King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard
Published February 7th 2017 by HarperTeen
In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl’s spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?
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.
I just want to start off by mentioning that I have been waiting for this book for AGES!! I was one of the people that really enjoyed Glass Sword (despite the mixed opinions), so I was really stoked for this book! I had my hopes for this book and, some of them were met, whilst others were just shot down… painfully so! This book did have a couple of issues, but I really enjoyed myself whilst reading!
This book basically starts off where the previous one ends. Mare is stuck in the clutches of Maven (by the way, I should mention here and now that I am a #TeamMaven fan right here… even after this book!!). What I did love about this book was the fact that we got multiple POV’s instead of just Mare’s – this way we could see what was going on with Mare in the castle and what was happening back with the Scarlet Guard. I really enjoyed the switch back and forth and I found it really easy to keep up with who I was reading at any one time.
So, I was hoping for some more Maven time in this book because we received very little of him in the previous one – only from a distance. I wanted to see more of him and what made him tick – I personally don’t believe he is inherently evil and I think there is definitely some form of redemption in there somewhere! I loved the relationship between Mare and Maven because it is so twisty and turny and you have no idea what is going to happen next! I really enjoyed the way that Mare brought a side of Maven into the light, which we would never normally get to see because he likes to keep himself closed off! I actually felt really sorry for him in certain parts … can I adopt him? I also liked MAre’s indecision with him because she says that she hates him, but finds herself feeling other feelings for him in certain parts.
I also really enjoyed Mare’s development as a character. I definitely think that she should not have been subjected to what she was, but at the same time, it changed her in certain ways for the better! Especially when it came to her other relationships with members in the Scarlet Guard – they improved after her ordeal and I think that is definitely going to be an interesting factor going forward! I feel like it also made her more likeable as a character herself? I could feel myself empathising with her throughout most of the book!
I was getting pretty annoyed through some of the book because my ship was sinking faster than the titanic!! I don’t want to say too much because of spoilers etc. But I really didn’t feel the connection between Cal and Mare (and I haven’t since they first started their rendezvous right at the very beginning) and I just wanted to smack both of them! I do, however, still have really high hope for my ship and I think something will happen to make it work!
As I mentioned before, I really enjoyed the POV change in this book. I feel like Cameron’s voice was a great choice because she remains unbiased when it comes to Mare’s situation and it made for an interesting read. I loved getting inside of her head and watching the events unfold from her perspective! I was also really surprised with the couple of chapters from Evangeline’s perspective. I actually really disliked her as a character throughout because she seemed really cold and heartless… but then we started reading things from her perspective, and some of her actions redeemed her in some ways, even if she is still horrid sometimes! I can understand why and how she justifies what she does!
Can we just mention that really bittersweet ending? I mean, I am kind of glad that it happened because of reasons (which you will understand if you have read both the book and the other parts of this review), but at the same time I am really excited about what is going to happen next! Especially because they revealed what they are planning on doing and I am kind of intrigued to see who does what first…
I do have to say, though, that considering this is a published book – there were quite a few typos and it actually really bugged me! It would have been ok if it was just one or two, but they cropped up a lot throughout the book and I feel like this could have definitely gone through another round of proof reading!
All in all, I really enjoyed this book! I definitely cannot wait for the next instalment and I really hope there are less typo’s in it! I gave this book 4/5 stars.
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