The complaint lodged most often against Glass Sword is that Mare Barrow becomes unlikeable in it. I want to offer a different reading: Mare becomes uncomfortable to be inside, which is not the same thing, and Aveyard is doing it on purpose.

Red Queen ended with betrayal and the collapse of everything Mare thought she understood. Glass Sword opens with the aftermath — Mare traumatised, furious, and making decisions that cause harm to people around her while she tells herself they’re necessary. The people closest to her notice. The narrative notices. Aveyard does not excuse it.

Mare as an Unreliable Protagonist

The most interesting structural choice in this second book is letting Mare narrate a story in which she is frequently wrong about her own motivations. She believes she is protecting the newbloods — others like her, Silver abilities running through Red veins — while systematically treating them as resources rather than people. She believes she is saving Cal while pushing him away. The gap between what she thinks she’s doing and what she’s actually doing is where the book lives.

This is uncomfortable to read. It is also precise and deliberate characterisation, and it sets up the series’ later volumes in ways that only become clear in retrospect.

The World Expands

Glass Sword significantly broadens the Red Queen world — new regions, new political factions, a clearer picture of what the Silver aristocracy has done to maintain its position. The Scarlet Guard’s internal tensions are more developed here, and the revelation that revolution contains its own corruption is handled with more subtlety than the series sometimes gets credit for.

Why YA Readers Will Love This

For readers who enjoyed Red Queen and want a sequel that takes its central ideas more seriously: this is the book. The political complexity deepens. The cost of fighting back becomes real in ways the first book kept at a safe remove.

For readers interested in how trauma shapes decision-making — how people who have been betrayed sometimes pre-emptively become the betrayers — Mare’s arc in this volume is psychologically rich. She is not a cautionary tale. She is a person in pain making bad choices, which is a different and more honest thing.

Published: February 2016 · Genre: YA fantasy/dystopian · Series: Red Queen, Book 2

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Mare Barrow become difficult to root for in Glass Sword? The review reframes the common complaint that Mare becomes unlikeable, arguing instead that she becomes ‘uncomfortable to be inside — which is not the same thing.’ Traumatised and furious after Red Queen’s betrayal, Mare systematically treats the newbloods she’s supposedly protecting as resources rather than people, while believing she is acting protectively. The narrative notices and does not excuse it.

What is the most interesting structural choice in Glass Sword? Aveyard allows Mare to narrate a story in which she is ‘frequently wrong about her own motivations’ — an unreliable protagonist structure. The gap between what she thinks she’s doing and what she’s actually doing is where the book lives, setting up later series volumes in ways that only become clear in retrospect.

How does Glass Sword expand the Red Queen world? The second book significantly broadens the world — new regions, new political factions, a clearer picture of what the Silver aristocracy has done to maintain power. The Scarlet Guard’s internal tensions are more developed, and the revelation that revolution contains its own corruption is handled with more subtlety than the series typically receives credit for.

What kind of reader will appreciate Glass Sword most? The review recommends it for readers interested in how trauma shapes decision-making — ‘how people who have been betrayed sometimes pre-emptively become the betrayers.’ Mare’s arc is described as ‘psychologically rich,’ and the review positions her not as a cautionary tale but as ‘a person in pain making bad choices, which is a different and more honest thing.’

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • Victoria Aveyard — Wikipedia’s Victoria Aveyard article provides biographical and series context for the author, whose deliberate narrative choices regarding Mare’s unreliability are the central subject of this review’s argument.
  • Red Queen series — Wikipedia’s Red Queen article gives new readers the first book’s context and series overview, helping them understand the stakes and character history that Glass Sword’s unreliable narration builds upon.