Glass Sword: Red Queen Series Book 2 Summary
Glass Sword is the second book in the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard that continues Mare’s story after her narrow escape at the end of Red Queen. Here’s the brief description:
“Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.
Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?”
This is a brief summary of the main points of the book to help you remember and understand before reading the full review. I highly recommend that you read the whole book (after the first book of course) for the entire story.
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Chapter 1
The Scarlett Guard underground train takes Mare, prince Cal (still in chains), her brother Shade, best friend Kilorn, Farley and the others to the deserted Naercey just as Prince Maven’s war planes are seen on the horizon, just as Cal warned would happen. As missiles rain down they all run for the hidden tunnels. However, Mare says she won’t leave without Cal who’s been separated from her just as they hear foot soldiers and Silver fighters marching in.
Chapter 2
The Silver soldiers are using a human wall of chained up Reds to protect themselves, so the Scarlett Guard all flee for the River. After Shade takes a bullet for Mare, she creates a distraction by going in front of the soldiers herself, so everyone else can get to the River. Maven comes out from the soldiers to taunt her, but Mare causes a plane to fall on them by cutting off its electricity as it flies over.
Mare makes it closer to the river when Cal uses his fire to create a shield around them. Eventually, they make it to the river and jump onto a boat that goes underwater once they get inside.
Chapter 3
Mare wakes up in the underwater boat to find Kilorn and Shade recovering from the attack. Shade tells her they’re headed for an island base where a lot of Reds have evacuated, including their parents and brothers. As Farley approaches, Mare tells them that they should be focused on finding the other people with red blood but Silver abilities on the list with abilities like her that are even stronger than Silvers, what she thinks of as new bloods.
Chapter 4
Mare goes to check on Cal in his room, but they find it a little hard to talk to each other. Then, Mare feels the ship going up to the surface and rushes to get out. Her brother Bree helps her outside in a storm while soldiers surround Cal as he gets out.
Chapter 5
Mare is brought to the barracks where her family is excited to see her. The next morning, Gisa brings her to the mess hall where she tells Mare this is all run by the Colonel and his soldiers from Lakeland. Gisa also heard that they’re keeping Cal in Barrack 1, which doesn’t seem to exist when Mare looks at all the barrack buildings.
Chapter 6
When Mare goes to the infirmary to see Shade, he’s talking to Farley. The Colonel comes in to strip Farley of her command for her failure and refuses the idea of going to look for the other new bloods on the list because the Colonel believes Julian is a traitor who’s still alive. Mare can already tell she hates him, and, when he leaves, Farley gives Mare a key and directions to find Cal.
Chapter 7
Kilorn and Mare swim under the docks to an open pool in the Colonel’s quarters, and they see a photo of the Colonel with Farley, who must be his daughter. Then, they make their way to the room Cal’s in, but Kilorn pushes Mare in, too. Now they’re both trapped inside the Silent Stone room, unable to use their powers.
Chapter 8
Kilorn and the Colonel bring Farley down to another cell before they come in to tell them that Cal is being traded to King Maven in exchange for raising the age of soldiers back to 18. Then, Kilorn injects something into the Colonel’s neck causing him to pass out as Mare’s brother Shade appears outside their cell. Farley gets out of her cell, and Shade jumps them all outside.
Chapter 9
Shade jumps them to a hangar where Cal and Mare get a stolen jet started. After flying off the island together, Kilorn shows them a bunch of papers and maps he stole from the Colonel including the list of newbloods. They agree to land the plane in old ruins in a forest near one of the names on the list.
Chapter 10
Mare almost looses control of her powers in the jet when she thinks about how she left her family behind again, but Cal helps her calm down. They fly throw an army sensor, but Cal is able to fake a transmission to get them through. Then, they make it to the old runway, and, as everyone else sleeps or scouts, Cal tries to sneak off on his own until Mare catches him and convinces him to stay.
Chapter 11
That night, they make it to the village where Nix, the first newblood, lives. Shade and Farley find him, but when he gets back to the rest of the group, he attacks Cal.
Nix has skin that’s unaffected by anything, even Cal’s fire, but ultimately Shade jumps him away from Cal. Nix explains that his two daughters died in the army during a campaign under Cal’s orders. Cal apologizes and explains Maven will come looking for Nix, so Nix agrees to join them.
Chapter 12
They’re all flying to the nearest large city, Harbor Bay, where three more newbloods live. When they land, Cal tries to convince Mare it’s too dangerous for them to go because they might be recognized. But she won’t listen, so they both go.
Chapter 13
Outside the city, members of the Scarlet Guard that Farley and Shade know meet them, and they start down the tunnels together. In the tunnels, Mare becomes suspicious of them and asks questions, leading them to admit they’re headed for a trap to turn in Cal and Mare for the money. Mare causes the tunnel to collapse on three out of the four of them, but they all have to run as the entire tunnel starts collapsing.
Chapter 14
The other man left with them, Crance, leads them out of the tunnels into a crowded marketplace where he’s recognized by members of a rival gang. The gang members start beating up Crance and Shade, so Mare, Farley, and Cal use this as a distraction to slip away. Cal starts leading them to the Security Center with the records they need to find the new bloods.
Chapter 15
They decide Maven will already know what they’re doing, so they break into the Security Center and print out the records of as many new bloods as possible. Guards attack them on the way out, and as they’re surrounded, Shade shows up and jumps them away. They head for the first name on the list of new bloods in the city, but, near his home, his body has been hanged.
Chapter 16
While they’re still looking at the body, Maven and his guards surround them taking out Shade first, so they can’t jump away. Maven has a clicking machine that overpowers Mare’s senses and incapacitates her while Maven gets his hands around her. He brands an M into her chest while telling her he’ll save her before she passes out from the pain.
Chapter 17
Mare wakes up four days later in a forest bunker with Kilorn and Cal who tell her Shade eventually jumped them away from Maven and his guards. She has lightning scars near her neck and back now, and Cal tells her that Crance got the other new blood, Ada, out of the city. They’ve found a few more new bloods while she’s been out, too.
While Kilorn goes out for water, Cal confesses that he was afraid he’d lost Mare. Mare lets Cal hold her, and, eventually, Mare kisses him.
Chapter 18
Outside, Kilorn admits to Mare that he’s in love with her, and he tells her that Cal will betray her one day. Mare tries to let him down easy, assure him that she won’t let Cal do that, but they get more distant after.
The group keeps bringing more newbloods to camp to train them while sending their families to the rest of the Scarlet Guard in the camps. They find young kids to old people with all different abilities, but they also find dead newbloods that Maven has gotten to first.
Chapter 19
Mare goes recruiting with a small group to a village for twin newbloods, but when they get to the house, they only find a deceased baby. The baby is holding a note that Mare reads from Maven telling her that these people have all died because of her. Back at camp that night, Mare can’t sleep thinking about it, so she goes to Cal’s room to sleep next to him.
Chapter 20
Mare can only fall asleep when she’s next to Cal although they don’t talk during the day. On missions, she finds more notes from Maven about him finding her and killing newbloods because of her. One morning, Ada tells her about a stolen military paper they found on mission that says Maven is sending the new Red recruits who are 15-17 years old to the front line, presumably to die.
On their next mission, Mare, Cal, Shade, and Farley pass through an abandoned town on the way to get more newbloods in a nearby city. A man in all gray appears, knows all of their names, and tells them Maven waits for them in the city with the dead newbloods. He says he’s a newblood from outside their borders and can see everything that will happen.
Chapter 21
The gray man, Jon, tells them that he intercepted their trip to stop them from being killed by Maven and his trap. He also sees that to stop a truly horrible future from happening, they need to go free Julian and the captured newbloods from a prison before Queen Elara uses them as her puppets. Mare is the only one that believes Jon, and, as he’s leaving, he tells her they’ll meet again and to stop at a nearby lake for something that’ll help.
Chapter 22
At the lake, they run into a teenage girl, Cameron Cole, who tries to run away after they find out she’s a newblood who escaped from the prison they’re going to break into. They force her into the plane, but Cameron only fights by Mare saying she’s no better than the Silver bloods for ignoring all the normal Reds, including Cameron’s younger brother, who are being sent to the front lines to die. After getting so angry that Mare tries to punches Cameron, Cameron’s ability, unbeknownst to her, is to smother people and their abilities to the point of death which she’s doing to Mare until Cal calms her down.
Chapter 23
The entire camp of new bloods make plans to break into the prison, and Cameron gives all the information about the prison even though she’s still reluctant to be there. Kilorn even sticks up for Mares plan to the others, and they start talking again.
Chapter 24
The new bloods that are going on the mission train together, and Mare finds training Cameron difficult. The day before the mission, Mare finds Cal is distress that the mission will fail, but she’s convinces him they’ll all be fine.
Chapter 25
When the group arrives at the prison, Nanny, a new blood that can change her appearance, morphs into Maven, and the guards let them into the prison. Inside, the group kills the captain and guards, and Nanny takes the appearance of the captain to get into the first cell block. The two guards open the cells of the newbloods for the fake captain before the newbloods kill the guards to move on to the next cell block with the released newbloods.
Chapter 26
Mare, Cal, and Cameron break from the group to go to command control where Mare fries all the computes and cameras as well as electrocutes the guards, even when Cal pleads with her not to kill them. The three go to the cell block holding the Silvers that oppose Maven and release them including Julian and Sara. Some Silvers immediately run away out of the prison while some stay and fight for revenge.
Cal, Mare, and Cameron along with the freed Silvers from the royal court meet back up with the group of newbloods who are making their way out because Queen Elara has joined the fight. The Queen briefly gets ahold of Mare’s mind before Shade and the other Silvers get her out. Outside the prison while the prisoners are loading onto planes, Shade gets killed for Mare, and Mare passes out.
Chapter 27
When Mare wakes up on the plane, she sees the corpse of Queen Elara who was electrocuted by Mare’s storm when Shade died, but then gets into a fight with Farley who was in love with Shade. Cal tries to calm Mare down, but only ends up fighting with her about her killing the guards, using people, keeping Maven’s notes because she misses him, and acting like a martyr only when it suits her.
They return the prisoners to the island of the Scarlet Guard where the Colonel agrees to use newbloods after seeing the Queen’s body. Mare and the Colonel shoot a video that will play all over the country showing the Queen has died, Mare Barrow’s blood is truly red, and that Maven lied to them all.
Chapter 28
The Colonel leads Mare to meet two representatives from the country of Montfort who tell her newbloods, called Ardents there, have taken over the country from Silvers to form a republic and want her to come fight with them against the other countries who oppress newbloods and keep Red slaves. Mare refuses because she doesn’t believe that all people could be equal there. Mare and the Colonel leave the meeting, and they agree to go save the battalion of 15-17 year olds being brought to the front lines.
Then, Mare is hiding from everyone thinking she’s turning into a monster after Shade’s death when Julian finds her and convinces her to confront everyone she’s been avoiding. Then, she finally goes to see her family, and only her mom seems not to be mad at her about Shade. After telling them the new plan, her other brothers, Bree and Tramy, agree to come along.
Chapter 29
The Colonel calls a meeting for all the volunteers for this rescue mission, including Mare, her brothers, Kilorn, and Cal. It’s agreed that Mare and her group with get to the child soldiers and take out the Silver officers. Then, they’ll lead the soldiers to the Lakeland side where the Colonel will be waiting to take them away.
After a short funeral for Shade, they leave for the front lines of the army, called the Choke. But on the flight there, their plane starts going down as the metals pulled off, and each of them are restrained by metal when they get to the ground. Maven is there, and Mare makes a deal to take her as prisoner in exchange for letting everyone else go.
Read the Full Review
Now that you’ve had a refresher on the main points of the book, read my full review here. I really enjoyed it, and, if you haven’t read the whole thing yet, I strongly recommend you go read it!
You can find the book here if you haven’t read it yet.
Continue with the Next Book
After you’ve finished reading Glass Sword, move on to the third book in the series, King’s Cage. With even more interesting new characters and action scenes, it’s also a great addition to your reading list. Read the summary now!
Or if you’ve forgotten what happened in the first book, read the recap here.
