Red Queen

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Main character Mare Barrow is a Red, which refers to the color of her blood. The upper class has silver blood along with special powers. Her family is struggling to make ends meet and she has not job, soon she will be conscripted into the army. One day while at the palace she accidentally demonstrates a power she should not have, being a Red. After this occurs Mare joins the Silvers and agrees to keep up the lie that she is a long lost descendant of a lost Silver family. While pretending to be a Silver, she joins the Red Rebellion, working as a secret spy. At the end of the story Mare is found out and is, along with the King's heir, sentenced to death. When the King's heir and Mare are put into an arena for a fight to the death, the Red Rebellion breaks them out and now they are all on the run from the new king.

Author Victoria Aveyard, has now released a prequel, Cruel Crown and a sequel, Glass Sword. If a reader enjoyed reading this book I would recommend reading both the prequel and the sequel. I have started on the sequel and it is turning out to be just as good as Red Queen. It starts out exactly where Red Queen left off with the Red Rebellion taking Mare and Cal, the King's heir, out of the city in an underground subway. 

I have some students who love reading about super powers and dream of having powers of their own. Red Queen is the perfect book for students to live vicariously through a girl who realizes she has powers, learns how to use them, and what she does after this realization. 

Citation

Aveyard, V. (2015). Red queen. New York, NY: HarperTeen.