Since I’ve just ordered Cress by Marissa Meyer, I thought it was about time I edited my review of Scarlet, and shared it here!

Original short review written September 18th – edited and extended here October 30th

Title: Scarlet

Author: Marissa Meyer

Series status: The 2nd book in The Lunar Chronicles

Publisher: Puffin books

Number of Pages: 452

 

Synopsis

(Found on Goodreads)

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison–even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Review

Much like Cinder, it took me a while to actually get into this book, and I’m still not entirely sure why. Maybe it’s because I’m only just getting into SciFi books? But I found that the story did pick up soon enough – maybe around 100 pages or so – and I was enjoying the story.

I didn’t think the plot was as predictable as the first one, which is a good thing. I remember thinking I knew what was going to happen, only to be surprised when the story took a different turn. The plot twists seemed more surprising in this book than the first, however I think the switch between character perspectives (for the chapters) could have been improved slightly, as some didn’t hold any suspense.

My favourite aspect of these books are the fairy tale retellings, as the story seems to reinvent the old fairy tales to create a fast paced futuristic story. I especially enjoyed seeing which parts of each fairy tale would be brought into the story in their own unique way. Marissa Meyer’s writing style was captivating. Instead of writing simple sentences to tell you what happened, she weaves this elaborate description of the events together to show you what happened.

There were plenty of new characters involved in this story, as well as the characters from the first book. The main characters had strong personalities and enough will to keep the story going throughout. I was intrigued to see how the characters of Cinder and Scarlet linked together, and certainly didn’t expect their stories to be woven together the way they were. The link between them was cleverly done, since it isn’t direct but is instead subtle in a way that makes it seem like a secret. There were certain characters from the first book that I’d have liked to read more of – Queen Levana for example.

The story took an interesting turn, almost creating a bridge leading towards the 3rd book. The events became a little more complicated, because more problems were brought in, however it remained understandable. The switch between character perspectives for each chapter was easy to follow, as each character had a different and unique situation they had to deal with.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and liked the main character (Scarlet) more than I thought I would, purely for her determination throughout. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series!

Rated 4//5 stars!

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