Book Review: Scarlet

Scarlet
by  Marissa Meyer
Date Read:  3/6/2013
Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I really liked this book. I liked Cinder too, but I really liked this because you saw more of the world in this book, and the new characters were great. This was a long book though and just over 450 pages.



This book starts off right after the events that ended the first book. That was actually hard for me at first because it had been so long since I read the first, that it was hard to read the events of this book as being like a day after the first. But at the same time, I liked that this series isn't going to span years.

The recap in this book was very subtle I thought. Though there was quite a bit of recap, it was done in a way that was seemless and you didn't really notice it - through news feeds on the ports, Cinder thinking back to what happened that day, etc. I thought it was done really well, and I thought that just enough of the important information was recapped. Well done on this aspect.

In this book, we get the majority of the book from Scarlet's and Cinder's POV. Every once in a while there is a few others - Kai, Wolf, Levana. The POVs were all different enough, that the changes were not that bad. And I actually found myself enjoying both Scarlet and Cinder.

Scarlet was an awesome character. I loved her attitude and her love for her grandmother. Her feelings for Wolf come quickly, but it didn't really bother me that much.

Cinder is back and just as awesome as ever. She breaks out of prison and is on the run most of the book. She meets a new companion, Thorne, who is quite a character himself. I liked they're dynamic.

You get to see more of the world in this book - it takes place in several cities outside the Eastern Commonwealth. I liked it because it did more world building than the first book.

Kai was not really in this book. Though he makes a very important decision at the end of the book. But other than that, he was pretty inconsequential. I was disappointed in that because I liked him in the first book.

There are two story lines going on through almost the entire book. Scarlet and Cinder don't meet until about page 420. That shocked me. I though they were going to meet a lot sooner. But at the same time, about half way through, things started clicking, and you could see how they were eventually going to meet. It was like watching a play unfold in a football game.

There was a lot more action in this book also, and it really kept me engaged. I really enjoyed this book. If you enjoyed the first, or were unsure, you should definitely pick up Scarlet.