Review: Glass Sword

22718738About Glass Sword

Release Date: February 9, 2016
Find it: GoodreadsAmazonBarnes & NobleiBooks

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?


The review below may contain spoilers for book one of the Red Queen series. You can read a spoiler-free review of Red Queen hereRed Queen was one of my favorite reads of 2015, so I was beyond thrilled to receive an ARC from the publisher. Just as the quote “anyone can betray anyone” summed up Red Queen, there’s a new quote that can just about sum up Glass Sword:

“Lightning has no mercy”

Glass Sword picks up right where Red Queen ended, and Mare is in a very dark place after what happened at the end of Red Queen. Here’s a small recap in case you forgot: Maven betrayed Mare, Queen Elara forced Cal to kill his father King Tiberias, and then Mare and Cal were branded as traitors, sentenced to death, and forced to fight against powerful Silvers in the arena. Somehow, against all odds, Mare and Cal were able to beat their opponents and the Scarlet Guard was able to rescue them. They were transported to an underground train where Mare finds her brother Shade alive and well.

So we join Mare, Cal, and the Scarlet Guard on the train running away from Maven. Maven and his soldiers are hot on their trail, and Mare and gang are barely able to get away by way of a submarine where they are taken to an island that functions as the base of operations for the Scarlet Guard. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll stop there.

Throughout the novel, Mare and gang go on a hunt for all the newbloods on Julian’s list. While I did enjoy learning about all the different abilities and seeing them in action, it was hard keeping all the new characters straight. I was able to remember a few characters and their abilities, but the rest of them just kind of blurred together.

This series’ setting is definitely interesting. I had previously seen Red Queen as a fantasy with dystopian aspects, but Glass Sword was definitely more dystopian with fantasy aspects. The world-building grows so much in this novel since Mare is traveling all around the country while recruiting the newbloods. It was cool to get more of a layout of the land and cities, especially while battles, prison breaks, and rescues took place.

Character wise, I’ll say it again, Mare is in a very, very dark place come Glass Sword and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it. Watching Mare try to sort through her feelings and instincts made here character feel real. I liked that she had to face consequences and that she was suffering from what went down in Red Queen.

Finally, the ending. Oh man. Such. A. Major. Cliffhanger. I’m still in shock of what happened. Book three cannot come fast enough.

Overall, I did enjoy Glass Sword very much and it was a great sequel, but I still enjoyed Red Queen more.

My Rating:

4 Hearts

*This ARC was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

More Reading

Post navigation

  • (hello from the twitter chat last night! *waves*) great review! i agree with the fact that this was more dystopian with fantasy aspects. overall, i think i liked it better than red queen! 🙂

    • Hi! Thanks for stopping by! 🙂 I’m glad you liked Glass Sword! I’m really excited for the third book to come out next year! Have your read the novellas yet?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *