Thursday, April 11, 2013

Book Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Title:  Scarlet
Author:  Marissa Meyer
Series:  Lunar Chronicles #2
Genre:  YA dystopian/Fairy-tale retelling
Pages:  452

Rating:  A+

Synopsis (goodreads.com):  The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth...  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
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Aaaa!!  I don't know even know where to begin!  Scarlet is a phenomenal book; I only put it down once and that was only because it was my dad's birthday.  I really enjoyed the first book of the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, but I think Scarlet is so much better.  That could be primarily due to the addition of Wolf, and I'm not ashamed to admit that, but there was just so much more action and drama and romance and everything!  I just feel the need to gush about this book.

The action is fast-paced and almost non-stop in Scarlet.  I felt like I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.  And I never felt like the story got jumbled or confusing, even though there were several new characters' storylines being interwoven with the original characters'.  The introduction of new people was one of my favorite parts of the book.  Cinder and Kai are both great characters, but Scarlet and Wolf added a lot more depth and layers to the story.  And "Captain" Thorne provided some much-needed humor to break the tension in this gripping book.  I especially enjoyed the way each person's unique personality and background worked and blended together, or even better, the way they sometimes clashed.

If only last week's Top Ten Tuesday topic (favorite fictional crushes) had been for this week instead.  I would totally have bent the rules and added an eleventh entry for Wolf.  Loves him!  Another blogger mentioned that his personality reminded her a little of Wolf from The 10th Kingdom, and I definitely see where she got that.  They share so many character traits, but Wolf (from Scarlet) is so much more intense.

Overall, I think Scarlet is an incredible sequel.  I loved how it used the Red Riding Hood fairy-tale with Scarlet's red hoodie and her grandmother being missing.  And the continuation of Cinder and Kai's story was also really interesting too, although I preferred Scarlet and Wolf's.  I also loved that the book left me breathless at points from all of the excitement and danger.  Any time a book grips me like this, where I don't want to put it down unless I absolutely have to, it's a success in my eyes.  If the rest of the series is like Scarlet, then the Lunar Chronicles will be one of my favorite series ever.  A+

3 comments:

  1. I also really enjoyed this one--I think even more than Cinder. And yeah, that's mostly due to Wolf and Scarlet. :) But "Captain" Thorne was so much fun too. I hope he stays a major character for the next one!

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  2. Well, I had Cinder to read for this event last year and still haven't read it! Perhaps I should promote it - do you need to read Cinder in order to read Scarlet??
    Lynn :D

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    1. Absolutely. If you don't read Cinder first, you're going to be so lost during Scarlet. The story pretty much picks up right where Cinder left off.

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