The Blurb
Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing.
The Police have closed her case.
The only person Scarlet can turn to is wolf, a street fighter she does not trust, but they are drawn to each other.
Meanwhile, in New Beijing, Cinder will become the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive – when she breaks out of prison to stay one step ahead of vicious Queen Levana.
As Scarlet and Wolf expose on mystery, they encounter Cinder and a new one unravels. Together they must challenge the evil queen who will stop at nothing to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner…
My Thoughts
Once again, I’m reviewing the second book of a series this week! This time we have Scarlet from Marissa Meyer’s The Lunar Chronicles. Now, I was first introduced to this series by a very close friend, she raved about it and gave me the run down of the first book Cinder but without any spoilers, I hate spoilers. And then for Christmas, said friend bought me the first book in the series as a gift which I absolutely LOVED. But then I was back at uni and haven’t read it since.
Last week, when I was talking about Half Wild I mentioned having to marathon the series because I had no idea what was happening. This was NOT the case with Scarlet. Though this is a series, entirely new characters were focused on at the start of Scarlet instead of it being a direct continuation of Cinder. I know I am massively behind the bandwagon with this series, every one has read it, but I found this so useful. My favourite characters from the first book were brought back in pretty soon, but a carefully woven recap was done so that I could remember who was where as I met new characters along the way!
In a nut shell, this series is a re-writing of various fairytales. Cinder starts with Cinderella, Scarlet is Little Red Riding Hood and the next in the series, which I am currently reading, Cress is a re-writing of Rapunzel. The setting of the series is well into the future in various countries of the earth, Cinder starts in New Beijing and Scarlet lives in France. But then Marissa Meyer introduces her own quirky twists. Think robots and evil mind controlling magic powers and you’re on the right path.
Something I find incredibly important with novels is characterisation. I can happily read a novel where very little happens as long as the characters are interesting on many levels, hell, Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite classics and what more happens in that than someone falling off a horse and lots of parties?! Meyer has this down to a T. All her characters have interesting storylines, each book focuses on a different character in a sense, but also uses the other characters already introduced to widen the sphere. But each of them have their own quirks and they’re all so badass! Cinder, though a lowly cyborg and hated Luna, takes shit from no one. And when Wolf gets cocky, Scarlet knows how to deal with him. The women hold their own in these novels and I love them for it!
And then the men… ahh the men. So Kai was really lovely and sweet in the first novel. He’s essentially Prince Charming in a world where shit is going down. But then Thorne is introduced. Oh Thorne… excuse my swooning here, but I get a little attached to characters occasionally.
He’s basically a bit of a daredevil, possibly bad guy that, deep down, is incredibly sweet and lovely. But he just has a cheeky attitude about him. Whilst I believe his relationship to Cinder is entirely platonic, they have a connection… and he’s just so… charming! Think of Chris Pine in the film Into the Woods … or The Princess Diaries 2… or just Chris Pine in general….
But anyway, Thorne really helps to move the story along, we gain a vehicle for travelling because of him (hence meeting Scarlet) and he just adds comedy throughout which is always lovely!
Then we have Wolf, the troubled guy that’s been sort of controlled and dominated since a young age, taken into a gang type group of people but with an amazingly good heart. He’s essentially been brainwashed, but with Scarlet’s help he seems to better himself. I really liked Wolf from the start, even when Scarlet didn’t, and I think that’s a testament to Meyer’s writing.
I really enjoy this series. It’s an interesting take on the fairy tales that people know so well, the setting is unique, the plot lines for each character are well developed and far from boring and the characters are simply fantastic. I would argue it starts a little slowly, which is probably why I really enjoyed it because it gave me a little recap, but if you were marathoning these, then be mindful of that!
I give this book a 4/5! I seriously think people need to read this series, I LOVE it. And I’m actually reading Cress as we speak, so as long as I get my reading game together and STOP watching Youtube all the time, then that review will be up next time!
Write you soon!
Jules
Links
Click here for my Goodreads account and see what I’m reading this week!
Quill Tricks 
One thought on “Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles book 2) by Marissa Meyer – Book Review”