Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Book 2 in The Lunar Chronicles

By Marissa Meyer

Genre: sci-fi, steampunk, fantasy, fairy tale retelling

My rating: 4 stars

Summary, taken from goodreads.com: "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."


If you haven't read Cinder, you should most def read that before reading this review.  Cinder was mind-blowingly awesome.  You can read my review of it here.

But anyway:




What I Liked:

I LOVE how Marissa uses plot elements of a fairy tale to tell the story in a sci-fi, steam punk world!  She pulls it off flawlessly, with such beautiful writing, riveting characters and suspenseful plot elements.  Absolute genius.

I thought Cinder was an awesome kick-butt character, but enter Scarlet.  She's a feisty one, willing to use a handgun and fight anyone and anything in her way to her finding her grandmother.  I like kick-butt characters.

I liked how Cinder and Scarlet were both in the story, and how their story lines eventually connected.  I kept wondering how and when they'd meet up, and once I figured out how it would happen, the when was brilliant.  I can't wait to see what will happen in the next book with two kick-butt heroines and the addition of   the Rapunzel story-line.


What I Didn't Like:
I missed the chemistry between Kai and Cinder.  Although both characters are in the book, they NEED to be together!!!

I missed Iko!  Sure, she's in the book too, but she was such an awesomely fun character in Cinder, and she's barely there in Scarlet.  Made me sad, I want an Iko in my life and definitely in this book.

Too many very detailed fighting scenes.  Jeez louise, I realize Wolf is a fighter, and that the fighting is critical to the plot, but enough is enough.  I started skimming the fight scenes after a while, not because I thought they were violent or anything, but I NEED to find out what happens next to Cinder and Scarlet already.  The detailed fight scenes were slowing me down. ;)

Another cliff-hanger?!?  Really?!?  You don't think you have us hooked enough by your craft and story and characters, Meyer?  You're seriously going to leave us with that ending for us to marinate on for a year?

Overall:
Yeah, I think I wrote more of the things I didn't like, but the positive things far outweigh the negative.  I highly recommend Scarlet and can't wait until Cress comes out!! (Feb. 4th, 2014)  Here's what the author herself says:

"CRESS is inspired by Rapunzel, but rather than being trapped in a tower, Cress is stuck in a satellite orbiting Earth. She also happens to be a computer hacker forced to work for Queen Levana." 

Uh, sounds awesome!!

Anyone else read Scarlet?  What'd you think?