Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Red Queen was a memorable story.
Glass Sword is a disappointment.
Yes, it had action, a little romance, and some conflicts.
But it just didn’t live up to my expectations. There was too much of Mare being self centered and claiming that she understands and wants to be better but it all feels too forced. Instead of growing as a character, I feel like she has become less than what she had started as. I felt no sympathy for the characters and the plot. It just sounded like endless, repetitive strategizing with hints of irrational emotion as they avoid an army. In fact, I saw more traveling than action. I kept reading and waiting for some breathtaking moment to occur, but I got more pointless rambling. Yes, there were some crucial deaths, but I feel like their deaths were wasted. Just randomly inserted for no real cause. The story had many conflicts. But, they were all too small and there was no shape to the story.
Usually there is a rising action, climax, and then some downfall. Some sort of plot that follows some shape. But Glass Sword was just a straight line with a few bumps here and there. I unintentionally almost skimmed half the book.
Mare is a boring character. Emotions and irrational decisions are inserted into her mind. I still find her boring. She claims she is stronger and trying to seal her heart and mind from each other. I feel like she just went in circles. If that was the point, then I hoped I would at least feel some sort of sympathy or connection to her character. But, I didn’t. She seemed weak, clumsy and very annoying. She doesn’t seem like the special lightning girl. She seems like a random citizen picked from the mass (in which she is, but she did endure a lot in Red Queen. Therefore she should have grown more and become stronger) and unexperienced with life threatening situations.
Cal is not the fiery prince he was before. Or is he? Truthfully, I don’t even have an opinion on him anymore. He seems more like a supporting character that will be killed off in the end.
Maven should have been in the story more! I’m tired of him just writing these notes and being “remembered.” I wanted to see him in action. That one scene of him burning her was good. I was like WOAH, are you marking your territory or something? Do you actually still like her? Define like for you, Maven. What in the world is going on inside of that mind of yours? So Maven was the most interesting character to me, but he didn’t even come out in this book too often..
Despite all the disappointment I had with this second book of the series. I WILL read the third book. I know for sure something big is going to happen there. I know that Ms. Aveyard did not fill the second book with so many tiny conflicts and filler novel nonsense for nothing. It was probably for an even more action packing, heart wrenching, and climax filled third novel, right?
ardentperuse 