2 out of 4 stars
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The book Chasing The Red Queen by Karen Glista is an intense romantic novel which is filled with action, drama and a lot of fiction.
The book revolves around a girl named Donja Bellanger, who has recently turned eighteen, and how her life turns upside down simply by changing towns. While coping up with the death of her father and the hate she receives from the people around due to her Goth sense of style, her mother remarries and they end up shifting to a queer part of a new town. There, she comes across her new step-sister, Makayla Hampton, whose sense of style is completely opposite of her, and a whole new world along with it. A fun night out to an exclusive club brings a hidden side of the reality, reveals secrets about her predecessors, enemies she does not have the power to fight against and the potential love of her life, Torin Mancini. She has the choice to either protect herself or sacrifice for her family.
The start of the book was a bit confusing because for some time there was only traveling to one place and another. However, as soon as the author started revealing the struggles of Donja and her failed love life, I started feeling sympathetic for her, but that is exactly what should not happen with the protagonists. Their struggles should portray them as strong people and inspire the readers to be at their level, not to feel pity for one of the main characters of the story. The only character development in the whole book for Donja was when she changed her sense of style from Goth to Glam on the insistence of her sister. As amazing as that is, the whole transition was very fast, meaning that the reason why she started being a Goth was not to impress people but to cope with her pain and it was like an overnight change which was very unrealistic.
The novel took a very interesting turn when Torin Mancini and Gage LeBlanc showed up and the whole crime scene unfolded. The portrayal of their powers to sense blood and emotions was very intriguing and gave a bit of realistic light to the novel. The Radiant Iridescents, that Torin and Gage were, appeared to an amalgam of werewolves and vampires, which was, at certain level, very interesting. The mystery that revolved around the murders and the secrets about the Durrent Clan (the one Donja belonged to) continues that level of interest.
The actions scenes were very well written and easy to follow, the politics and the history about the Chippewa females was described in a very mythical manner which, of course, enhanced the beauty of the whole story. The writer painted the whole scenery of Michigan so beautifully that I could actually imagine the bridges, the waters and everything else.
My most favourite part of the book was the relation that developed between Makayla and Donja. Although their personalities were very different from each other, their pain brought them closer to each other and their positive influence on each other was very beautiful.
My least favourite part was the relationship between Donja and Torin, because it entirely based on lust and very fast paced. If the same relationship had been developed in a few weeks at least, their connection would have been more impactful.
Time elapse was very confusing as well as some scenes like Donja And Torin’s love scenes were unnecessarily detailed and scene like Donja’s argument with her mother or the her brother’s change was overlooked. The scene between the Seventh Spirit and Torin was slightly disappointing as well, because the villain was hyped up throughout the book but in the end it was almost too easy to defeat him.
I would rate The Red Queen as 2 out of 4, because of the numerous loopholes. I am not rating it as 1 because it was a good read for my free time and I am not giving it a higher rating because it could have been much better. There were a few errors here and there, and a bit too much repetitions of either scenes or lines but I do not regret reading this book!
Since the love scenes were not very explicit, I recommend this book to high school teenagers or young adults, people who are interested in fiction/ mythology or especially vampire/ werewolf novels.
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Chasing The Red Queen
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