2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This is the discussion thread for Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard Chapter 8-14

The pace of Mare's story is really starting to pick up and we're getting to know the Royal family.

What do you think of Queen Elara and the rest of the royals?

Cal takes Mare to visit her family. What is motivating him? Is he a trustworthy character?

Which character do you hope takes on a larger role in the story?

What questions do you have about the plot or relationships that you hope to have answered?

I still really battled to get an accurate image of Mare in my mind - I still could not connect the scruffy thief overshadowed by her younger sister, now turned princess.

I never questioned Cal's character, but from the first time Maven is introduced I kept wondering if he will be cruel like Joffrey from GOT.

I've just finished Chapter 10 where Mare has been transformed and getting used to her new life. I'm enjoying it so far even though it seems so familiar and has been done many times before.
I've been thinking about something. (view spoiler)[So Mare appears to be part-Red, part -Silver and I don't know if it's explained later on but I feel that she can't be the only one like that. Surely in this world, Silvers and Reds mixed and possibly even had children together - the two castes can't have been completely separate all the time. (hide spoiler)]

Octothorpe Reader wrote: "I still really battled to get an accurate image of Mare in my mind - I still could not connect the scruffy thief overshadowed by her younger sister, now turned princess.

I never questioned Cal's ..."

I can see your point about picturing Mare, but the way I think of it is she has always been able to be unseen. It's why she's such a good pickpocket. Now, she's just in a different environment, still doing her best to remain unseen. And in this case, that's to play along with the royals.

I like Cal and Maven. It seems like they both genuinely care about Mare. Cal even seems to show remorse for the way the world works, although he seems a bit pessimistic about actually changing that. Queen Elara reminds me of Queen Cersei from GoT though. Power-hungry and controlling.

Cal takes Mare to visit her family because Maven asks him to. I think he has a close relationship with his brother. Part if it could be that (view spoiler)[ his mother died. Not sure how old he was when that happened, but he can probably empathize with Mare in that they are both a bit out of place in the royal family and without at least part of their family. (hide spoiler)] I also think he is trying to do the right thing by her as much as he can. I do think he's trustworthy. I hope he doesn't prove me wrong.

I hope we see Gisa more. I like her relationship with Mare from the beginning. I want her more involved.

Just the main questions on everyone's mind. Why Mare? Why now? Do any other Reds have similar abilities? As far as relationships, I just hope it doesn't get too love-triangley. Already, Kilorn/Cal seem a little too much like Gale/Peeta in Hunger Games.

Rachael wrote: "I've just finished Chapter 10 where Mare has been transformed and getting used to her new life. I'm enjoying it so far even though it seems so familiar and has been done many times before.
I've be..."

(view spoiler)[ Is Mare part Silver or is she just Red with abilities? It could be either I guess. I think if she is just Red, that will mean something very different for the other Reds. (hide spoiler)]

I actually didn't feel the pace picking up in these chapters at all. As much as we learned from the first seven chapters, this second quarter of the book felt slow to me. I thought too much time was spent on telling us how out of place Mare feels in her new environment, while that is just absolutely logical and doesn't need that much explanation.
There's almost no real connection between Mare and the people around her, due to her playing a role and trusting no-one. It fits the story, of course, but what I liked about the first chapters was her interactions with the other characters and how we learned a lot about their personalities through that, and I missed that here.

The secondary characters we met during these chapters are very much stereotypes:
King Tiberias is the type of hotheaded king whose go-to solution to opposition is 'Off with his/her head!'. Queen Elara is the cold, more cunning but also more vicious type who sees further ahead and uses everyone for her own plans. Princess Evangeline is the typical teenage girl who's always been the most popular and who now feels threatened by the new girl. Together they form the 'The Enemy' category, without more depth to them.

The two princes don't fall in the same category. Mare considers them part of the enemy but both of them are described as 'generally nice guys, but...'
Maven quickly resigns himself to the situation and is nice to her, trying to make the best of it and make their forced relationship a good one. He does not come across as a very strong personality, because he didn't really try very hard to change the situation he is clearly not happy about. Or maybe he just knows better and this reflects more on his parents than on him. Still, weak or not, he has my sympathy.

Cal seems to really feel for Mare, but stays true to his role and duties as crown prince and, apart from doing what he can to make her feel better, is not prepared to help her out of her situation. He seems to think using Mare the way the Queen designed is a necessary evil. It makes me not like him very much (even though it is apparent from the descriptions of his torso (:rolleyes:) that he is supposed to become Mares love interest, making her situation even more complicated... ). I'm rooting for Kilorn to find his way back into her life...

At the end of this section, we do return to Mare having real interactions and I liked the book again. Also, the story finally kicks in again, so hopefully the rest of the book will have more action and please me more.

Something is bothering me about chapter 14 though: (view spoiler)[When they talk about how to explain Cal's presence when she's visiting her family, neither Mare nor Cal seem to contemplate the possibility of him not going in with her, but just waiting for her somewhere out of sight. But then, after she's heard the terrible news of her brother, had her 'episode' almost losing control of her ability, and the not-so-pleasant confrontation with Kilorn, Cal is totally OK with her going somewhere else without him, without telling him where she's going, who she's going to meet and why? (hide spoiler)] That just doesn't make any sense to me...

My thoughts on Mare being half Red/half Silver is that her mom was very quick to be on her side (I know she's her mom, but...). She said, "She's my daughter." So I wonder if somehow Mare has a Silver for a father.

The Cal/Kilorn/Maven love web (Maven isn't in love with her, but she is supposed to marry him, so he definitely complicates things). As soon as the Queenstrial started, I knew Cal was going to be the prince.

I also thought it was odd that she said, "Hang on, I need to make one more stop" and Cal just went along with it.

I want call to be more jealous type , possessive type ,about mare but he always stay as a honour full prince witch make the story a less romantic otherwise book is great 👍

I’m having a hard time buying into Mare’s struggle. There is very little conflict in the story thus far. Although this section attempted to add some elements of conflict with other female characters and her brother’s fate, I am just not becoming vested in what happens to her.