Hardcover, 528 pages
Rating: ★★★
The Red Queen series is a pretty standard dichotomous dystopia and King's Cage is more of the same. North America has been divided into various smaller countries, most with two separate peoples: the Silver ruling class, who have silver blood and various superpowers, and the Red slave class, who have no powers, no money and no hope. Mare Barrow is discovered to have red blood and silver powers - the power to control electricity and lightning, and what resulted was a fairly standard YA novel. She was forcibly engaged to the second son of the silver king, Maven, while falling in love with his older brother and heir to the throne, Cal.
The second book improved upon that, spending more time on characterization and relationships, with a twist at the end. Mare trades herself to her tyrant ex-fiance, Maven, for the safety of her friends. Maven snapped a collar around her neck and led her about on a leash in front of Silver and Red crowds.
Mare comes across as a stronger character here. Red Queen was about hiding who she was from everyone; Glass Sword was her coming to terms with being the rebellion's figurehead (their very own Mockingjay) and the deconstruction of self; and in turn, much of King's Cage is Mare piecing herself back together and finding her strength even as she fades into a ghost. After his mother's death in the previous book, the reader is given the opportunity to see who Maven is without his cruel mother whispering in his mind, controlling him. What's left is not pretty. Maven himself is clever, cruel, and thoroughly obsessed with Mare. He's an interesting, if despicable character. I expect he gets romanticized a lot if these books have a prolific fandom.
As Mare spends most of her time in a cell, there are a few added perspectives in King's Cage though not enough of them, to be honest. The book mostly features Mare, as the previous books had exclusively, with the occasional added perspective of Cameron Cole, a cantankerous young newblood that clashed often with Mare in Glass Sword, and Evangeline Samos, the Silver mean girl who had been engaged to Cal and is now engaged to Maven.
Cameron is great; she's experienced some of the worst of the oppression dealt by the Silvers and her rage is fuelled by it. Cameron's perspective is a breath of fresh air, as Mare's chapters lean heavily towards depressing, while she is imprisoned and tortured by a King who is unhealthily obsessed with her. Cameron is trying to work out her reasons for fighting a civil war and the cost it might have on her soul.
There are also a scant few chapters featuring Evangeline, the cruel girl who controls metal and lusts after the throne. I could have done with several more chapters featuring her because she is fascinating. Evangeline has been born, raised and made to be Queen of Norta. She is meticulously trained in every aspect of queenhood and war. She's more complex than in previous books, here it is revealed that she has long been in love with another Silver, Elane, and had a pact with her brother that would allow them to be together even when she was queen. I desperately wanted more chapters of Evangeline than we got.
There's some romance between Mare and Cal. It's...fine, nothing horrible but nothing particularly special either.
Very little actually happens in King's Cage. It's the third book in a (presumably) four book series and it definitely feels that way, spending more time setting things up than moving the plot forward. I find the politics interesting and wish we got more of that and less of Mare slowly losing her mind in her cell. It makes chapters with Evangeline and Cameron stand out all the more. More than half a year passes with Mare in her cell, yet the only thing that really seems to advance is Farley's pregnancy.
Ultimately, there's nothing new in King's Cage. Just like the previous books, it's a simple remix of dystopian series like The Hunger Games or Divergent. Dystopian young adult novels about brave teenagers with powers are all the rage these days and there's nothing much that separates this series from any of the others. If you enjoy that sort of thing, you're likely to enjoy these books.
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