Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet

by Marissa Meyer

The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth...
Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Hardcover, 452 pages

Published February 5th 2013 by Feiwel and Friends

A Long Story Short:

Scarlet is pretty much like Cinder. But two times that. You get two fierce heroines, two fast paced Story lines, two times more plot twists, a futuristic Asia and a futuristic Europe. On top of that Meyer's writing style is still incredibly perfect, not too fast, not too slow, not too descriptive, never redundant. To cut it short  - I flew through this book and so will you.

Review for You:

Let's talk about the awesomeness that was this book. Freaking amazing, I'm telling you.

I was very worried about the second plot line and heroine thrown in. I couldn't imagine turning away from Cinder and Kai even for a little while and busy my mind with a girl I never heard of before and whose story I didn't care for.

Including Scarlet, or the idea of different story lines that intertwine in the different Lunar Chronicles novels, thankfully turned out to be one of the most brilliant ideas of the century. I'm pretty sure, not even Steve Jobs could have topped this. 

Having only Cinder as the main heroine in the second book would have meant following one plot that I would have gotten pretty tired of after a while. Or, phenomenon number two, or so to say, would have been Meyer throwing everything in the majority of authors have to give in second books: um...a love triangle. 

Wasn't the case.

Instead, the author took me to futuristic Europe, more specifically - France, showed me around, explained the new social structure and way of living there and introduced me to a heroine that is not only uniquely stubborn and confident, but also very different from Cinder without trying too hard to be.

I also met Wolf, whose true identity I wasn't even sure of after the book was over and together with Cinder I had the pleasure to be introduced to a very...interesting young fellow who will hopefully join us in the next books, as well.

If you were worried until now that your favorite sidekicks and villains fail to come back in the sequel to Cinder, never fear - they don't. They are very much present and true to their old selves and they never cease to entertain you.

I think I've said enough to get my opinion across - Scarlet is an amazing read, even better than Cinder and you should not wait a second longer to read it.

Oh, or listen to it. Esther Bochner from Macmillan Audio was so kind to offer an audio clip from the Cinder audiobook, so that you guys can get an impression of it. I personally think, it sounds like it's definitely worth a try :)

How about you guys? Have you read (and loved) these two books already? And what do you think about audiobooks? If you listen to them, when and where?

 Let me know in the comments!