Red Queen: Red Blood

The major premise in Red Queen is a lie. Mare Barrow is a Red: poor, ordinary, born to serve her betters. But when she displays special abilities that only Silvers are supposed to have, her very existence has to be explained. The answer the royal family concocts is… hilariously bad. Mare Barrow, they declared, is actually Lady Mareena Titanos, an orphaned Silver girl who was raised among Reds without knowledge of her true parentage.

If the only difference between the two classes were superpowers, this deception would work. Maybe she was a late bloomer. But in this book, their blood is visually different: silver blood vs. red blood. So, to say a 17 year old girl did not know the color of her own blood is laughable! That this was King Tiberias and Queen Elara’s idea of a clever cover-up tells me either they’re idiots or they believe the members of the High Houses are idiots. (The fact that very few of the nobles question Mare’s story at all suggests the latter might be true.)

To highlight just how many opportunities one would have to see their own blood and realize that they are in fact a Silver being raised by Red family, allow me to present:

Can you think of other really simple ways this premise could have been blown to bits? Or–even better–do you remember a minute detail from the book that makes this plot hole seem less ridiculous? Let me know in the comments below!