Rating: 4/5.0
Summary: After the events of Maven’s betrayal and the Bowl of Bones execution, Mare is not quite sure of who she is anymore. She has killed people and it haunts her. People have died for her and it haunts her. The trials of court and joining the Scarlet Guard have given her an identity crisis: Mare, Mareena or the lightning girl? Each mask doesn’t feel right, but she needs all of them to survive. Mare has escaped Maven and with Cal by her side, for who knows how long, she begins to help the Scarlet Guard find the newbloods.
If you thought the plot of the last book was intense, then you’re in for some serious shell shock. This book is explosive. So many things happen, and Mare almost dies about 7-10 times in the course of this book. Which is not shocking because she seems to have a slight death wish. The last 20% I was holding the book so tightly and chanting “no no no no” because it was just so gripping. For a climax and ending, dang that was so good and nerve wracking.
Mare is not a nice girl, not anymore. She doesn’t know how to be and doesn’t really want to be nice anymore. Being nice almost got her killed. Mare is struggling with the weapon she’s become. Confined by her role in the revolution, she sinks deeper into her own despair. She is not a monster, but in the course of this book you can see that Mare has the ability to become a monster and that line is very close to being crossed.
Kilorn is trying to help the revolution, but being a plain Red is hard in a group of newbloods with amazing abilities. Mare and Kilorn have their own problems, but they seem to resolve them through the book. They needed that talk and as much as it hurt both of them, I think they’ll be better off now. Cal and Mare need to have a good talking to. They are such stubborn little children, ughhhh. I know they like each other, it’s deeper than that. They understand each other and Mare needs to not treat love as a distraction. It might help her warm her cold/numbed heart.
I love all the names in this book, between the house names and abilities, it’s all just so cool! The newbloods are even better! Abilities are the coolest and I’m so glad we got to see these cool things come to light. I hope we see more in the next book. Honestly, the newbloods better stage a badass rescue mission for a certain someone in the next book.
So excited to see where this will go next! February seems so far away!