Review Detail

A lot happens in such a short time during Scarlet. The story picks up immediately after the ending of Cinder, but we’re not in New Bejing anymore. Scarlet starts out in France, where we meet its title character. At first I was worried that the entire book would be about Scarlet, since I was missing my favorite cyborg mechanic. However, that is not the case at all. The story actually alternates between Scarlet, Cinder, and Kai! I loved seeing old favorites as well as new characters, even though it felt like quite a bit was happening to contain into one book.

The plot is extremely fast paced as it only covers a few days, but those couple of days certainly keep each of the characters busy. First we have Scarlet searching for her missing grandmother with the help of Wolf, a street fighter. If you’ve read The Queen’s Army (a free short story), you’ll recognize him as I did. I was always wondering if he could actually be trusted or not. I did like how Scarlet didn’t just immediately trust him, even after she accepted his help. She’s not one to just follow blindly. Second, we have Cinder busting out of prison! She also picks up an accomplice in the overly charming Thorne, another prisoner. I loved Cinder’s new found confidence as she escapes! Finally, we have Emperor Kai. He’s dealing with the aftermath of discovering Cinder’s Lunar heritage and the attacks from the Lunar Queen. I felt so sad reading his chapters, since he doubts Cinder and thinks she just another manipulator.

For the first three quarters, Scarlet read like two separate stories. I was a little iffy about this in the beginning, but by time the two storylines collide, I felt like this was the only way to tell it. As I said before, we follow Scarlet as she searches for her grandmother and Cinder as she escapes from prison. But guess who she’s looking for? Scarlet’s grandmother! Of course they team up in the end. Both storylines taught us so much more about how Cinder got to where she is and about the Lunars in general. There’s some super strange medical/scientific stuff going on there, and I’d love to learn more of the specifics! Perhaps in the next book?

I really don’t want to give too much away, but there’s a lot of stuff revealed in Scarlet. The war between the Lunars and Earthens is just getting started, but Cinder is going to have to make some decisions and soon! Kai has already made one, but I really hope he doesn’t go through with it! I’m not sure if I enjoyed this one more than it’s predecessor, but I do know that I thoroughly enjoyed it! There’s never a dull moment!