Author: Victoria Aveyard
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication date: February 7th, 2017
Pages: 544
Price: $23.77 CAD (hardcover) at Indigo Books & Music Online
Synopsis
When the Lightning Girl’s spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion?
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.
First Sentence
“I rise to my feet when he lets me.”
Review
Honestly, pretty sure this is my favorite book out of all the series. Now, I KNOW I also said that for Glass Sword, but I forgot how awesome King’s Cage was! Beware, I might be spoiling a bit in the upcoming paragraphs.
First off, Mare and Cal’s relationship goes through a lot of turmoil in this one. Mare being taken in as a prisoner and Cal’s indecisiveness towards the crown or the people, takes a big toll on them both. It was really hard to read because compared to most YA relationships they were pretty chill and not so uptight with each other which made it so much more chill to read and way less cringy than other books. I think a lot of this goes to Victoria Aveyard’s writing style but also the fact that both of their characters are very mature and responsible compared to most YA relationships.
Mare also goes through so much in this novel, her character really takes a crash. Her prisoner status has made her more vulnerable and sensitive so the downfall of her character is really evident to anyone who reads this one. Although she has Cal, Kilorn, and her family to help her get through it. We do see so much more of the Barrows in this novel, Mare enventually goes and lives with them again and we get to really know Bree and Tramy, – and their relationship with Mare – which weren’t as developed in the first two novels.
“Those who know what it’s like in the dark will do anything to stay in the light.”
― King’s Cage
My favorite scene in this book would of had to have been when the Scarlet Guard went out to save Mare. The battle scenes sounded so dramatic and epic… it was awesome! The little mind game that got played on Mare and Cal to fight each other was mighty intense. There was no battle this crazy in RQ or GS!
Once again, Victoria Aveyard does an amazing job at explaining everything poetically, throughly but with no dwelling, there’s never too much detail, but there’s always enough to picture it in my head. Some novels will spend half a page describing the light of a table lamp on a ceiling… like you could of just wrote less about that lamp and I would of still been able to picture it, and you’d have saved some paper!
Final Review/Recommendation
King’s Cage is definitely my favorite novel out of the Red Queen series. It never had a dull moment, was full of crazy twists and was really well written for a YA novel.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed Red Queen and Glass Sword or to someone who’d like to pick up an intense Fantasy/Dystopian/Romance series!
“As you enter, you pray to leave. As you leave, you pray to never return.”
― King’s Cage