



King's Cage
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4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The third book in the thrilling #1 New York Times bestselling series!
In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen series, rebellion is rising and allegiances will be tested on every side. Perfect for fans of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series.
Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother's web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner.
As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare's heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back.
When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down.
Discover more wonders in the world of Red Queen with Broken Throne: A Red Queen Collection, a companion novel with stories from fan favorites and new voices, featuring never-before-seen maps, flags, bonus scenes, journal entries, and much more exclusive content!
Plus don't miss Realm Breaker! Irresistibly action-packed and full of lethal surprises, this stunning fantasy series from Victoria Aveyard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Red Queen series, begins where hope is lost and asks: When the heroes have fallen, who will take up the sword?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Leashed like an animal and trotted out as a trophy of war, Mare Barrow passes her 18th birthday imprisoned by King Maven and turned into a puppet of a propaganda machine bent on destroying the Scarlet Guard. In this third installment of the Red Queen series, Aveyard's frenetic action sequences initially take a backseat to the patient study of Mare's captivity. But there are still plenty of schemes amid royal fissures and ill-fated rescues, an assassination attempt, and raging battles on multiple fronts to help this story keep pace with the previous installments. A newblood struggling with her deadly abilities and a princess begrudgingly betrothed to Maven narrate a few chapters of their own, but the majority of the tale is again seen through the eyes of Aveyard's "little lightning girl," who remains a relatable and deeply flawed heroine. Concluding as hope dwindles that the Reds will ever be free of the Silver crown, Aveyard adeptly sets the scene for a fourth book to follow, amid a war not yet won. Ages 13 up.
Customer Reviews
Feels
My heart has stopped beating ever since I finished Glass Sword... I gotta stop reading these kind of books that mess with my emotions. And I will... After this book comes out
Best book EVER!!!
So, let me warn you right now: I am going to spoil. If you do not want any spoilers, please scroll down to the bottom.
Anyways, in the first book at the end-ish, we learned that Maven and Elara were the bad guys. It was more obvious for Elara, but not for Maven. That was hard to figure out and it was a GREAT plot twist. But… in the second book, Mare kills Elara but Maven is still bad. I’m not saying that this book is bad, I’m just saying that Maven is basically following his mother’s footsteps and it’s not him doing it, per say. But, in those two books I was not at all scared of the villains. Except for Elara, she’s pretty scary. But, at the very end, Mare basically makes a trade with Maven. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but Maven did take Mare as part of the trade. In the third book, it’s more about Mare and Maven. And… that’s about when I started getting cautious. Maven was basically an orphan who wanted to kill his brother, Cal. Mare was the prisoner and she was trying to undo what his mother did. It did not work. Not at all. She was close, but not really. So, Mare gets rescued by the Scarlet Guard and she and Cal are back together again. EXCEPT when Anabel comes and says “Cal needs to be the new king of Norta when Maven falls.” Mare is surprised, Cal is surprised, but he wants the crown. He asked Mare to be his queen but she didn’t want that. She asked him to refuse the offer, but he didn’t want that, he said he didn’t have a choice. So, they break up. In the fourth book, about halfway through, Maven starts getting scary. Like, nightmare scary. I’m not going to spoil the fourth book, but this is just a warning.
Anyways, if you were one who did NOT want spoilers, let me tell you, this book has twists and turns. It will keep you guessing and you’ll know that no matter what you guess, it will either be close, or completely wrong. But it’s never right. This is a great book, I recommend this for anyone who enjoys new and unexpected things.
Insanely Deep
This book is amazing! Some chapters get boring in the beginning and overall just feel tragic, but they set up the story for some interesting turn of events. This is the first book in the series with multiple perspectives. We mostly see Mare and her struggles, but it’s nice to see other characters and their developments as we get more understanding and even admiration for characters we originally hated.
SPOILERS AHEAD: In this book, we have so many deep questions begged.
Beginning with Maven, we have the question of how culpable is he when he had his mother twisting him inside out, and can he be redeemed? To what extent is he responsible for his actions when he was irrevocably set on this path? The answer is left open-ended, of course. In regards to Maven, I feel that while he cannot be trusted— and certainly not underestimated— he ought to be pitted, a fine line to walk.
Next, we have the question: Is love enough? When two people’s values ultimately go against each other, is love enough? And the answer here, unlike the previous question, is painfully given: no. While Mare and Cal love each other deeply, they both have parts of themselves that inherently won’t work with the other. They would need to compromise themselves to be with each other, which is something they won’t do. Not yet, at any rate. At this point, I feel that Cal has made his compromises: he’s killed Silvers. He has fought against his own to be with Mare, but while she’s made the ultimate sacrifice in giving herself up to Maven to keep Cal safe, she has not had to give up her morals. And when the time comes for her to choose Cal as she begs him to choose her, she does not. Instead, the two are left at an impasse and go separate ways.
Ultimately, while I love these two together, I think this was the right choice for Aveyard to make. If Cal had chosen Mare or Mare had chosen Cal here, neither would have been true to themselves, leading to resentment of each other in the future. Nevertheless, just as Cal’s love of Mare blinded him into making moral compromises in the past, I believe that Mare, while she will not be his Red Queen, will eventually compromise something in the future for him.