Tag Archives: Scarlet

Day 23 – Best book you’ve read in the last 12 months

Leave a reply

Cress As you’ve seen, I’ve been doing the challenge out of sequence and so I’m getting to some of the topics I didn’t have an immediate answer for now, not that I’m a natural procrastinator or anything *cough*. Last night I was trawling through Amazon trying to find something and saw that Cress, the latest book in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer was out – and as I tapped the button to ‘Buy’, I realised that I had the answer to this question. 

I didn’t read as many books last year as I did in 2012 – less than half the seventy odd I’d done the year before. Partly because my work life was quite busy, and partly because I was trying to get my own writing done, which funnily enough you can’t do both things at the same time.

But, when I was reading the last few pages of Scarlet, the second book in the series I knew that I would be buying the next as soon as my grubby little cyber mitts could get it for the Kindle!


CinderI enjoyed Cinder, when I read it in 2012 – and the artwork for the cover was the best of them so far – perfectly blending the sci-fi with the fairytale it was adapted from. The premise of Cinder was great and I really enjoyed it (4* review), but for me it really came to life in the second half of the book. After this ending, Scarlet was high on my to-read list and when I got to it last year I was really impressed with the next ‘fairytale’ in the series, which stepped a good distance away from the first book and showed you other parts of the world Meyer set up in Cinder, without focusing on those characters. Scarlet and Wolf were a great combo and I suppose if Cinder showed you the upper circles in society of the Earth of the future, Scarlett took us to a different country and showed us what life was like for the majority of people. Then throw in a dash of dystopia with the oppressed, ordered people of Lunar, apparently planning to take over Earth and the stage is set for something big – I hope!

Scarlet So, with a 5* review and a very eager Mel waiting to read what happens next in Cress I would have to say that Scarlett was my favourite book from last year. It was quirky, well-detailed, action-packed, well-written with fantastic characters – it blends a familiar few details from fairytale, but twists them to such a degree that it is completely its own story. Scarlet is as feisty as you would want her to be: more in the vein of Roald Dahl’s girl who ‘whips a pistol from her knickers’ than the wee girlie who needs rescuing by a woodcutter. Best of all, it’s another series where the ladies are taking centre stage, in all the best ways: Cinder, Scarlet and I expect ‘Rapunzel’ – Cress – the super-hacker, stuck on a satellite since she was a child, are all forces to be reckoned with. They are strong ladies, who rely on their brains more than a handsome face…expect a review soon – I don’t think it will take me long to read this one! 🙂

 

Just Finished…Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

1 Reply

Scarlet

Fab, fab…fab, fab, fab!

When I read Cinder last year, I really liked the way Meyer blended the sci-fi / futuristic elements of the story within a loose framework of the original fairy tale – rather than sticking too rigidly to it and writing a simplistic re-hash. Looking back now, I think I preferred the second half of Cinder to the first, which is perhaps why I liked book 2 better than the first overall.

I have to say that the cover didn’t grab me in the same way that Cinder did – the cyborg foot in the slipper was what drew me to reading Cinder in the first place – to be honest, if this had been book 1 I’d probably have skipped over this one, as it doesn’t have the same intriguing originality of the Cinder cover. That said – even after the first couple of chapters, I had a feeling this was actually going to be better!

Scarlet is a great character, and splitting the novel between her and Cinder provided a nice variation and created a good pace throughout – I found it difficult to put this down and was always wondering where it was going to go next. Scarlet’s story – once she meets Wolf, street fighter and ex-Wolf gang member – is intriguing; as a character she’s pretty feisty and stubborn, which makes for interesting reading and contrasts Cinder’s gentler personality.

The interplay between Scarlet and Wolf is good – always wondering how much you can trust him and how the ‘Red Riding Hood’ fairy tale piece would come into play. Just like Cinder, the fairytale elements are subtly done and when you pick them out, you may find yourself smiling at them like I did – I loved the chase through the wooden forest – visually you could see it making a great scene in a film of the book.

I think the wider story, beyond the fairytale, comes into play more in this book. A lot of the groundwork from Cinder is now developing into a very full and interesting world. The escalation of the situation with Luna and also the glimpses of their society you get now indicate a much wider piece that is sure to come into play next time..

So…why does it get a 5* review? Well, I struggled to put the book down every time I had to; I would have picked up book 3 as soon I finished this one if I could! And I’m still thinking about the characters now and wondering where everything is going to go next….I can’t believe we have to wait until 2014 to find out!