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In a world where the color of your blood determines your place in society, Mare Barrow’s greatest fear is conscription to the King’s army. All those who are jobless and red blooded are sent to war, and Mare is both of those things. A chance encounter with a kind stranger lands Mare a job as a royal servant, and she is sent to work at the palace. There Mare learns that the stranger was the Crown Prince, and that the silver blooded are worse than she believed. In an accident that should have led to Mare’s death, she discovers she has powers that shouldn’t be possible in someone with red blood. Mare is thrown into a life at court when the king and queen demand she must pretend she is a Silver. In the midst of rising unrest in the kingdom, Mare must learn to become someone she is not while protecting her heart from those who want to hurt her.

The division of society in Red Queen by the color of their blood shows the danger of discrimination in our world. The Reds are suppressed and made to work the worst jobs and fight the Silvers’ wars. The Silvers enjoy the best of everything and never see a day of work because of the color of their blood and the power it holds. This leads to Reds banding together to see that the Silvers get a taste of what it is like to be at the bottom. Discrimination causes violence and, in this book, leads to war.

Mare Barrow faces many struggles in Red Queen, the greatest of which is pretending to be someone she is not. Mare can’t be killed by the royal family, as she revealed her power in front of thousands. Therefore Mare must pretend to be a cold and haughty silver, and use her false story of being a Silver raised by Red parents to stop the uprising of Reds. Mare is forced to fight for her enemy, or else everyone she loves will die.

The greatest reoccurring theme in Red Queen is the danger of trust misplaced. When Mare places her trust in Maven, she is deceived and ordered to be executed for crimes they both shared. Mare puts her trust in Cal, but he repays her by turning her in as a traitor to the crown. By the end of the book Mare has resolved to never trust anyone again that easily, and she struggles to believe the words of her brother and her best friend.

Mare’s extraordinary electric power is well written and really cool. Mare can sense all electricity around her, making no camera or electric weapon hidden to her. She can also trigger blackouts, control storms, and defeat those with water powers. I liked how the author hinted about Mare’s powers before she discovered them, like when Mare turned the electricity in her house back on after they ran out.

This book was fast moving, interesting, and I would recommend it to others. I enjoyed reading about Mare’s journey from villager to palace servant to princess to prisoner to rebel. I would give this book an eight and a half out of ten stars and I can’t wait to find out what will happen in the next book.