Me on Glass Sword

Title: Glass Sword
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Release Date: February 9, 2016
Publisher: HarperTeen

Mare Barrow's blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind. Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

Glass Sword is a building of a rebellion, of a show of strength and power. But with so many forces working against her, with so many factors in play, Mare has to make the hard decisions on who she will trust and who she will save. Before it hardens her heart.

Mare is now on the run, along with Cal. On the run from Maven, who has finally revealed his true colours, his manipulative mother, and the entire ruling class of Silvers. Saved by a rebellion, she's now on the hunt for others like her. Newbloods. Reds with Silver powers. She's determined, empowered, ready to fight back and see Maven bleed for every death he's caused. But first she has to save those who would be first on Maven's list. Because as much as he wants her back, he wants to see her suffer. Mare hardens over the course of this book, after so much despair and struggle. After wanting to fight back but being smothered by the weight of anger and a lack of support. By the crushing boot of the Silvers and their abilities.

I kept getting X-Men vibes while reading this, the different sides and their different abilities. Also a lot on class division and warfare, the lower classes fighting back against the ruling and manipulative elite. I could feel the drag that rebellions and resistances often go through, the days of preparing and training. The pull of the places and people that all need saving. The many plots and plans in order to rescue the captured and the enslaved. It grates the way war does, the seemingly never-ending struggle to find food, to stay warm and dry. To live without suffering or pain. This isn't an easy time for Mare or Cal, for any of those supporting them.

This is the book that separates Mare from everyone, even though she's rarely alone. Her heart turns to stone, to ice, because she can't look away from her end goal: to make Maven pay. The Silvers trained her, taught her, and now she's ready to fight back. But she can't alone. She needs more. But support is hard to find when both sides are looking for her. I was intrigued by where this book went, by the search for newbloods and their different abilities. As the book went on I could see where it would go, the impossible choice Mare would have to make. I thought the third would be the last book, but knowing there there will be four makes me wonder what could come next, where they would have to go.

(I borrowed a copy of this book from the library.)