An entire group of people without power, set apart and afforded fewer opportunities based on a quirk of birth. Established safe zones for those people, which maybe might not be so safe anymore. Fear of an uprising of an entire social class to topple a powerful, obstinate political leader.
These qualities could very easily describe the American political landscape today, but they’re also key descriptors of the world of “Red Queen” heroine Mare Barrow. When the news is getting to be just a little too much, Victoria Aveyard’s trilogy of fantasy novels may be just the brand of brutal escapism the doctor ordered.
Whether you bleed blue or exist in a red state, current events have been moving at warp speed lately, and the effect is nothing short of dizzying for anyone paying attention. For authors and readers of dystopian narratives, some parts of reality are coming a little too close to the fictional world.
Author Aveyard never expected that her best-selling Young Adult “Red Queen” series would be so prescient, even though it was in part inspired by the have and have-not socioeconomic stratification that informed the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011.
“Usually dystopian stories take place long after they’ve been established, and I think it’s because the actual fall into dystopia is so unbelievable and so unrealistic that it wouldn’t be able to be fiction, as we’re kind of seeing right now,” the 26-year-old told The Post of her debut series. “You could not have written this — this is just so much stranger than what anyone could’ve possibly written.”
Luckily, Aveyard’s series juxtaposes the theme of resistance with a supernatural element that helps to set apart fact from fiction. And it’s exactly that element of fantasy that makes the series such a clutch means of escape for readers.
The third installment of the “Red Queen” series, “King’s Cage,” drops Feb. 7 and only heightens the real-world parallels as heroine Mare continues on her unlikely quest to topple an all-powerful king and bring equality to her kin. Here are six reasons the “Red Queen” series and “King’s Cage” should be next on your to-read list.
Katniss Everdeen, Tris Prior, and now Mare Barrow. Red Queen protagonist Mare Barrow hails from the “red” side of culture — that is, those traditionally not born with extraordinary powers — but works her way into the inner circle of the so-called “silvers,” who by and large control all of society. She’s savvy, tough, and even cooler than her “silver” contemporaries, so let’s just say … the Lightning Girl works her own kind of magic, and her journey is one that very easily gets fists pumping.
“The one percenter and the Occupy movement happened when I was in college, and I was about to graduate with a ton of loans and a film degree into a recession and that was really scary,” Aveyard explained. “And that came out a lot in the first book, in addition to just the way people are treated for being different — that sort of fear of being trapped into your circumstances.” Indeed, having a heroine who’s able to supersede all expectations is exhilarating.
‘You can go the ‘Lord of the Rings’ route, or you can go this route, which is what a fantasy would really look like if this is reality.’
Let’s face facts here. Gore sells, even in print. There’s something terribly delicious about that moment in a story when the stakes are proven to be very, very real for its characters, and with Aveyard’s books, there’s no doubt that actions have a grave consequences. Nothing’s held back in the way of visceral descriptors, so squeamish readers need not apply. Aveyard said she was inspired by the “Game of Thrones” series’ commitment to bloodshed when she tapped out her novels because George R.R. Martin’s series “was a watershed for fantasy because it showed, you can go the ‘Lord of the Rings’ route, or you can go this route, which is what a fantasy would really look like if this is reality.”
‘You can go the ‘Lord of the Rings’ route, or you can go this route, which is what a fantasy would really look like if this is reality.’
Not to give too much away, but Mare Barrow takes a shine to one of the silvers and ends up forced to cozy up to another, leading to many awkward moments between the trio and the development of one insane payoff dispute between them. By the end of book two, “Glass Sword,” the resolution of this romantic disconnect is hardly resolved, but, as with many of the YA love triangles to come before it, it’s not too hard to draw a line in the sand here and pick a favorite she should end up with … but there’s still an argument to be made for the other side, which makes it especially intoxicating to read about.
In an era when the words “betrayal” and “treason” seem to be thrown around often, Mare Barrow’s journey might feel especially familiar. Faced with a society that’s been divided into extreme ideals and status markers, she has that rare opportunity to infiltrate the other side. Trust and honesty are virtually nonexistent in her world, so she has to forge her own path — with a few casualties along the way, of course.
In terms of story math, “Red Queen” would probably equate to some percentage combination of “The Hunger Games” and “X-Men” because while the societal discord is certainly the underlying theme of the story, a lot of its central characters also possess some rad powers that would make them perfect additions to Professor Charles Xavier’s School for the Gifted. From the singers, who can siren-song their way into mind control to the banshees who can destroy everything within earshot, the power plays are aplenty. This aspect provides just the right amount of otherworldliness to keep the stories from feeling too grounded in reality.
“I think when you have an element of fantasy or an element of supernatural or paranormal, it kind of makes things more palatable so you can sort of dress up a story and have your undertones as well, and it doesn’t feel as heavy, but you’re still sort of getting your message across, whereas realism — which is also super necessary right now and always — it’s blatantly, here, this is what’s happening and there are very clear metaphors,” Aveyard said.
In the third installment of the series, Mare’s allies are going to be suiting up to put boots on the ground, and the theme of that vocal resistance couldn’t be more timely, what with so many marches and political protests dominating the nation’s attention right now. “It’s interesting because when you look at any dystopian story, mine included, and you say, ‘oh, it’s so topical.’ They’re just following the basic patterns of history and the way these things happen historically because as everybody knows, history repeats itself,” Aveyard said. And yet, these books still feel so fresh.
“King’s Cage,” the third book in Victoria Aveyard’s “Red Queen” series, will be available February 7.
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