Scarlet
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.
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.
(summary from goodreads.com)
The first book surprised me immensely - I'm a sucker for Cinderella retellings and loved the extremely creative way Meyer adapted the familiar story. I had no idea what to expect from this book - the first book covered the fairytale, where would they go from there? There were huge plot points to resolve and major drama in store for our characters of course, but with the fairy tale premise finished and done with would this morph into a standard YA trilogy? Or a Cinderella - The After Years? No! I also heard that Cinder/Kai weren't as central to this book. No!
But I read and devoured and loved and all my worries were for naught. So clever. Not content with the predictable, Meyer based this book on a completely different fairytale, which means I can't WAIT to see what fairytale she uses for the next book. Snow White is my first guess, though I also wouldn't be surprised with a Sleeping Beauty or even Beauty and the Beast. But I'm still thinking Snow White - I would love to see her version of dwarves. But I digress.
In Scarlet we get the continuation of Cinder's story, with her scrambling to understand and deal with what happened at the end of the last book, but we also get a whole slew of new characters. Hooray! I've decided new characters or narrators are what keep second books from falling into Second Book Slumps. Our Cinderella story moves over to make room for Little Red Riding Hood and her wolf, and we meet Scarlet and Wolf and continue on with the delightful (if delightful can also mean "delightfully awful because there are bad evil people that hopefully our heroines and heroes will eventually overcome") world of Earthens and Lunars. We also meet Thorne who will hopefully (hopefully!) be the prince in the next story. Because he is fabulous and reminds me of Face, and more stories need a Face.
All conjecture aside, I loved this book as much or even possibly more than the first one. Excellent characters and a creatively fabulous world and one I didn't want to leave. It left me looking forlornly at my "books to read" pile because I knew there weren't any waiting that could match it. I can't wait for the next one.
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But I read and devoured and loved and all my worries were for naught. So clever. Not content with the predictable, Meyer based this book on a completely different fairytale, which means I can't WAIT to see what fairytale she uses for the next book. Snow White is my first guess, though I also wouldn't be surprised with a Sleeping Beauty or even Beauty and the Beast. But I'm still thinking Snow White - I would love to see her version of dwarves. But I digress.
In Scarlet we get the continuation of Cinder's story, with her scrambling to understand and deal with what happened at the end of the last book, but we also get a whole slew of new characters. Hooray! I've decided new characters or narrators are what keep second books from falling into Second Book Slumps. Our Cinderella story moves over to make room for Little Red Riding Hood and her wolf, and we meet Scarlet and Wolf and continue on with the delightful (if delightful can also mean "delightfully awful because there are bad evil people that hopefully our heroines and heroes will eventually overcome") world of Earthens and Lunars. We also meet Thorne who will hopefully (hopefully!) be the prince in the next story. Because he is fabulous and reminds me of Face, and more stories need a Face.
All conjecture aside, I loved this book as much or even possibly more than the first one. Excellent characters and a creatively fabulous world and one I didn't want to leave. It left me looking forlornly at my "books to read" pile because I knew there weren't any waiting that could match it. I can't wait for the next one.
Mom note: As
a mother of readers, I also
want to make a note to myself (and others if they care) why I would or
would not have my children read this book, because honestly, sometimes I
forget. This is a YA book, so everything is within YA strictures.
Violence: fairly brutal but not overly descriptive fights; Profanity: none; Sex: PG displays of affection
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