Review: 'Die rote Königin' / 'Red Queen' by Victoria Aveyard, trans. Birgit Schmitz

I am the kind of reader who follows the hype, but a few years later. I only read The Hunger Games in 2020, even though I had already seen the films by then. I have a strong desire to make up my own mind and not be swept along. I think it's unfair to those books to measure them against a hype they can never live up to. This was also the case with Red Queen, although admittedly I have left it a little too long now. But after reading Cruel Crown I dove into Red Queen, or Die rote Königin, immediately. Thanks to Carlsen Verlag and NetGalley DE for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Apologies also for the delay in reviewing.

Pub. Date: 5/28/2015
Publisher: Carlsen Verlag

This is a world divided by blood—red or silver. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power. Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime. But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance—Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.

I was born in Germany and for most of my childhood I devoured books in German. I read the entire Harry Potter-series in German, I read Twilight in German, I read everything Astrid Lindgren in German. Part of this was due to an aunt of mine working at Carlsen, which means she always knew the best books coming out. But once I learned English that completely changed, to the point that I started reading even German books in English. With that in mind, a while ago now, I decided to try and undo some of that and read Red Queen in German. I was so concerned I would struggle with jumping into a world in German again but I came into it like a fish to water. This may be due to Birgit Schmitz' excellent translation, which really helped all the characters come across with all the sass I imagined them to have in the English. I am super curious to read the book in English however, since German has a plural politeness form, the sie. This also plays into the hierarchy differences in the book and knowing ENglish doesn't have one I just wonder how these differences come across in English.

Mare is a pickpocket, to her family's shame. But she knows it will all come to an end soon when she has to join the army. As a Red without a job she has no other option, she has no choice. Because Reds are lesser, mere humans to the god-like Silvers who possess skills beyond imagining. When a chance encounter gets her a job in the Silver Palace, however, her life is forever altered and everything she thought she knew is turned upside down. Somehow she too possesses a deadly power and now she must do everything to survive and aid the Red Guard in saving her people. Mare is an interesting character because she combines so many of the YA "stereotypes" which I hadn't encountered in quite a while. She is not beautiful or pretty, but she attracts almost every available man nearby. This leads us to the conflicting romances that are played up. While some of this romantic play is important to the plot, a lot of it could have been left aside. We also get the bootcamp scene, the "ugly duckling to beauty" transformation, and more that will feel familiar to most other readers who were deep into YA in the early 2010s. 

What kept me engaged to Die rote Königin however was the concept behind it, how the reality of different blood played into social differences. From the clues the reader can tell that this wasn't always the case and I hope we find out more about this earlier history in the next installments. The world as presented in Die rote Königin is a cruel one and sometimes the book seems to stumble over this. Mare begins to recognise the cruelty more and more as she enters the Silver world, but it doesn't entirely harden her until, perhaps, the end of the book. I will be reading Glass Sword next, this time in English, and I hope to see more emotional growth from her there. 

As I mentioned above, Die rote Königin does show its "age", in the sense that it feels recognisably 2010's YA. If I had read this in 2015 I perhaps wouldn't have noticed this to the same extent, or at all, but it is now worth pointing out. Nonetheless I was intrigued by the book and kept reading. The first third or so of Die rote Königin is full of revelations and momentous changes which take place almost wihtin the span of a week. It is a rollercoaster that will really grab you. From there the novel kind of settles into a gentler pace despite Mare taking part in guerilla tactics on behalf of the Red Guard. The book lost a little focus for me here as Mare was drawn between different sides and, sadly, different romances. The final act of the book once again speeds up the narrative as different elements come together and we build up to a grand finale. The ending didn't feel as impactful as I imagine it was meant to and it leaves quite a bit undone, in the way series sometimes do. Major arcs still need to be resolved and I wish this book could fully stand on its own. As is, the second book, Glass Sword, is much more of a continuation than a sequel, I imagine. 

I give this novel...

3 Universes!

While Red Queen/Die rote Königin didn't blow me away, it did very much entertain me. Much of its plot is recognisable to experienced YA readers, but the potential of the concept and the world-building kept me engaged.