Glass Sword

Gr 8 Up—Does saving some lives justify sacrificing others? This is the main question asked in this second installment of this series. Picking up right where the first volume left off, Mare and Cal are on the run from the usurper King Maven and his army of Silver bloods. Armed with a list of other "newbloods" like herself, Mare takes on the mission of recruiting them for the Scarlet Guard before they can be found by Maven. However, as her journey progresses, Mare learns that the lines between right and wrong aren't so clear, and she begins to become exactly the kind of person the Scarlet Guard is fighting against. While the kill count seems to be excessively high, it does end up raising some interesting points: namely, the question of who, if anyone, really deserves to die. And do the ends truly justify the means? As with her first effort, Aveyard certainly has a flair for the dramatic, which teens will eat up. The action hits the ground running and doesn't stop until after the last page is turned. And while some might recognize several familiar plot-related beats that resemble the novel's dystopian contemporaries, they shouldn't lessen the story's appeal.