gloria
Author: Victoria Aveyard | Publisher: Harper Collins
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Synopsis:
Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal.
Now a king, Maven continues weaving his web in an attempt to maintain control over his country — and his prisoner.
While Mare remains trapped in the palace, the remnants of the Red Rebellion continue organizing and expanding. As they prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows, Cal — the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare’s heart — will stop at nothing to bring her back.
“Those who know what it’s like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light.”
Review (contains spoilers)
Aveyard is a fascinating and incredibly talented writer — her ability to delve into darker, deeper territory in this universe is completely overwhelming.
Left where we were at the end of Glass Sword, Aveyard has managed to continue to dig into the mess that is this rebellion in King’s Cage. But this chaos is what creates a wonderful story — unlike other rebellion-trope stories, Aveyard makes it her duty to focus and refocus on the gray areas of this idea. She focuses on the conflicting emotions that the characters feel, she looks into the character’s inability to cope with things, including grief.
As is not usually seen in these kinds of books, we see our main characters struggling to find the ability to go on — which is human and beautifully portrayed here.
The Beginning
Picking up with Mare’s capture and the confusion behind that entire event is a new, vengeful version of Maven — one that cuts deep into the reader’s core. Aveyard plays on our naivety — it would have been too easy for Maven to have simply become the boy we saw at the beginning of the Red Queen.
We’re also delving into the psychological and physical torture of Mare — we see her on the brink of breaking down several times.
But contrary to the previous titles in this series, we’ve been given access to the point of views of other characters — Cameron, Cal, and Evangeline. Although we only catch glimpses of ideas, thoughts, emotions, plotlines, this type of storytelling is useful in allowing the reader to see snippets of the war going on on the outside.
The Middle
We’ve been exposed to one of the most gruesome and heart-pounding scenes from this war — I was left completely speechless during the rescue scene.
But one of the scenes that left me absolutely baffled was the scene where Evangeline is the one to let Mare go. And considering she only let Mare go to protect her own brother, it still seemed too good to be true.
But Mare and Cal’s reunion was wonderful. We saw bits and pieces of Mare’s discomfort with being touched — which is understandable because of her long exposure to Silent Stone — and you feel bad for her and Cal.
But somewhere down the road, Mare and Cal become close once more — close enough to do things in a thunderstorm, friends. It’s wild!
The End
The ending of this book, however, isn’t as wild as with the previous installments, but it does not lack the heartbreak we have come to expect from this series.
As was expected from everyone, including the characters themselves, they Silvers want a king — one who will put up a strong enough fight to make some significant damage. And who do they want? You probably already know.
But with that revelation, we see that Cal has to give Mare up. That’s the last thing she wants him to do, and that reaction is expected.
Overall
King’s Cage was so surprisingly suspenseful and powerful and I cannot believe how quickly I read it. The situations were much more real, much more conflicting, and somehow so heartbreaking. I cannot wait for the fourth book and I hope it’s a great end to a great series.
“To stand in front of a person who is your whole world and be told you are not enough. You are not the choice. You are a shadow to the person who is your sun.”
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