Tuesday 2 July 2013

[REVIEW] Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Published: March 2013
Age Group: YA
Series: Lunar Chronicles #2
Scarlet, the much anticipated sequel to Cinder. Scarlet follows the story of Scarlet Benoit, or more commonly known as Little Red Riding Hood in classic fairy tales, and her eventual meeting with Cinder.  Scarlet is desperate to find her missing Grandmother whom she's convinced was abducted. One day she meets the mysterious Wolf and instantly feels a connection with him.  Then when Wolf joins her on her journey to find her Grandmother ... well let's just say some things aren't what they're assumed to be.

Of course in true dystopia fashion the story is filled with action and much banter between the main characters. The story goes between Scarlet and Cinder, although the majority of the focus is on Scarlet. Cinder's adventure is her escape from prison and meeting the fascinating Captain Thorn (which I must admit is probably one of my fav characters from this series so far) and then her eventual meet up with Scarlet and Wolf.

I didn't love this one as much as I loved Cinder. Maybe it was the fairy tale, I like Cinderella more than Little Red. Or maybe the fairy tale was less present in Scarlet then Cinder. I'm still feeling really mislead by the cover blurb as well. The blurb puts extreme emphasis, or makes it seem like the most important part is the meeting of Cinder and Scarlet but that doesn't really happen till the last 50 or so pages. I just kept thinking when are they going to meet, when is the main action going to happen, why is there so many back story. I guess I got frustrated easily while reading this novel. It definitely took me more time to finish Scarlet than Cinder. I devoured Cinder. Scarlet I was hesitant at some parts and wasn't as willing to continue reading it. that being said it was still a lovely read. I love Marissa Meyer's ability to seamlessly add characters - important characters - into the story without making it seem forced (cough cough Cress cough cough).

Cinder is also a much more powerful character than Scarlet in my opinion. When Cinder's speaking, I'm instantly hooked. And when Scarlet's speaking I don't feel that pull that makes me become completely enraptured in the story. Wolf on the other hand is a very handsome dude (or at least what I picture him to be). Even though I had doubts about the relationship between him and Scarlet I must say that it definitely grew on me and by the end of the story I was "aww-ing" at the romantic scenes and rooting them on.

The twists were amazing. I didn't see them coming. And I liked the small interlude scenes that were small enough that they didn't take attention away from the two main stories but still explained enough and provided enough background information so that when the characters brought them up in later chapters the reader wasn't confused, and in some cases the reader even knew more about the situation then the characters.

I just wasn't as hooked with Scarlet as I was Cinder. I expect that to change for the next book in the series, Cress, though. After the first chapter of Cress I was instantly hooked. I think it has to do somehow with the characters. I guess I just can't connect to some characters and that is in no way complaining about Marissa Meyer's writing because her writing is amazing, more like my own strangeness.

P.S. The cover is still absolutely amazing and I love it. Whoever is designing them, props.

MEH (borderline BUY)
I can't justify entirely buying this but I can't entirely justify not buying it. It's one of those books where if you don't buy it you'll be missing out on a part of an amazing collection but if it was a solo novel then it would be MEH.

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