As with Court of the Vampire Queen, I won’t be including anything for the last chapter or the epilogue because that’s yours to read and find out about! This block of Red Queen was so quick and filled with betrayal, it left my mind reeling.
If you want to read the book and fill in the gaps, you can get the book here.
In case you also want to read the previous chapters, they can all be found here.
Cal might be born to rule, but Maven was meant for it. And Maven is willing to change the world for us, for the Reds he was raised to spit on.
If anything happens to Maven, Victoria Aveyard and I are going to have beef.
“Our people at the war front say it isn’t much different up there either. The fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds are being put into their own legion. They won’t survive for long.”
Sending literal children into a war is a different kind of torture especially if they are being put into their own units. These kids won’t know how to fight, they will all die where they are sent
“You want me to pin my entire operation, the entire revolution, on some teenaged love story? I can’t believe this.”
Love can make people do crazy things and I speak from experience. 18 or 31, age is irrelevant.
If we win in the morning, the sun will set on a new world. The king will throw down his crown, passing his power to me, Maven and Farley. The shift will be bloodless, a peaceful transition from one government to the next.
Nothing is that simple, there has never been and there never will be a peaceful transition. In real life or fiction, no one likes to let go of power and no one’s motivations are clear from the jump. We’ll see how this foreshadowing plays out, shall we?
I don’t recognize Cal’s voice anymore. I’ve turned him into a monster. I forced his hand. I made him choose. I was eager, I was stupid. I let myself hope.
I am a fool.
Farley was right to be concerned about the plan. There was no way to know whether the relationship between Cal and Mare actually was strong enough. There was hope and it was foolish.
“You told me to find a cause, Father. And I did. Are you proud of me?”
I can feel the way that this was just spat at his father out of spite or hatred. Even given his privileged life, he always felt left to the side, the spare to the heir.
The truth doesn’t matter. It only matters what the people believe.
Julian always with the wise words, coming in to shatter life as Mare knows it. However, in the wise words of Wash from Firefly: Ah, curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!
He looks even paler than before, though the dark circles under his eyes are gone. Murder helps him sleep.
I absolutely did not see this coming from this character. Victoria Aveyard and I now have beef.
“… One day your lies will strange you, King Maven. My only regret is that I won’t be alive to see it.”
And the foreshadowing comes back! I have to say, I did not see this coming at all, it was all incredibly sudden and I was left reeling as I read it. I stopped reading at this point, put it down for the night and picked it up again this morning hoping that I read wrong!
“I choose no one.”
This line from Mare is so perfect for her! She’s standing up for herself and fighting for her people, she doesn’t need to protection of either of these boys. Least of all the boy king.
Many things led to this day, for all of us. A forgotten son, a vengeful mother, a brother with a long shadow, a strange mutation. Together, they’ve written a tragedy.
This was a perfect storm that was never going to end peacefully or without a great cost. The cost has not been paid in full yet.
Conclusion
And just like that, Red Queen is now done! There was a lot of massive changes here that all happened really fast, but also left on a massive cliff hanger. I’m looking forward to reading the other books in this series, but for now, I will now be writing the final comments right after this and getting started on my very first ARC!
For now, if you want to read the book and fill in the gaps, you can get the book here.
Bookish Mumma 
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