The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.

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?

Okay. SO, do you guys remember how I said I saw a lot of resemblance to the Hunger Games in this novel’s predecessor, The Red Queen? Welp, it only got worse. Thus, it is difficult for me to give a real review  of this, because I think I am biased.

So, instead of an in-depth review, I am going to give a mild overview, and then discuss a few of the key points I have issues with.

Overall, the writing was nice. Despite the issues I had with the plot, the writing kept me reading. Perhaps this is part of why the plot issues bothered me so much – there was wasted potential.

So, here are a few of the things I saw overlap.

1. The heroine is being selected to help with a fight (Huger Games/war) by a corrupt government. This government does not value her life, because she is from one of their lowly villages in the country, not from the overly-wealthy, showy, materialistic capital of their world.
2. Obvious love triangle. This is more of a YA cliche in general, however.
3. Once heroine is in the capital, she is forced to be a figure head for them. She managed to evade death, and instead of letting her cause more issues, the leaders decided she would be helpful to smother a revolution.
4. Instead of smothering the revolution, the heroine joins it. The Girl On Fire/Little Lightening Girl become the leaders of the revolution. She can prove to the government that these lowly beings from the villages are worth while.
5. The heroine, once rescued from an arena, where she is being forced to fight to the death against friends, including her love interest, is sent to a very secret place. This secret place is a district of their country that was supposedly destroyed, but apparently existed all the time, and is headquarters for the revolution.
6. In this hidden district, there are further issues. Apparently, the leader of this group is almost as corrupt and evil as the leader of the entire country. The heroine may have to kill them.

This list could go on. It could go on for quite some time. There were many characteristics in this story that were similar, though much more menial (like, heroines both being painted up with makeup/fancy clothes to fit into the culture of the capital), and then more major plot points that paralleled. At first, I thought it was just coincidence. However, at a certain point, it was a little ridiculous how close they were in plot. I am surprised there are not more people pointing this out…

I will be reading the final novel, to see if it gets worse, so wait for the concluding post of “this is disappointing me!” I hope to see more original content from this author, as I do like her style.

Maddie