Katie′s #CBR5 Review #25: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Title: Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Source: library
Rating: 
Review Summary: Creative, awesome world-building and interesting protagonists made this an enjoyable read very similar to Cinder but the lack of action was disappointing.

Loosely based on Little Red Riding Hood, Scarlet’s story starts as she searches for her missing grandmother. Along the way, she meets the dark and handsome street fighter Wolf who might be able to help her, if she can trust him. We also learn a little more about Cinder’s escape and how she might be connected to Scarlet’s grandmother.

Read more at Doing Dewey…

Scootsa1000’s #CBR5 Review 15: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Recently, I’ve hit a bad patch of YA trilogy installments. I couldn’t standReached and was quite disappointed by Requiem (side note: I think my days of giving the benefit of the doubt to Lauren Oliver are officially over. Lauren, you and I are through. Sorry.) And then I read — and liked — Scarlet, the second book in the Lunar Chronicles trilogy (remember the first one came out last year, Cinder.  I liked it a lot).

I’m wondering if Scarlet is really that much better than those other books, or if I’m just glad it wasn’t terrible. Its been two weeks, and I still don’t know which side I’m on with this.

Scarlet picks up right where Cinder left off, but instead of being a story all about Linh Cinder, lunar princess/cyborg mechanic and her attempt to save handsome emperor Kai from the clutches of the evil lunar queen, we are introduced to a second plot somewhat based on Little Red Riding Hood. Scarlet is a young girl living on a farm in rural France with her grandmother. Scarlet always wears a red hoodie. When her grandmother goes missing, she teams up with a strange, handsome, new guy in town named Wolf.

Scarlet and Wolf race to Paris to attempt to save her grandmother, who is in trouble for hiding some big secret.

And just maybe, that secret has something to do with the young lunar princess who was secretly adopted in France before moving to Beijing years ago.

While it took me a while to warm up to the new characters (really, at first I was annoyed when the chapter POV was about Scarlet, when all I wanted was to find out more about Cinder), after a few chapters I was into the new story. I liked some of the new characters better than others (verdict is still out on Wolf, but I enjoyed the comic relief of Carswell Thorne), and I’m looking forward to seeing how Meyer integrates all of these characters into the next books (one I think will be based on Rapunzel, and one on Snow White).

You can read more of my reviews on my blog.

narfna’s #CBR5 Review #25: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

The next time I decide to start a series just as book one is published, will somebody please come find me and slap me in the face? It would be much appreciated.

And I’m not just talking about the annoyance of having to wait a year in between books, although I hate that pretty much a lot. I’m also talking about the high probability that the series you are reading is less satisfying to read spread out over a period of years rather binged on in a couple of frenzied weeks (or if it’s really, good, days) like I prefer to do. For series I really love, this isn’t as much of a problem, because I’ll just go back and re-read the previous books, but for series I just like (i.e. these here Lunar Chronicles), the characters and storylines are diminished in the waiting. I lose my emotional connection to the story and I forget crucial plot threads. And I just don’t have time to re-read, dammit.

All of that is not to say that I didn’t enjoy Scarlet, because I did. It’s actually a really good second book, especially after having read a bunch of dud second books lately. (Disappointing second books in a series, included but not limited to: Requiem, Insurgent, Prodigy, Crossed, etc.)

When I first read Cinder last year, I didn’t realize that each book would be loosely based on a different fairy-tale. I was a bit worried that adding new protagonists to the series would take away from Cinder’s story, but the alternating narrative in my opinion actually energized the story. Cinder was a bit flabby in parts, whereas Scarlet was more streamlined. Scarlet, the character, is Meyer’s answer to Little Red Riding Hood. The way Meyer adapts the story is actually really neat (I think she did a much better job with RRH than she did with Cinderella). In Meyer’s version, Little Red is a young girl named Scarlet living in future France with her grandmother, who is a farmer. Only, her grandmother has gone missing and there is something very weird going on that Scarlet is unaware of. I was also worried going in that Cinder’s and Scarlet’s stories would be awkwardly forced together, but they’re not. It all feels organic, and when the two narratives inevitably meet up, it’s pretty great.

I did have some minor issues with this one (as much as I liked Wolf as a character, it’s getting a bit old that every YA novel now has to hae a love story — though, I suppose this comes with the fairy-tale territory; also, the trajectory of Scarlet and Wolf’s relationship was a bit predictable, if enjoyable), but overall, it was just a really fun read. I love the fairy-tale angle. I love the brightly colored sci-fi future Meyer has created. And I’m really excited about books three and four (which will apparently be based on Rapunzel and Snow White, respectively).