Hunted and hardening, she races to find others like her before the prince she trusted can turn them into weapons first.
- Score
- 73.8
- Spice
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Sweet
- POV
- first
- Ending
- HEA / HFN
Tropes
Content warnings
Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.
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What readers think
Readers praise the relentless momentum, inventive newblood powers, and the genuinely gutting major character death mid-story, which is widely cited as the emotional centrepiece of the series. Mare's darker, morally-compromised arc divides opinion sharply — admirers see it as bold and realistic character growth, while detractors find her repetitive self-pity and poor treatment of allies exhausting, with 'I don't know' reportedly appearing scores of times. The love triangle between Mare, Cal, and the spectre of Maven is seen as less developed here than in book one, with romance taking a firm back seat to action. Supporting characters introduced to recruit the newblood army are frequently criticised as underdeveloped 'token shields.' Goodreads ratings average around 3.8, a meaningful step down from Red Queen, reflecting the polarising middle-book experience.
Read it if
- · Readers invested in the Red Queen series who want to see Mare pushed to her darkest, most morally-grey version
- · Fans of high-action YA fantasy with a large ensemble cast, creative superpowers, and a military resistance arc
- · Readers who enjoy X-Men-style 'gather the team' narratives inside a dystopian blood-caste world
Skip it if
- · You need a likeable protagonist — Mare becomes deliberately difficult and alienating in this volume
- · You are looking for meaningful romance or any spice — it is largely absent here
- · You disliked Red Queen, as Glass Sword amplifies both the strengths and weaknesses of its predecessor
If you liked this
- · For fans of An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir — morally grey heroine, brutal rebellion, and an unrelenting body count
- · For fans of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins — reluctant face of a revolution who is hollowed out by the cost of war
- · For fans of X-Men: First Class — a 'recruit the powered' road trip inside a caste-oppression narrative
- · For fans of Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo — Grisha-style special powers, a dangerous regime, and a heroine questioning her own loyalties
In this series
Part of Red Queen — read in order:
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