Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

(4.5/5 stars)

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.

Happy week 3 of Sci-Fi November!

At this point, I'm kinda obsessed with dystopian fairy-tale retellings. Once upon a time, I wrote a review of Cinder--a book I really enjoyed and was pretty interested in reading the rest of the series. But, why did I wait so long? Man, if I knew the sequel was going to be as awesome as Scarlet was, I wouldn't have put it off for a second!

What I liked: Again with the world-building. I sound like a broken record, especially coming from the Cinder review, but this book has such a fascinating world. It keeps getting bigger with each book, and it answers that super important question: What happened to the other countries during a typical YA dystopia novel? Craziness, that's what happened. I enjoyed the multiple points of view. I feel like it really worked with the story and gave me a more satisfying grasp at everything that was going down. Especially since so much happened, it was easy to keep track of everything based on the characters. Speaking of characters, hello Scarlet. She's an absolute rockstar. She's fiery and independent and all kinds of fierce. She's a really great balance to Cinder's character because they're the same but different. I also kinda sorta love Wolf and Scarlet's weird relationship...

What I didn't like: The story itself is still a bit predictable, but hey, that's what happens in a fairy-tale retelling. I saw certain events (oh, I don't know, things like betrayal or whatever) coming from a mile away, but I got over it fairly quickly.

This is a great Sci-Fi/Dystopian/Adventure series and I definitely recommend it, especially if you like a little bit of Fantasy mixed in every so often. It's a hodgepodge of greatness. And it definitely should be celebrated during a fun event like Sci-Fi November because it has something that I believe anyone will enjoy!

-Annie