Red Queen Book One with Summary and Review
Red Queen is the first book of the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard. It’s a thrilling fantasy story of Mare Barrow, a Red Blood who turns out to have the superhuman abilities of a Silver Blood, unheard of in the Kingdom of Norta. As Mare is thrust into the Silver world (and a love triangle), she must find a way to help her people.
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Book Summary of Red Queen
If you haven’t fully read the book yet, I highly recommend it. This fantasy series is full of plot twists, world building, and wonderful characters that you just won’t get the full effect of unless you read the entire thing. Here’s a quick summary of the main points of the book to help you remember and understand before reading the full book review.
Chapters 1-4
Mare is a poor Red Blood, about to join army soon on her 18th birthday, attending the mandatory duels between Silver Bloods with her best friend Kilorn. Silvers has supernatural ability and fight in the arena to warn reds they’re better and dangerous. Later that night, Mare hears a bird call from Kilorn outside who tells her his apprentice fell and died, so he’s out of a job and will have to join the army, too.
Mare goes to ask Will Whistle, a black market trader, if he can smuggle people out, and he begrudgingly introduces her to Farley, who calls herself part of the Scarlet Guard (a militant resistance group), who says she can smuggle them to safety for two thousand crowns. Her sister, Gisa, takes her to the nearby city of Summerton, where Gisa works as seamstress.
Mare enters the square intending to pickpocket when a news report comes on announcing a terrorist attack in the Capital of government and royal buildings by the group the Scarlet guard. A video with a woman Marr recognizes as Farley plays telling the Silvers that the Scarlet Guard has declared war on them until the see Reds as equals. As Mare and Gisa run from the city in the ensuing choas, Gisa tries one last ditch attempt to pickpocket a Silver, but Silver officer catches up and breaks Gisa’s sewing hand for stealing.
Chapters 5-7
While Mare is pickpocketing outside a tavern at night, her last target catches her and gives her a tetrarch coin because he thinks she needs it. He says his name is Cal and, because she feels comfortable around him, Mare ends up telling him everything that happened earlier in Summerton.
Back at home, she runs into her dad trying to fix the electrical box which he rarely does because its hard to get to in his wheelchair, Mare gets it working. Once she’s inside, she rereads her brother Shade’s letter from the front lines and realizes he is part of the Scarlett guard because he uses the phrase “red as the dawn”. The next morning, a royal servant, Walsh, and two guards come to the house to summon Mare to Summerton to be hired as a royal servant in the Hall of the Sun, the summer palace of the royal family.
The Silver palace is bustling with activity for Queenstrial when the prince will select a wife from the High Houses’ ladies, and Mare realizes the crown prince is Cal from last night. In the arena, inside a lightning force field, the daughters of the high houses come out one by one to show off their power. The last girl, Evangeline Samos, can control metal and is clearly the favorite amongst all the nobles.
Evangeline picks up and tips the entire row of boxed seating that Mare is serving food in, and Mare starts falling straight at the lightning force field. But it doesn’t burn her, only her clothes, and she feels the electricity beneath her skin and feels alive even sending lightning from her hands. Not paying attention she runs right into someone’s strong arms, and she hears Cal say sorry as she passes out.
Chapters 8-12
Mare starts seeing her memories of her older brothers leaving for the army, and she wakes to Queen Elara, a cruel Whisper who can control her mind and read her memories. Meeting the king, queen and two princes, King Tiberias tells her she’s now Lady Titanos, a long-lost Silver princess, and she’s going to marry Prince Maven, the younger prince and Cal’s half-brother. Everyone is upset by the marriage, including Cal, so the king agrees to pay her family, keep Kilorn out of the army, and bring her brothers home from the war.
Back in her room, Cal shows up to apologize for everything that happened, but reminds her she has to obey for her safety. Then, she’s taken down to the feast where the queen speaks directly into her head, threatening her if she messes up at all. At the feast, Maven proposes to Mare and Cal proposes to Evangeline who both accept, and afterwards Evangeline threatens to kill Mare if she gets in her way.
After the feast, Cal tells her he sent the letter to bring his brothers home and stop Kilorn from having to join the army. The next day, Mare has protocol class to learn how to be a lady and about the High Houses and their members. While she attends a lunch with the other women of the High Houses, Mare is cornered by some of them for interrogation, but Queen Elara puts an end to any questioning.
Chapters 13-14
After lunch, Mare starts with her tutor Julian Jacos, Cal’s maternal uncle, who surprises Mare by telling her he knows and doesn’t care that she’s a Red. He believes the way Silvers treat the Reds is wrong, so he wants to help her. During lessons with Julian, Mare is trying to control her lightning and discovers she can create electrical energy, unlike all Silvers who only manipulate things. After lessons feeling overwhelmed, Mare runs into Maven who tells her he knows how it feels to feel lonely and out of place here, living in his brother’s shadow.
That night Maven brings her to Cal who drives her home on his motorcycle, and she tells her family she’s a servant with Cal. Her family admit that Mare’s brother Shade was killed for trying to run away from the army before the release letter came, and Mare passes out and can’t control the electricity coming from her hands. She ends up telling them all the whole truth with Cal’s encouragement, including being the princess, and while her family tries to be supportive, Kilorn storms out.
Mare leaves Cal to visit Will whistle and a Scarlet guard member, and she tells them she wants to join the Guard, too. As she’s leaving, Kilorn says he’ll tell Farley she said hello insinuating he’s joining the Scarlet Guard, too.
Chapters 15-17
The next day she wakes to the servant Walsh with her breakfast but notices she leaves a note that says midnight. Then, Mare starts training her ability with other Silvers and the teacher is Rane Arven, an executioner and a silencer-someone who can stop others abilities. At her history lesson with Julian that afternoon, she finds out the royals killed his sister, the first queen and Cal’s mom, because she wanted to change things between Silvers and Reds.
A week later at midnight, mare feels the power go out, and Walsh is there to take her to the meeting in the palace conservatory with a number of Scarlet Guard members including Farley and Kilorn. Then, Maven walks in and asks to join too. He wants to change the world after going to the frontline and seeing how Reds are used in the war.
A week later at training, Evangeline challenges Mare to a duel, and, while she tries to get out of it with the help of Cal and Maven, Evangeline starts throwing knives anyways. Evangeline’s metal pieces cut Mare’s face, so, before anyone can see her Red blood, Cal puts an end to the fight with his fire, and Maven quickly pulls her away. She asks to be taken to Julian who calls a healer friend, Sara Skonos, to fix Mare’s face.
At lunch that day, Mare finds out from Cal that he’s taking some Silvers into the ongoing war with the Lakeland kingdoms to the north. Cal tells her that they’re dressing as Reds on the frontline in a surprise attack with him as the leader. Mare is scared for him to go and tries to tell him but he’s pulled away by somebody else.
Chapters 18-20
That night, Cal shows up at her bedroom and offers to teach her how to dance for the ball. When Mare gets back to her bedroom later, she can feel the cameras are off, and Maven steps out who’s just met with Farley about the assassinations at the ball. The next day at lessons, Julian tells Mare that she can’t trust Maven, and his mom, Queen Elara, is the one who cut out Sara’s tongue for supposedly telling lies.
At the next dancing lesson, Cal tells mare that he’ll miss her when he leaves for war. He leans in to kiss Mare, and at first she try’s to back away but then she lets him kiss her.
At the ball, Kilorn shows up as a servant and gets the signal from Maven to start. The four targets are assassinated as Mare makes all the lights go out, and, then, Cal rushes to Mare to get her out of the ballroom. Once they’re out, a bomb goes off in the ballroom which was not part of the plan that the Scarlet Guard told Mare.
After the chaos, Cal takes Mare and the other royals to the dungeon where he captured Farley, kilorn, Walsh, and another Scarlet Guard member. Cal recognizes Kilorn and asks Mare about him who denies knowing anything about this. They start torturing Farley, but Maven stops it by saying the people need the king and Cal back upstairs in order to buy time for the prisoners.
Chapters 21-23
In the night, Mare goes for Julian’s help to free the prisoners after telling him that she’s part of the Guard. Julian is a singer, someone who can convince a person to do anything if he’s looking into their eyes, so he convinces all the guards to not remember anything from tonight as they get the prisoners out of the castle. The next morning, she runs into Maven in the hallway who tells her that everyone is leaving including them, so Mare stops by to see Julian who says goodbye because he’s going into hiding before the Queen can interrogate him.
On the boat home, Maven tells Mare that they found Red blood in the dungeon that will be run in the database, but mare tells him that it’s her blood from fighting with one of the guards. Maven assured her that he’ll protect her and then kisses Mare. They’re interrupted by Cal (now going home instead of the army because of the attacks) who looks mad.
In the capital, the queen makes Mare give a televised speech about how merciful the king is and new rules for Red villages including stricter punishments and curfews. Back in her room, she finds a book handwritten by Julian that holds 27 names from the army, including her brother Shade, who were killed and marked as missing or cremated, with a genetic mutation that Mare also has. He included a list of all the other Reds in the database he found with the mutation.
Chapters 24-26
Mare and Maven have to tour the city, and go to see a play. In their private box alone, Maven and Mare kiss again as a ceiling panel moves away where Will Whistle is waiting for them. He takes them to an underground Red built train with Farley, and it takes them south which is supposed to be full of radiation from past battles.
Farley tells them that the radiation detectors are lies made by Reds who built the detectors to keep the Silvers off the city in the south, Naercey, where the headquarters of the Scarlet Guard is located. Mare gives Farley the list of people with her abilities like hers, and they discuss a plan to attack the government buildings in the capital. Back at the palace, Maven and Mare find the guards have captured Walsh, but before the queen can read her mind, she swallows a suicide pill.
The next morning, maven and mare meet Farley outside the palace, and they watch as the bridge connecting the government buildings to the rest of the city blows up. Cal runs out to command the soldiers but Mare stops him in the chaos pleading with him to choose her, choose a life they can be together, and stop all of this. But Cal sends guards after the Scarlet Guard retreating into the sewers and has Maven and Mare captured and taken to the king.
In a soundproof room with a Silencer who dampens their powers, the king, queen, and Cal start questioning Maven and Mare, but then the queen puts both the king and Cal under her control with her mind control power. She tells them all that her and Maven planned everything, so Maven could be king including joining the Scarlett Guard and getting close to Mare for all of this to happen. The queen forces Cal to behead his father under her control, and then the turn the cameras back on as the queen and Maven are fake morning over the king for the cameras.
Chapters 27-Epilogue
Mare and Cal wake up in prison cells below an arena where they are to be executed. Then, they’re visited by Maven who has come to gloat. He wants to know if Mare would now choose to be with him instead of Cal, still jealous Mare had feelings for Cal. He also tells her everyone that knows the truth about her including her tutors, maids, family, and Julian has been or will be killed.
The next morning, they’re taken into the arena to be killed, and Maven plays security footage of Cal and Mare together ending with the king dying. The crowd screams for their execution, and out comes five people they must fight. One is a silencer to stop Mare from using her powers, and two are Evangeline and her brother.
As the battle starts, a Strongarm is throwing metal pipes at Mare, she lines up so as she ducks the pipe coming for her stabs into the Silencer keeping her powers down. Now with her lightning she kills two of the executors, and goes after Evangeline. Evangeline realizes she can’t win, so she runs off into the tunnels under the arena.
Maven gives the orders to clear the arena as Mare starts a lightning storm overhead. As the guards left are about to start shooting, guns pointing out of the hole in the floor start shooting the guards. Then someone pulls her into the hole as she blacks out.
Mare wakes up on a train to Farley and Kilorn guarding a shackled up Cal. She realizes she sitting next to her brother Shade who can teleport and was never killed in the army even though they tried. Mare resolves to find the other Reds on the list with special abilities and to kill Maven.
Read the Full Book Review
Now that you’re refreshed on the main points of the book, read the full book review here. Or go back and read the entire book for all the details.
If you’re looking for the book, you can find it here.
Check Out the Next Book in the Series
The next place to go is the second book in the series, Glass Sword. As Mare figures out how best to help others like her, she also has to balance Cal, the new Silver regime, and a world of betrayal. You can read that review, too or a summary of the main points of the book.
