazing crazy actions that happen, there is more monster Maven, but there is also more messed up Mare.
At this point, I'm really going to read the fourth book just to know how it ends. That's all I'm really going to say about this one, because you know, no spoilers?
Happy reading!
