Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Published:  February 5, 2013
Synopsis from Goodreads: 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.

I'm taking a forced break from Cress to finally write this review. And when I say "forced" I mean, if I don't write this now, this review is never going to get written because all the things just happened and I need to keep reading.

Scarlet takes place right where Cinder left off except with the addition of new characters and a split point of view. The book alternates between being in Scarlet's perspective then going back to Cinder. Scarlet is one of the many new characters that we get in this sequel.To be perfectly honest, though I really liked Scarlet, I definitely liked Cinder more. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that after a whole book of reading just about Cinder, I was much more interested in her story rather than needing to start fresh with Scarlet's. Though Scarlet is pretty interesting herself and if you're intuitive enough, it becomes clear, fairly quickly why she's important. (I was not intuitive enough and didn't catch the hint in the beginning. I blame that entirely on reading too quickly.)

The book begins in Scarlet's point of view. Her grandmother has gone missing and though the French police have stopped searching for her, Scarlet doesn't believe her grandmother would just leave unexpectedly. One thing that wasn't very explained is why the people of Rieux, the town where Scarlet and her grandmother lived, believed her grandmother was crazy. She was an ex-military pilot who now ran a farming business. There doesn't really seem to be much off about that but the townspeople believed she was crazy and therefore told the police thus ending the search. We then meet Wolf who is a fighter in an illegal fight ring but who knows more about Scarlet's grandmother's disappearance than he first puts off. Generally speaking, I really like Scarlet. She's a feisty little redhead who pairs nicely with Wolf's generally quiet and held back demeanor.

 

(Every time Thorne wanted to be called "Captain," this is all I pictured.)

We don't get back to Cinder until chapter four just as she's escaping prison. She literally falls into the cell of "Captain" Carswell Thorne who has easily become my absolute favorite character of the series. If you crossed Jack Sparrow, Starlord, and Flynn Rider, you would end up with Thorne and his hilarious amazingness. Together Thorne and Cinder escape from the prison of the Eastern Commonwealth and become the most wanted criminals in the Earthen Union. They steal back Thorne's already stolen ship and instead of following the advice Dr. Erland gave Cinder at the end of book one, they go on a hunt to dig up more clues about Cinder's lost past. Meanwhile, back in the Commonwealth, Kai is dealing with the repercussions of losing Cinder and needing to appease Queen Levana.

Several spoiler-y things that I enjoyed:

- I thought the Red Riding Hood story was incorporated excellently. Especially, with the Lunar glamor and using it to trick Scarlet into thinking she was talking to her grandmother. Honestly, I was so invested in what was happening that I didn't even catch the whole "my grandma, what big teeth you have" moment until after it happened and I was like mindblown. Marissa Meyer just did such a good job with everything that I forgot that I was reading a retelling.

- Iko's the Rampion!! Aww I was so sad when Adri destroyed Iko in the first book but I am so so happy she's back and adorably hating that she's huge ship. But then again, Thorne is there to flatter her and I love how the lights brighten or the temperature rising when Iko blushes.

- Wolf is so cute. I love how awkward he is. But then at the same time, he can be pretty terrifying. I really thought that he really considered rejoining the Order again once he was under Jael's influence.

- I loved learning about Cinder's past and how Michelle Benoit kept her in stasis for so long in the barn. Just how all the puzzle pieces of Cinder's past started to come together was fun to read about. Though, I get this feeling that Lihn Garan is alive somewhere. Like, somehow, he needs to be alive so that he can mass produce his invention and give the Earthens a fighting chance at winning against Levana.

One thing that did bother me a bit about this book is that it took a long time for Scarlet and Cinder's storylines to meet up. I honestly thought that it would happen much much sooner rather than almost three-fourths of the way into the book. But at the same time, the storylines individually were interesting and action-y enough for me to not get annoyed with skipping back and forth like I usually do with dual point of views. All in all, this was an excellent follow up to Cinder and already, I really, really, really need November to roll around quickly so I can get my hands on Winter.