Rate: 3.5/5
Medium: AudioBook
Overview (No Spoilers): At the urging of my fellow bloggers, I decided to continue The Lunar Chronicles series after a lackluster world building and depth introduced in the inaugural novel, Cinder. While, unsatisfied with the detail aspect of Cinder, it did not deter from my overall enjoyment regarding the concept behind this futuristic world and the simultaneous interweaving of fairytales. Scarlet initially began on the same note, however managed to expand upon and evolve the world/characters from the preceding novel, while also incorporating delightful new characters that add to immediately richen the general storyline. A specific favorite would be Carswell Thorne’s rakish, conceited, incredible dense persona, who also managed to provoke feelings of endearment from the reader. Among the new POVs was a new storyline taking place in France that wove in the fairytale of Red Riding Hood in a most entertaining fashion, however resulting in foreseeable plot twists, although when inspiration is derived from preexisting stories that outcome is practicably unavoidable. Another intriguing and perhaps the most revealing POV, whose identity I won’t spoil here, is actually a key character we’d already met in Cinder. Overall, despite the predictable nature, which I might add is nigh inescapable when retelling childhood folktales, Meyers has created in Scarlet, a fast paced, edge of your seat adventure that will capture your curiosity, as to not only how the characters will proceed, but how the next fairytale will be seamlessly incorporated the into the subsequent storyline.
Additional Insight (Spoilers Abound):
- How will Cinder find Dr. Erland in Africa? How will she be able to overthrow the Lunar throne as a cyborg due to the prejudice that already exists?
- Iko was resurrected! Her vibrant personality was a welcome introduction back into the storyline.
- We got a POV from Queen Levana! I was so excited when I realized the foreign POV was from the evil Queen, which afforded a unique perspective regarding the Lunar court, people and politics. I’m excited to see what other information we will get from Luna in the next books.
- Scarlet’s POVs were difficult at first to work through, as I would find myself impatient for the next chapter. Her out of control temper and tendency of jumping to conclusions was indeed frustrating. She eventually grew on me, especially as her her interactions with Wolf grew. Wolf was an enigma for the majority of the book and I look forward to learning more about his character and genetic mutations in the following books.
- Poor, alone Kaito! I feel like Kai is alone on a floating device in the middle of the ocean, isolated from all of the exciting action. How will he be drawn back into the fray?
Nice review! I loved Cinder and liked the rest enough lol. It’s amazing that she was able to get an entire series from one fairy tale.
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Thanks! I’m excited to see where she takes this story!
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I read the first two books and loved it! Can’t wait to get into this one
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Have you read the third book? I just put my name on the waitlist at my local library. 😀
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No not yet…It’s waiting on me hehehe.
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I read the whole series and loved it. The plot twists were predictable, but her description is just. Yes. I could read about palaces all day XD
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I’m excited to see where she takes the storyline! I don’t mind the twists being predicable because I’m not sure how she could avoid that plight.
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I totally agree with you; I had a lot of issues with Scarlet. To be honest, I wasn’t drawn to either Wolf or Scarlet. I absolutely adored Thorne though. He breathes a new life into the story, in my opinion.
But over all, this probably my least favorite in the series. I hope you’ll find Cress much better than this!
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Thanks Norin! I’m glad you agree with me about Scarlet! I always feel a bit guilty when I don’t connect with the main character. I’m looking forward to Cress!
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Great review! I felt the same way about this- I had my problems with it, but I did enjoy it overall.
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Again we agree! 😀 It seems like we often hit on the same points in literature.
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Yes for sure!!
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I agree with you and all the others. I’m glad you will be reading the third book, it’s on my TBR as well. I forgot about it until now!
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It always makes it easier to continue reading a series when they are such quick reads. I can’t wait to see where the storyline goes with Cress!
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Glad you picked up the second. I still haven’t read the third book but I really enjoyed these.
I also learned that I might just really like Cinderella stories?
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Ha! Cinderella stories are the best!
I was surprised how much I enjoyed them too! I’m excited to see where Meyer will take this story!
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Great review – glad you enjoyed this book! I’m always weary about picking up books based on fairytales, but I thoroughly enjoyed this series. Wolf is probably my favourite character, but Carswell is hilariously endearing!
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i want to read “scarlet” in the upcoming weeks! thanks for this review! 🙂
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This is a fun series! 😀 I’m going to start Cress soon!
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Thank you for the like on my first book review post 🙂 means a lot coming from someone who reviews books so coherently and interestingly 🙂 hopefully with time I’ll write as well as you 🙂
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Oh thanks you for the kind words! 😀 Good luck with your blog!
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[…] The Critique Chemist […]
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Reading this reminds me I need to continue with this series! Also, Queen Leavana is easily one of my favorite villains.
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I just finished Cress! So good! And Leavana is the worst!
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[…] (No Spoilers): After Scarlet, the second novel in The Lunar Chronicles, introduced many new fascinating characters, the follow […]
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