Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
(Format used for this read: Audiobook)
I am just gonna get right down to it and tell yall that I was SUPER disappointed in this book.
Ugh.
The first book in the series was SO enjoyable and I thought for SURE this one would continue on the typical standard YA series fashion.
You can read my thoughts on that book here if you missed it:
Well, it most certainly did NOT read as the first one did…..I did NOT enjoy this book and almost left it unfinished multiple times.
But because I am a true and devoted bookworm, I kept holding out hope that it would EVENTUALLY take a turn.
I held on to the very end….and I regret to inform you that no turns were ever taken….. nope…not one…this read was NOT enjoyable even a BIT.
Before I continue on with any more thoughts, let me be sure to tell you that if you did not read the first book in this series, you will NOT be interested in this review in the LEAST. It is in NO WAY a stand alone book and can only be read as part of the series.
ALSO….if you DO plan on reading the first book and have not done so yet, STOP READING RIGHT NOW. Because this review WILL spoil some of the plot of the first in the series.
Okay….now I have those disclaimers out of the way….here is the official book summary:
“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?”
As I started listening to this book, I was SO CONFUSED.
Usually when you read books that are part of a series, there is some sort of recap or reintroducing to spark your memory as to all of the events and characters from the first book.
Just a few paragraphs or dialogue in the first few pages to act as little “brain refreshers” to get you back into the zone of that particular fictional world.
This book did NOT do that….the story just starts immediately where the first one stopped…more like another chapter in the first book instead of a whole entire separate second book.
I was totally lost and was desperately picking my memory trying to recall who was who and what was going on and why things were happening.
It took me a few chapters to remember what the hell was going on….and then it took me until the halfway point to even begin to get the slightest bit invested in the storyline.
And even when I did, I didn’t ever feel fully engaged….the action in this book is written in a VERY choppy and sporadic form that did not flow well for me.
Other certain events in the plot just drag on and on and on and take forever a day to play out.
The first book was FAR more interesting to read and WAY more entertaining.
The romantic stories between the characters are just NOT believable and some are pretty abrupt in their origins.
Sadly, this book just was NOT for me….and I will not be continuing on in this series.
If book 2 was like THIS, I can only imagine how NOT fun it would be to read books 3 and 4.
My TBR pile is way too high to waste my time on those.
Two disappointing thumbs down.