One of the very few books I know where the title is actually saying what the book is all about. But again, I like the cover of the English edition way more than the ones the German editions are showing. I love the blue, silver, white and red of this cover. A bleeding crown, how fitting. And yes, the new king is bleeding. In a way I never imagined he would but, again I have to use this word, very fitting in its own meaning.
King´s Cage*
by Victoria AveyardRed Queen #3
Publisher Harper Teen on February 7, 2017
Genre Children 14+
Pages 528
Format Hardcover
Source Publisher*
✶✶✶½
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.
Story
Mare suffers still and sometimes loud. She seems to be the new marionette the king uses to keep his country under control. At least it looks that way. What no one knows, Mare is unable to do whatever she wants to do. She can only hope that her people will see behind and be able to help her.
Style
This book was a heavyweight. The German edition is over 600 pages long – yes, my poor wrists. I was quite curious to read this and very happy when I got it. But this is one of the books that couldn´t live up to the expectations I had for it. No doubt, there is a lot of action in this novel. Many intrigues take place and the reader gets a very close glimpse at the hate and life on the king’s court. And boy I felt so many times completely helpless watching Mare suffer and with the impression that this story was leading nowhere. Almost half of this book is showing the king´s fight to keep his country and court under control. There isn´t much of a diversified scenery or plot to see. It takes long, very long for Mare to do what she had planned.
Characters
The king is cruel. His love for Mare is one sick feeling but obviously the only way how he can express his feelings at all. What I like about the King´s Cage is, that I get to know why Maven is the way he is. The author tells you in a very intense way what his mother did to him, why she did it, and what the result now is. I sometimes thought that Maven is a poor bastard, manipulated for a greater reason, and a man who fails completely at what he´s supposed to be: A king.
Mare, on the other hand, is forced to present her face to the country and to demonstrate that the Reds haven´t succeeded. That the king is still in control. That she is paying a very high price for that show, is something the country doesn´t know or sees. At some point, I was very entertained by what I saw with her eyes. She doesn´t know who´s an enemy at the court and who is there to help her.
Conclusion
What in the world was that? Is this a joke? Well, guess what, I am NOT laughing. Yes, I guess we had to see how life at the king´s court is and that he is mostly living a lie. But that scene at the end? What was that for? Yes, I am not okay with many things that happened in this book and I am for sure not okay with the end. So many unanswered questions and the new constellation is something I am not sure what to think of. Read it yourself, that might be the best advice here.
Happy reading
*I read the German edition new release by Carlsen on June 30, 2017
Victoria Aveyard
Victoria Aveyard was born and raised in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, a small town known only for the worst traffic rotary in the continental United States. She moved to Los Angeles to earn a BFA in screenwriting at the University of Southern California. She currently splits her time between the East and West coasts. As an author and screenwriter, she uses her career as an excuse to read too many books and watch too many movies.