Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Title: Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Published: February 5th 2013
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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.

Like I said in my review for Cinder: I had a very rocky start with The Lunar Chronicles series—I DNF-d Cinder at first, but then picked it up a year later and quite enjoyed it. Needless to say I was very hesitant to read Scarlet, but oh. my!!!!!! I should have read it asap because it was just ohhh-so-very-good.

“Little Red was a tender young morsel, and the wolf knew she would be even tastier than the old woman.”

WOLF. SCARLET. SWOON. Yes, that’s what I need to tell you. These two? Gahhh. I loved them so so so much. They’re perfection. Okay, I’ll get to them later so let’s start from the beginning. I liked the beginning better than Cinder’s—perhaps because I know the world already and because I know a lot more about food than electronics and technology which is Cinder’s speciality. Scarlet was so much easier for me to connect with and I admire her strength; the spunky fire and life that burns inside her spirit. I just adore her!

We meet the famous Thorne in this book. He’s one character that everyone talks about whenever this series is mentioned anywhere. Thorne is like a mix of Hook and Jack Sparrow, but a younger and even more handsome version. (Don’t ask.) I find Jack Sparrow handsome and we’re not going to talk about Hook, because that would require a 500 word essay on how handsome and charming Colin O'Donoghue is. Moving on..

In short: the world is unique, the characters are awesome and the plot is sooooo very addictive. The problem for me is the writing which is to technical at times (the escape scene for instance). That’s like my only criticism, but since it suits and goes so well with Cinder’s character you can’t really strip these books from this. Cinder is very much growing on me with every page though and I like her spicy spirit. (Btw, chapters 31-32 were disgusting to read about—made me sick to my stomach the way Cinder described things.)

Okay, so the romance, yeah? Chapter 23. SWOON BIG TIME. *fans self* I know the main plotline is still Cinder vs Levana, but I didn’t really care for Cinder that much in this book, because I was shipping Wolf and Scarlet so hard and kept turning pages just to find out what happens next in their story. How do you define romance in this one? O.o I wouldn’t use insta-love/-attraction to describe it. It all happened throughout few days but it felt like ages and the feelings definitely weren’t instant.

While Cinder was a strong read for me, this was simply amazing. I became so invested in the story and the characters that I cannot wait to devour more of this world. It’s a wonderful retelling with so much originality that it’s just.. mind-blowing. I’m in awe of Meyer’s talent and I can’t wait to see where her career takes her because this? This was absolute perfection!

Overall rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Stars: ★★★★★

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