Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is book 2 in the Red Queen series, and it was tedious and disappointing for me on so many levels. It doesn't touch book one, and I don't think I can continue the series, not with how I feel right now. To be honest, I stopped absorbing the story long before it ended, so the hundred or so new characters who were introduced and never really fleshed out all kind of blurred together for me.

I made a mistake in forcing myself to read on, instead of quitting. I didn't want to give up, because I loved book one. I thought maybe, somehow, the story could redeem itself, but I only ended up exhausted and frustrated.

If I were guessing, based on reading book 2, I would say the author wrote book 1 with no clear plan or foresight in how to continue the story as a larger series. The arc of the series is absent in book 2, and instead of moving things forward, it wanders and falters and barely progresses the story beyond where it starts. Mostly, it just drags things out.

This story is the equivalent of intending to write an epic adventure story, but instead of getting the adventure started, you gather up your crew for 375 pages. Then you have maybe 25 pages left for any kind of adventure. I am sad, because I hate disliking a book I had hoped to love and devour.

Pages: 464