Glass Sword (Red Queen, #2)

The Red Queen series consists of four full-length novels: Red Queen (2015), Glass Sword (2016), King’s Cage (2017), and War Storm (2018), as well as Broken Throne (2019), a collection of novellas and short stories set in the story universe. The books are geared toward young adult audiences and combine elements of the fantasy and dystopian genres with the ruling Silvers (people with extraordinary powers) and Reds (the oppressed class without powers). Mare Barrow is the protagonist and main point-of-view character, being the sole narrator for the first two novels and narrating the second two in conjunction with a host of secondary characters. As a young adult fantasy/dystopian heroine, Mare’s narration comes in the first-person present tense, giving the story a feeling of immediacy and highlighting Mare’s signature flare and wit.

As the first novel in the series, Red Queen sets up for Glass Sword by introducing the story’s world—especially its power dynamics and the “normal” way of things with Silvers ruling the Reds. Mare’s powers first emerge in Red Queen, making her unique as a Red with Silver abilities. Red Queen plunges Mare into the cutthroat world of the Silvers, only to have her realize that Silvers, like Reds, are just people with fantastic powers.