Book Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet
Marissa Meyer
Genre(s): Science-fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy
Published: February 7th 2013
Pages: 452
Rating: 4 stars

“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 one 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...”

I really enjoyed the second instalment in The Lunar Chronicles, a lot more than I enjoyed the first one. I felt that the world and the characters were a lot more developed and the dual story line was very interesting, and they tied in together almost seamlessly. I'm generally not much of a science-fiction fan, but I can honestly say that this did not read like sci-fi and I think it - along with Cinder - may have introduced me to reading more science-fiction in the future. Well, young adult science-fiction anyway. The twists and turns Meyer placed throughout the story were all very believable, and there were some that I also didn't guess (most of the ones concerning Wolf - who, by the way, I thought was a great character).

The thing that I probably liked the most about this book is that the world from Cinder was a lot more developed and I found things much easier to understand as they were explained better. While Scarlet does pick right up from where it's prequel last let off, there was instantly the feel of things being more well rounded. And jumping straight into the plot was nice, as this book was extremely action packed and I found there were hardly any parts at all that dragged.

Scarlet as a character was a very nice addition to the series and I'm interested to see how she will continue to interact with Cinder, although Cinder is still my favourite. She still came across the same as in the first book, which I liked, but she also seemed more thought out, which I also liked. I'm very interested - and almost a little apprehensive - to see how things will play out in Cress, but it looks like I'll be waiting a bit before reading that as I've yet to get my hands on a copy.