Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for

I forgot that I finished this book. I’d been dragging my way through it, reading it only because the library was going to take it back, but then The Raven King came out and then my request for Eligible came in and I started and stopped The Glass Sword so many times that I briefly considered just not picking it back up. But I hate that. So I guess I finished it? But I had to read some spoilery reviews on Goodreads to remind myself how it ended.

Maybe I’m judging this series unfairly but if you can’t remember how a book ends only a week or so after finishing it, that’s probably not a good sign.

Part of the problem is that I think I’ve been reading so many YA fantasy-ish novels this year, all featuring a young, female heroine who finds out there’s something extraordinary about her (or extraordinary things start happening to her), and not that this is a bad thing, but the stories are all starting to run together a bit.

But if I compare this series to other books of that ilk I’ve read this year like, say, Uprooted or, more recently, Seraphina, I know it’s not going to be sticking with me in the same way.

The first novel of this series, The Red Queen, was interesting because our heroine, Mare, had just come into some powers she shouldn’t have had. In her world, those with silver blood are gifted with some sort of magical power, while those with red blood are not and, thus, forced to serve the Silvers. However, Mare, red blood at all, is suddenly able to control electricity. In The Red Queen, she also has to navigate through a court system designed to uncover her secrets, and has few friends. Fewer than she imagines or suspects, actually. She also discovers that she’s not the only one of her kind. There are other red-blooded people out there with gifts similar to hers. They call these people Newbloods, and Mare is determined to find them before Maven, the prince who betrayed her, can find them and kill them.

This is a great set-up for a second novel, however I found myself bored to tears throughout most of it. It’s real dark, guys, and real meandering. I figured that most of the book would be spent on Mare’s quest for the Newbloods, like Professor Xavier gathering his X-Men, but, while that is the focus, much more time is spent on Mare’s brooding and her confusing relationship with Cal and I had little interest in it.

Once I actually remembered the ending, I did think it set up a third book nicely but I’m not sure I’ll read it. Fool me once, and all that.