Scarlet is the second book in The Lunar Chronicles, it is written by Marissa Meyer and according to the author’s website, there are going to be five books in the series.
This book was first published in 2013 and Winter – fourth book is expected to be published this year November. The Lunar Chronicles are tied to the classic fairy tales as you might guess from the titles, but the events are something new and fresh. To be honest the author does a really good job at explaining most important things that happened in the first book, so I actually think that you don’t need to read the first one in order to get to this one. The only problem a reader might have is the terminology, because it took me a while to get into all the robotics and computer things that were described in Cinder. I myself didn’t like the first book much, you can check my review for that. Scarlet was a completely different story and as you might guess from my booklist, I enjoyed it a lot.
Scarlet lives in future France quite a while after the fourth World War has passed and works on a farm that is owned by her bad ass grandmother who used to be a military pilot. Scarlet’s grandmother disappears and when Scarlet’s father is also kidnapped and let go to search for grandmother’s secrets, Scarlet decides to find her most beloved person by herself! By a chance though she meets and befriends a street fighter named Wolf, who offers his help to find the grandmother.
At the same time Cinder with help of Dr. Erland and Captain Throne manages to escape the prison and is so busy running away from all the people who want her dead that she doesn’t have much time to evaluate the new information about her identity. She fights against it, not willing to have anything in common with Levana, but she cannot fight what she really is and how natural glamour seems to her.
This book was packed with action and adventure, the moment I started to think about putting it down, because something slightly boring happened (or nothing happen for some time), it gave me a huge plot twist and I would stay tuned and the boredom that entered mind few seconds ago would be gone.
I do have to admit that parts of this book was a cliche, for example – relationships, but I didn’t mind it because it was nicely described in a completely original environment and new future setting that was developed in the first book and took me a long time to get used to and start to understand it, but now when I do, I appreciate it. I see how some people might dislike it and I would see myself sighing at classic romantic moments, but somehow this time I didn’t. So, if you really don’t like those cliches and are very critical towards them, perhaps you might want to pass on this novel.
Scarlet around the middle became a page turner to me, it was packed with action, which was accented by masterful jumps between the stories; it was timed very well and I never felt like Cinder’s or Scarlet’s story should end or I should skip it in order to get to the other one, there was balance and I really cannot stop appreciating it. And the writing was good! It’s not like it was the best one, but knowing how young adult novels tend to be written nowadays, I really liked that it wasn’t plain, simple or packed with mistakes. Some writing and logic mistakes were present, but not as many as there could be and it got just some frowns from me, but not really something that would cast a shadow on the story.
Cinder as a character was interesting, as you might recall I didn’t really like her in the first book, but in this book I was from the beginning actually more drawn to her story and character than ever.
Scarlet’s character was annoying, but there’s a reasons why I tweeted that, if the Lunar Chronicles would be films, I would like to be her. First of all, she is a cliche (another one, sorry) – she doesn’t see many obvious things, like how Wolf doesn’t recognize things that humans use in everyday life and seems amazed by them. She has a terrible temper and is kind of a bad and sometimes a stupid girl and comes across as one that could never actually do something (like shoot a person) and she is just basically trusting every stranger that comes across her (like me!). And why I would like to be her? Because if people are nice to me, I believe them, because I might have tantrums, but at the same time I’m a bit of a coward. I see how one would want to be Cinder (and I would, hell yeah), but I couldn’t, because I’m just not as strong as she is and that’s why I felt like Scarlet is the one for me.
Got a slight Twilight vibe that was a bit unsettling and wasn’t too happy about, I couldn’t really push it away, but as the story evolved and got completely different, I stopped thinking about it. Till this moment. Here, I’m comparing them again in my mind.
Funnily enough, I didn’t really connect or relate to any of the characters (again), but that didn’t give me any problems to enjoy the adventures. I liked the plot and perhaps I wasn’t a fan of everything that happened and some things were just blurry (fights are never good in books), but mostly it was up beat and (yay to all those who said I will like it) I liked it!
I was slightly disappointed by the ending with classical long chapters with things that doesn’t really need to be written because it is a classic romance, classic adventure and we already have imagined how everything turns out, but then we have to sit through and read everything and it is just boring. I almost took away a star for that. Seriously, stop the long endings!
I liked the book and I think that teens would love it, because there’s romance and it is a beautiful teenage appropriate dreamy romance. I also could encourage those that didn’t like the first book to at least give this one a try, because I did and I liked it! As I said before, I almost took away a star for the ending, but after a long thinking I decided to go with four and not three stars on my goodreads page. Because at some point it was a page turner and that doesn’t happen often to me. I know that the fact that I had forgotten small details from Cinder helped to keep the intrigue alive for me, but I was glad for it. So, yes, definetely will read the next one!
What did you think of Scarlet? The book and the character? Who do you like better? Are you waiting for Winter to come in November? (See what I did there?) Let me know in the comment section bellow!
September 29, 2015 at 19:44
I JUST finished reading Cinder and have to agree I didn’t exactly like it but I didn’t dislike it either. I’m glad I read this because I was pretty wary of reading book two! Thanks so much for this review
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September 29, 2015 at 19:49
I was quite the same and I waited a month, but once I started it, I already knew that I will like it better than the first one.
I really hope you will like it as I did, I wouldn’t say that I loved it, but really it brought the game to a new and better level! 🙂
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September 29, 2015 at 19:48
Reblogged this on The GUNDERSTONE review and commented:
Passing along this book review from BookOwly
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September 29, 2015 at 19:50
I have read Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress! Loved them all!
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September 29, 2015 at 19:52
Excited for Winter? 🙂
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September 29, 2015 at 19:54
Definitely! If you liked Scarlett, you’ll love Cress!!! 🙂
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September 29, 2015 at 19:54
That’s funny, I felt *exactly* the same way after finishing this book too! I didn’t love the story and characters, but it was entertaining enough to keep my interest. I have to say that, of the three books so far, Cress is my favorite. So the series does seem to get better as it goes on!
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September 29, 2015 at 20:02
Aw, thanks for your comment, it gives me the hope and courage to get to the next one.
I was actually looking forward to Cress the most because Rapunzel is my favourite princess of them all and that already gives a bit of liking to the Cress. 😀
I really hope that I will like it better and if they really are getting better, it just proves that practice makes it perfect and Mrs. Meyer might polish her writing and creative thinking to new levels.
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September 29, 2015 at 20:15
I was curious to see how Cinder’s story would fit into Scarlet’s and at the beginning of the book I was more interested in Cinder’s journey than I was with Scarlet. However, I thought the way that Marissa linked up the two stories was quite clever and by the end I was really invested in the story. I think Cress is the best in the series so far so I hope you enjoy it.
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September 29, 2015 at 20:18
I was as well and honestly, I was a bit skeptical, to see how Cinder will end up in Europe, but when she actually did have the reason, it was brilliant and I was sold! My feelings were really similar to yours, so I do hope that I will love Cress as well! 🙂
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September 29, 2015 at 20:16
I downloaded three of the books just the other day, can’t wait to see what this is all about, thanks for the review, it gives me hope.
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September 29, 2015 at 20:19
I hope you will like them! I didn’t enjoy Cinder as much as this one and people in the comments are really saying that it gets better and better, so, perhaps, if you start to read and dislike the first one, don’t push yourself and give a try to the second one! 🙂
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September 29, 2015 at 20:23
I always feel terrible when I get into a series that’s popular and I’m like omg why don’t I like this? Lol I will give it a try. It’s been awhile since I read a fantasy. I just finished Aristotle and Dante discover the secret of the universe and it pulled me out of my reading slump!
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September 29, 2015 at 20:24
I feel the same usually and I felt that way after Cinder. This was a completely different story!
Funnily enough I really disliked Aristotle and Dante, it was a fast read, but I didn’t like it one bit. 😀
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September 29, 2015 at 20:32
It was so easy to read, it took me two days. But what didn’t you like about it, I’m going to write a review soon
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September 29, 2015 at 20:36
I had hard time attaching to the story and characters as I said in the review (there’s a link to Cinder’s review) and the story was slightly boring and predictable.
I did not appreciate the completely unknown environment and lack of description (I didn’t even know the differences between androids and cyborgs) of the tech left me confused and searching for explanations online.
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September 30, 2015 at 00:11
Oh, I’m sorry I was referring to Aristotle and Dante.
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September 30, 2015 at 07:51
Oh, I had a lot of troubles with that one… All the deep meanings didn’t seem deep for me at all, but rather fake.
All characters were very similar, except for two main characters, everyone else was pretty much either very nice or not really worth mentioning.
And there wasn’t really a real story line, at least I felt that way. Growing up is not a story line and although it was a fast paced book and a quick read, I didn’t feel like it gave me anything.
What lost me completely was the accident, which was not realistic at all (believe me, I’ve been in one).
https://bookowly.wordpress.com/2015/09/09/benjamin-alire-saenz-aristotle-and-dante-discover-the-secrets-of-the-universe/
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September 30, 2015 at 15:41
Great review! So sorry to hear about your accident. I can see why you didn’t like the story. I unfortunately am such a sap lol. I think I connected on the emotional journey of it.
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September 30, 2015 at 03:47
This is definitely a very fast paced book and probably the quickest out of the quartet. I think you’ll like Cress even more, though. 💖
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September 30, 2015 at 07:52
Aww, I really hope so too! I have high hopes for Rapunzel, she has to be awesome! 😀 I refuse to think that my favourite princess will not be awesome!
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September 30, 2015 at 20:02
LOL yeah she is. 🙂
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September 30, 2015 at 19:17
Love the first book, can’t wait to read the second one ^_^
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October 4, 2015 at 19:54
I read the second and third one! I bet you’ll love it too if you liked the first one! 😀
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October 6, 2015 at 08:25
I remember taking very long to read Cinder, I’ve been putting off writing a review because I really, really wanted to like it but I didn’t… Its not a terrible novel it is just really hard to get into personally. I tried reading Scarlet but for some reason I just stopped reading. I do intend on trying it again though…
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October 6, 2015 at 11:04
It was similar for me too and I had a hard time with Cinder, I took my time to get to Scarlet (because I didn’t like Cinder and was afraid that this will be bad too), but it was a lot better in Scarlet. Around the middle, it got exciting!
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October 6, 2015 at 20:28
This is a series I should continue. I read the first one but stopped.
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October 8, 2015 at 14:04
I did not like Cinder either. I didn’t hate it. I just had very high hopes of what it could be and it did not meet those hopes. I felt the storyline for a retelling stuck far to close to the original and it was too light. That sounds strange when you look at the villain, but none of the characters had a lot of depth. It’s refreshing to find someone else who had issues with it too.
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October 20, 2015 at 11:54
I’ve had this on my ‘To Read’ shelf for a while now and I haven’t read Cinder yet either.
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October 23, 2015 at 19:04
I have read the series till cress…& I liked it .I didn’t have any prior hopes is one reason I guess & plus its different .The setting & story line I’d intriguing which I feel sort of makes up for some not so stellar story telling in some parts.
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