Series · fantasy
Red Queen
The Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard has 5 books and is best read in publication order, starting with Red Queen (2015).
- Books
- 5 books
- First published
- 2015
- Status
- completed
- Last checked
Start here: Red Queen (2015) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
Red Queen
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Red Queen - Book 2:
Glass Sword
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Glass Sword - Book 3:
King's Cage
Alternative text for cover: Cover of King's Cage - Book 4:
War Storm
Alternative text for cover: Cover of War Storm - Book 5:
Broken Throne
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Broken Throne
About the Red Queen series
In a kingdom split by blood color, Silvers rule with superhuman abilities — controlling fire, metal, minds — while Reds serve as their powerless underclass. Mare Barrow is a Red thief scraping by until an accident reveals she has abilities of her own, something that should be impossible. To hide the crack she represents in their whole caste system, the Silver royal family passes her off as a long-lost Silver, forces an engagement to a prince, and puts her to work as a weapon — training her, using her, and setting off exactly the rebellion they were trying to prevent. Mare gets pulled deeper into the royal court's power games even as she becomes a symbol for the Red Guard resistance working to burn the whole system down, and the family she's forced to live among turns out to be as dangerous to each other as they are to her.
Victoria Aveyard builds the quartet around betrayal and escalating stakes rather than a straightforward hero's journey — nearly every book ends with Mare's alliances upended by a twist, and her arc bends harder and darker than most YA leads', from sympathetic thief to a revolutionary willing to do genuinely ugly things for the cause. The blood-caste premise (and its uncomfortable parallels to real-world class and race hierarchies) gives the political plotting real teeth, while the palace intrigue and love-triangle-adjacent relationships keep the personal stakes just as sharp as the war ones.
How to read this series
Read the four novels in publication order: Red Queen, Glass Sword, King's Cage, War Storm. It's one continuous, tightly plotted story told from Mare's point of view (with added perspectives in the later books), and each book picks up soon after the last.
Save Broken Throne for last. It's a collection of short stories set across the whole timeline — some are prequels filling in backstory for other characters, others are epilogue material — and it's built entirely on assuming you already know how the quartet ends, so reading it earlier will spoil major reveals.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in the Red Queen series?
Five: the four novels — Red Queen, Glass Sword, King's Cage, and War Storm — plus the short-story collection Broken Throne.
What order should I read Red Queen in?
Publication order: Red Queen, Glass Sword, King's Cage, War Storm, then Broken Throne last. Broken Throne is a collection of stories written for readers who already know how the quartet ends.
Is Red Queen a trilogy or a quartet?
A quartet. Early buzz sometimes called it a trilogy before War Storm was confirmed as a fourth main novel; Broken Throne is a separate, additional short-story collection on top of those four.
Does Red Queen end the story, or is there more?
War Storm and Broken Throne (2018-2019) closed out the story Victoria Aveyard started with Mare Barrow. As of August 2026 she has not announced a direct sequel series set in this world — her more recent fantasy work (Realm Breaker, the unrelated Lyrian Sea) is set in different universes.
What are the blood colors about in Red Queen?
Reds are ordinary humans; Silvers have superhuman abilities and rule over them. Mare Barrow is a Red who develops Silver-like powers, an impossibility the ruling family tries to cover up rather than let it inspire rebellion.
Reading order last verified .