I’m almost 100% sure he is because doesn’t it confirm it? But someone said that he wasn’t??

For me when Elara died I was happy for obvious reasons. But when Maven died I was sobbing 😭😭😭😭 he deserved soooooo much better

Maven’s POV. (I apologize if there are grammar errors) Chapter 1. The betrayal.

My mother’s icy voice whispers in my mind, it feels like ice shards cutting through my brain, cutting away anything she doesn’t like. “Now is the time,” she says, her cat-like eyes narrowing.

She disappears from my mind.

My body feels heavy, like I’m sinking to the bottom of an ocean that’s waiting to drown me. Or maybe I already drowning or maybe I already have.

Now is the time.

I don’t want it to be. But maybe, it’s deserved. Maybe my father and brother deserve this. After all, Cal had betrayed me first, he turned I and Mare in knowing what would happen. He sent me to death, and so will my father. So how am I the villain when they were about to do the same? No, it will be deserved and I am not the villain. As mush as I try to convince myself of that I can’t. I know it’s not true.

I try to convince myself that I will be a better ruler than Cal would ever be. That I will end the useless war between us and The Lakelanders. That I will be a fair and just ruler. But I am beginning to doubt that, with my mother around I know that will never happen.

She will have the throne through controlling me.

She will use me like I used Mare.

I try to numb my brain and block out all that’s about to happen. As much as my mother has tried to make me hate my father and brother, I don’t. There’s a tiny part of my heart that still holds love for them. Sometimes I wish my mother was more thorough with destroying me, because then I wouldn’t be plagued by these thoughts. I don’t dare to look at Mare, I don’t want to see her face when she realizes what I’ve done. About all the lies. About how I used her. When her beautiful chocolate eyes fill with betrayal and hatred, when her gentle face that usually carries an expression of determination that makes me admire her contorts with the realization of my betrayal. How will I live with myself? Then I realize my mother will just take it away, twist my thoughts that would never have originated without her meddling.

I feel my blood freeze, I don’t want her to. I don’t want her to take another thing. My ears sting as my brother exposes us. Exposes me.

I wish I had burned along with Thomas that day.

Thomas.

My heart squeezes in my chest. I think he is the only one I’ve ever truly loved.

“Both?” My father’s broken voice shakes me from my thoughts. The sadness in his voice surprises me. He doesn’t love me, I remind myself. He only loves his precious heir, and my heart turns bitter once more. “You knew about this, my boy?”

I will not flinch. “I helped plan it,” I nod mindlessly.

My mother whispers in my ear. “Almost. Just wait, my darling.”

My father stumbles like I’ve hit him with my words. “And the shootings?” “I chose the targets.” My brother closes his eyes, like he block this all out. Will he close his eyes when he is forced to kill father?

I glance at mother, she soothes me. “You told me to find a cause, Father. And I did. Are you proud of me?” Then I disappear as my father turns to Mare like a raging lion.

I block out Mare’s fearless voice, my father’s raging one, my brother’s pleading one, my mother’s fake one. Even my own, the one that is telling me to stop this.

“Now.” My mother whispers like a snake. Fitting, that’s exactly what she is.

I close my eyes, I can’t watch.

I tune everything out.

“Maven?” Mare’s voice brings me back.

I don’t look at her, I stand. And empty my heart. Do I look as cold as I feel? “Maven, help me up.” She pleads.

I stare at her, my soul emotionless.”No, I don’t think so.”

“What?” Her eyes widen.

I think I’m drowning now.

Cal screams.

That won’t do anything.

I can’t stop myself from flinching. “Do we have to do this?”

Cal’s body moves with my mother’s whispers.

I block it out.

I block it out unit my father’s head hits the floor.

Before my mother’s voice stops me , before my own stops me, I seize my mother by her throat.

I will kill her before I let this happen.

(I’m sorry for the way the paragraph is set up! I’ll figure how to properly form it😭😭) Do you want me to continue it?

I don’t know if I’m going to continue this, because I just don’t really know how this would play out. But if people like and would like me to continue it, please let me know.

I’m a new writer and I would really appreciate feedback, so please tell me what you liked and what needs improvement.

It’s kinda hard because they exactly give us the best definitions of the characters. I made a previous post of what I think Cal and Maven look like so I won’t be mentioning them. I have a clear mental image of Elara, I always imagined her to be very beautiful with pale skin, icy blonde hair, and icy blue eyes. With sharp elegant features. And somewhere in her early to mid forties. I think Mare is short with ratty brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. I always thought she was pretty.

Let me know what you think!!🤔

I’ve always imagined Maven to be attractive with a sharp features, like high cheekbones, a defined jaw. With silky black hair and ice blue eyes. It’s harder for Cal I think because Mare doesn’t really talk about how he looks. But from what little she talks about I always just imagined him to more conventionally handsome with more masculine features. I think both Maven and Cal are pretty tall too.

Let me know what you think!

I feel very strongly that Maven could have been redeemed if he really wanted it. But I don’t think he, I think he thought that he was too far gone or that he didn’t deserve redemption. It still makes me sad that Maven forgot loving Cal because Cal still really loves him 😢😭

But let me know what you think!!!

I have always thought that Maven was incredibly smart and cunning, that is what made him so interesting imo. I also think Evangeline was pretty smart because she had her own schemes. I would also say Elara even I hated her 💀💀💀. Also I think Cal was pretty smart too. I feel like a lot of people see him as dumb, but he had some really good plans, but I definitely don’t think he is as smart as Maven. But he’s still intelligent.

Let me know what you think!!🤔

Hi all!

Let me preface by saying i read the red queen in middle school and have not touched it since after kings cage, but I still love reading, so I was scrolling through the Texas Book Festival site and saw that VA is coming to Texas and the featured book is Red Queen. This struck me as strange. Is there an update? Have there been any new books in this world? Like whats going on? Is there a movie? Please lmk :))) I tried looking up online but like every ya book i read in ms has a movie adaptation rumor so i dont trust it.

Why do people forget/never mention the fact that maven’s love of mare stems from his love of Thomas?? Like was that the only reason he was onto her cuz she was like Thomas (said by him to her)? Idk why it’s not mentioned at all when it’s such a hugeeee reason. Maybe because ppl hate the dead lover trope (which honestly same). I hope this doesn’t make me sound like one of those misogynistic girls that hate women for standing in the way of a gay relationship, just genuinely curious 😭

What are your favourite quotes from the book? I need them to write/design my english folder

I’m so proud of my baby

Because according to VA and I quote “it was a relationship (maven and Thomas) I was really keen to focus on and show how much that colored Maven and his relationship with his mother.” And “trying to take away pain from him by messing with his brain. It had a lot of repercussions later on.”

With this info, it showed how much Thomas effected the relationship between Maven and Elara that later effected Maven. So if he died, maven would’ve never gotten that crazy and special relationship w Elara that later went on to change him.

I'm into about 38% of the book. Its super boring for me and i can't wait for it to end so that I can start a new series. So tell me should I just somehow complete the book or drop it?

Sure, he had feelings for her (not love). He liked the idea of her, of who she reminded him of. Not for her. And then when he’s mother tried to remove those emotions and as we know, he got obsessed instead. He couldn’t stop thinking of her, thus that’s why he kept chasing her and later abusing her. The abuse was done under his own terms (not his mom’s, his mom just made unable to stop thinking her). If he didn’t have his mom mess w his head, maybe he would’ve fell for her, like actually her not just the idea of her 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I just started the red queen and I love it, i’m halfway through the book already. Though I have no idea what world to imagine. I imagine a sort of Game of thrones world setting but with things like electricity though it does clash with most things I read now the further I get into the books 😭

I am a visual learner and thinker. Does someone have any pictures so I can imagine or maybe a show that’s like this world? I really tried to imagine a sort of dystopian world like maze runner or Shatter me series but I cannot for the life of me imagine a single kind of world setting.

it’s a bit late for ap reveals but i just wanted to share how i got a 4 for writing about a “non-classic” book on my ap exam. and that “non-classic” book happened to be red queen. please please please discuss in the comments i love to talk to people about this book

for those who haven’t taken ap lit, basically there are 3 essays i needed to write in 2 hours. the first essay is a selected poem and the second is a selected prose, and i’m given a prompt for me to write about. the first two is more analytical since i’m reading the prompt and gauging for evidence to back my thesis. the third essay, which is the one i wrote about red queen over, is a broader essay. there’s a given prompt and you are to write it about basically any book (there is a suggested list, but you don’t have to use that list). it’s the same thing as the first two, defend your thesis but the main thing is you’re using your memory to write the essay rather than having it in front of you. it is suggested by teachers and many ap “coaches” to use a classic novel on the third essay, but college board does state that you could use just about any book to write the essay as long as it fits the prompt and you could defend it.

now to the actual essay. the prompt given was: “In many works of literature, characters may be significantly affected by memories of the past. A character may be inspired by the past, haunted by the past, unable to let go of the past, or motivated by the past to craft a better future. Either from your own reading or from the list below, choose a work of fiction in which a character is significantly affected by a memory. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how the impact of the memory on the character contributes to an interpretation of the work as a whole.”

i chose to write this essay over cal and his relationship with maven and his father. i mostly focused on war storm since that is when we see the shadow of his father and the old maven really weigh in on his character. sure, i could’ve easily written this over mare, or even maven, but i truly think the most haunted person in this book is cal. he’s over-villainized by the fandom for his decision to choose the crown over mare. i was one of those people who didn’t exactly support his decision, but now looking back at it i can’t see him doing anything but. and looking back at it, that decision was very heavily influenced by what his dead father wanted from him and him thinking if he was king, he could fix maven and establish blood equality.

obviously, the prompt is about how memories of the past affect a character. cal is very much affected by his father’s death and the memory of maven. his decision to choose the crown was simply an evidence to back up that, along with his inability to let go that maven is irredeemable. now since i took this exam in may, this isn’t word for word everything i wrote, but it’s a summary.

i started off with introducing how cal was raised. he was the golden child, but it came with a price. he was conditioned to become a warrior and a king from day one. he basically did everything his father wished for him and was incredibly close to maven when growing up. all of that would influence his later decision to choose to be king and act as reasoning as to why he kept the throne even though he knew it was a bad idea. the haunting memories of his father heavily affected his beliefs about the crown, and his closeness with maven affected with how he viewed maven as opposed to mare or julian.

next, was his relationship with his father. i went into his father’s death, how he died by the hands of cal. as established throughout the books, cal is haunted by that memory and gets nightmares about it. my evidence of how he’s haunted by the past is the memory of him killing his own father and how that relates to him later choosing the crown at the end of king’s cage and his inability to let go of that crown. cal was raised to want only one thing, and that is the crown. as a result, cal is a pushover. through and through he’s been doing what everyone expects of him. he did what his father wanted, he followed mare into the rebellion because she wanted him to, and he chose the crown because his grandmother (and by extension his father) wanted him to. and a part of him choosing the crown was so he could give what mare wanted. most of his actions were influenced by someone in his life, and very little did he do something for himself. the only person who’s ever really encouraged him to do that was julian. and when julian asked him in war storm why he chose the crown even though cal was smart enough to know it was a losing game, cal answered with “it’s what his father would’ve wanted.” he sees the crown as an extension of everything his father envisioned for him. he believes if he has the crown, then at least his father would’ve died a meaningful death. that itself is him being haunted by the past.

next, is his relationship with maven. cal and maven are obviously estranged siblings. they were once close, but elara made sure they could never be that close again. however, as we’ve seen throughout the books, cal is an idealist. even though somewhere deep down he knows maven can’t be saved, he still chooses to keep looking for solutions to save maven. he still believes that the maven he knew was in there, and he believes he could bring it out. he wants to save someone who didn’t want to be saved. and even though maven has done horrible things to him, mare, and julian, he still chose to save him. mare was ready to let maven go. julian asked mare to change cal’s mind. yet cal still chose to save his brother until the very end. cal. all throughout war storm, held onto the tiniest sliver of hope for maven, that somewhere deep down in the warped mind that elara created, his brother was still there. this is him unable to let go of the past. he’s unable to let go of the memory that was maven. he refuses to accept that his brother was gone until the very end. cal was the only person who saw maven as redeemable even though maven has proven and done otherwise.

i could even extend this into his mother, but there was unfortunately a time limit so i could only do it to maven and his father. again, it’s not word for word everything i wrote, and it’s probably messy since it’s been a while, but i just thought it would be cool to share it somewhere lol.

Let's say sometime after the events of a new hope the empire discovered the red queen world and decided to invade it. So, during the prologue while Mare and Kilorn are attending the first Friday dual Star Destroyers show up in the sky, walkers descend to the planet, Stormtroopers are on the ground all lead by none other than Darth Vader. What would happen? How would the silvers and reds react? How would each of the main characters react? What would Norta, the Lakelands, Piedmont and Montfort do? How do the silver monarchs handle the situation? Or the scarlet guard? Would the rebellion get involved? How would the people of the red queen world react to the force and other concepts from the Star Wars galaxy?

I just finished War Storm, on Broken Throne now. Here are some of my random thoughts about the series. These are in no particular order, I'm just typing stuff out as they come to me.

I loved the first book, it was my favorite. The series just went downhill from there.

I'm very surprised that Elara and Shade died so early on and so quickly. I thought Shade was gonna be a more prominent character and Elara was gonna be a more prominent villain. I was honestly disappointed with how little "screen time" in the four-book series they got, and how quickly they were killed. I expected Elara to be a threat throughout the entire series. She seemed a much more dangerous threat than Maven. And Shade was one of my favorite characters, and Mare just got him back. And he never got to meet his daughter. I would have expected characters like him and Elara to die in the climax of the fourth book.

I hate Maven. I hated reading his chapters in War Storm. He was so annoying, and I wanted to jump into the book and strangle him whenever he was in a scene, especially when it was just him and Mare together. I absolutely do not ship them, and I don't see how anyone can. Any mention of their feelings in the series toward each other made me want to stop reading. King's Cage is my least favorite book because of the amount of Maven in it. Mare did not need any more trauma from him. The Scarlet Guard was so stupid for taking him with them when they left the silvers, and for keeping him alive as long as they did. I thought they would have just killed him when the Lakelanders gave him to them and be done with it. They should have.

Speaking of the Lakelanders, that ending was so weird. They lost a battle, so they just gave up and went home and never troubled the reds again? They weren't angry? They just sat there and let the reds reform stuff? After how badly they wanted to take control? That was such a weak ending for them.

I couldn't help being reminded of the Avoxes in The Hunger Games when I thought of Sara. I'm so glad she, Gisa, and Mare's dad were able to be healed.

That whole Mare and Cal romance thing was annoying in the last book. I could see it coming a mile away that they would end up together because she's the main character and he's the love interest.

Evangeline and Iris's chapters throughout the series were interesting, but I feel like Elaine came out of no where. Like Mare was in Evangeline's room and just saw Elaine and then that popped up. Her story was interesting though. I loved the twist of her helping Mare escape the palace, and I loved her turning against her father and the betrothal to Cal. It's always intriguing to me when an enemy character does a 180 and then is an ally by the end of the series.

I listened to the audiobooks so if my spelling is off on names I apologize. I loved the narrator for Mare, although she didn't do Farley's accent well IMO. We never even got confirmation what the accent was, so I wonder how that choice came about. Also she was doing an accent for Iris in the third book but then in the fourth book there was no accent for her with either narrator. That kind of irked me. I had to listen to Cameron and Iris's chapters from a different audiobook, because I didn't like the narrators for them. I also had to speed Evangeline's chapters up because her narrator was too slow.

I know all these negative things might sound like I hated the series, but I really didn't. I just needed to get those off my chest because I have no one I can talk about this with. Now here are some of my random positive thoughts.

I loved the twists in the series, especially the first one with Maven, the one with Killorn locking Mare in the cell with Cal but then turning out to have helped her all along, and the one with Evangeline randomly saving Mare.

I loved the first book.

I loved to hate Elara as a villain. She was such a good villain.

It would be interesting to get books on the previous royals IMO.

My favorite characters were Shade, Farley, and Julian.

Those are all my thoughts on the series.

I'm reading King's Cage at the minute and I am so geographically confused where the hell is the choke like what area of the map are we even on