Scarlet

Bibliography
Meyer, Marissa. Scarlet. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2013. Print.
image from: www.marissameyer.com



My Thoughts


This is the second installment of The Lunar Chronicles. The story's main character is Little Red Riding Hood, keeping in the fairy tale retelling, and Cinder (from Book 1) plays a large part in the story as well. I can see the two story lines coming together and setting up for the third and fourth books (Book Four drops in February 2015). Some new characters, besides Scarlet, are introduced (Wolf, Michelle Benoit), and some more information about characters we've seen (Prince Kai, Levana) is given. The book is divided into four books. I liked the transition quote that each book's title page included. This helped give the feel of the original "Little Red Riding Hood" story.



I liked that I didn't have the story figured out in the first chapter. In fact, there were several "red herrings" that made me question what I thought I knew. Meyer kept the intrigue and suspense for me. I thought I knew who the princess was, but about halfway through the book, I began to question that knowledge. I was glad to see some of the "holes" in Cinder's story were filled in with Scarlet's story.


Even the new character of Wolf was not as he seemed. He starts out as the tough guy, loner, likes to fight. Through the story, Wolf turns into a sensitive, caring, potential suitor for Scarlet, only for the reader to learn that he is a "Lunar Special Operative" (Meyer 282). But, I won't tell you how his character keeps evolving. Once the reader learns of this Lunar connection, there are still 200 pages of story!


As part of the story talks about Cinder being burned (Meyer p. 324), it reminded me of the J.R. Martinez book I just finished. I thought the timing was a little weird.


Even though I liked the story, just picking up the book seemed to be a chore. Once I started reading, I was good, but the story wasn't compelling me to stop everything and read. I will read the next two installments because I do want to find out what happens with Cinder and especially Queen Levana. I just might wait until a few other books off my pile are read.


By the way, Marissa Meyer autographed my copy of Scarlet at TLA, but I can't find the picture.