Scarlet

Author: Marissa Meyer
First Published: February 2013
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #2
452 pages (hardcover)

So, in 2011, I read the book Cinder, which is the first book in the series. I loved it, and knew I was going to read the rest of the series. But then, as it usually happens, the wait between installments causes me to forget (because I'm not very good at keeping up with book news). I was recently reminded of this series when I saw the fourth (and final!) book in bookstores and I thought, "Oh my gawd, the last book is already out?!"

So it's been 4 years and my memory is a little hazy on what happened in Cinder, but I still found Scarlet very enjoyable to read. I wonder if I would have liked it more if I read them back to back?

I did not know the Lunar Chronicles features a different fairy tale heroine in each installment. I think this is an awesome idea! In this second book in the series, the new fairy tale heroine featured is Little Red Riding Hood. Cinder (as in, Cinderella), the cyborg mechanic from the first book, is still a main character.

Scarlet begins with 18 year old Scarlet who is looking for her lost grandmother. Her grandmother has been missing for the past two weeks and the police don't seem to care. A chance meeting with a mysterious street fighter named Wolf brings her closer to locating her beloved grandmother. Wolf appears to know more about the whereabouts of Scarlet's grandmother than he is letting on. As Scarlet and Wolf investigate the disappearance together, Scarlet realizes that whoever took her grandmother, took her because her grandmother knows about the true identity of the missing Lunar princess, Selene.

In the meantime, Cinder is stuck in prison due to the events that happened in the first book. Reluctantly resorting to her Lunar capabilities of mind control, Cinder escapes with fellow prisoner Captain Thorne, a devilishly handsome rogue of a man who just so happens to own a large cargo spaceship. But escaping is just the beginning -- the entire world is looking for her, because the Queen of Luna, Levana, is furious that Cinder has ran away. If Cinder is not found in time, Queen Levana is threatening to war against the entire Earth.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Wonderfully written and a nicely paced story. A lot of my liking has to do with the fact that I am just a sucker for fairy tale retellings. I love this series because it is just by far one of the most imaginative fairy tale retellings I've encountered in my 'travels' (in the book world) so far. I mean, sci-fi fairy tales?! It sounds crazy but it works in this series.

Also, Little Red Riding Hood is not a fairy tale that usually gets the novelization treatment. There's tons of Cinderella retellings, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, etc. but LRRH is, I suppose, too short of a tale to flesh out into a whole novel. Well, I guess it's true, it IS a short fairy tale. But Marissa Meyer found a way to incorporate LRRH into the existing Lunar Chronicles world, and I just loved the way it all fit together.

If I may have a complaint though, it did bug me a bit how Scarlet and Cinder's paths didn't cross until near the end of the novel. It's a bit like reading two separate stories until that point. You have all the stuff that's happening with Scarlet and all the stuff that's happening with Cinder, and for a long time, I didn't even think the two characters were going to meet. They do, eventually, of course, but it was pretty darn near the end. Just a small complaint, I think if they could have met earlier it would have been fantastic.

Anyway, if you enjoyed the first Lunar Chronicle book, I am sure you will also like book two. I am really looking forward to the third book, Cress, which apparently features Rapunzel! And the fourth and final book, Winter, that was just released a few days ago, which features Snow White. Exciting stuff!

My Rating: 4/5