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seccybishop's review against another edition
4.0
This one took me much more time to read than the first book, and scarlet and wolf happen to make me cringe way too often to give a 5 star rating, I'm much more attached to the other characters and I feel like wolf was an interesting idea with a sadly lacking execution. Overall a great read a great follow up to cinder.
delitealex's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book I didn't think it could be better than Cinder. So much action and threads coming together showing a bigger picture of what's happening. Cinder is my favorite character it's great seeing her figure things out. To see her trying to do the right thing and deal with hard choices. Scarlet and Wolf were great additions to the series I liked their chemistry. I can't wait to find out what happens next.
superlintball's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kristenbooks's review against another edition
3.0
7.28.20 update: rating changed to 3.5/5. This was a solid book that I quite liked.
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Edit 8-18-15: I decided to lower my rating on this down to 8/10.
[Check out my post on the whole series here]
Scarlet is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Scarlet mostly takes place in France and is focused upon our newest main character, Scarlet (go figure). Her grandmother disappeared shortly before the beginning of this book, and alongside a mysterious new companion named Wolf, Scarlet attempts to discover what happened to her grandmother.
My opinions on the characters in this book are a bit more ambiguous than my opinions on the characters in Cinder. In general, I think that I would say that I like both Wolf and Scarlet, but I still feel slightly hesitant to even say that. Maybe I just haven't fully formed my opinion on them. I think I can definitively say that between all of the important characters presented within the first two books, Cinder is my favorite. With Captain Thorne (a new character introduced in Scarlet) as a close second. I thought he was annoying at first, but he's grown on me quite a bit. The guy never fails to make me laugh.
One thing that the book did really well was integrating Scarlet's story with the continuation of Cinder's. When I started the series, I was under the impression that each novel was going to be a succinct story that all fit together to form an overarching plot, and that is definitely not the situation at all. It's clear at the end of Cinder that her story is not yet complete and that made me really curious to see how the back and forth was handled within the coming books. And, like I said, I thought that the two plots were integrated really nicely.
Like with Cinder, the original tale is definitely recognizable, but never overbearing, which (as I said before) I really enjoyed. Overall, I enjoyed the book and had minor problems with it. I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Cinder. I thought Cinder's plot was more exciting and its characters more interesting and just overall enjoyed it more than Scarlet.
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Edit 8-18-15: I decided to lower my rating on this down to 8/10.
[Check out my post on the whole series here]
Scarlet is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. Scarlet mostly takes place in France and is focused upon our newest main character, Scarlet (go figure). Her grandmother disappeared shortly before the beginning of this book, and alongside a mysterious new companion named Wolf, Scarlet attempts to discover what happened to her grandmother.
My opinions on the characters in this book are a bit more ambiguous than my opinions on the characters in Cinder. In general, I think that I would say that I like both Wolf and Scarlet, but I still feel slightly hesitant to even say that. Maybe I just haven't fully formed my opinion on them. I think I can definitively say that between all of the important characters presented within the first two books, Cinder is my favorite. With Captain Thorne (a new character introduced in Scarlet) as a close second. I thought he was annoying at first, but he's grown on me quite a bit. The guy never fails to make me laugh.
One thing that the book did really well was integrating Scarlet's story with the continuation of Cinder's. When I started the series, I was under the impression that each novel was going to be a succinct story that all fit together to form an overarching plot, and that is definitely not the situation at all. It's clear at the end of Cinder that her story is not yet complete and that made me really curious to see how the back and forth was handled within the coming books. And, like I said, I thought that the two plots were integrated really nicely.
Like with Cinder, the original tale is definitely recognizable, but never overbearing, which (as I said before) I really enjoyed. Overall, I enjoyed the book and had minor problems with it. I did not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Cinder. I thought Cinder's plot was more exciting and its characters more interesting and just overall enjoyed it more than Scarlet.
heidilreads's review against another edition
3.0
A fun confluence of Cinderella and the hunger games. Frankly, the YA aspect meant that "the bad" guys were not nearly as evil as adults can be.... right now, not evil is pretty great
pkeller's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
pensnfeathers's review against another edition
3.0
Scarlet is a perfectly good followup to the slightly stronger Cinder. It feels less like a second novel than an immediate continuation of the first, but shifting about 60% of the perspective to a brand new character. This totally works, as it really helps cement the feeling that this is a series in which these cyberpunk reimaginings of fairy tale heroines have their stories weaved together while still following their own individual source material plotlines.
Somewhat unfortunately, Scarlet's story isn't quite as interesting as Cinder's and leans harder on some of YA's more annoying cliches. That being said, I never lost interest, never became frustrated with the characters or the writing, and never found the trope-leaning to be too egregious. Since this is an immediate continuation of the first book, it doesn't really have to opportunity to use worldbuilding in the way the first one does. These little things make it a somewhat less enjoyable read than the first book, but still better-than-average YA that I genuinely enjoyed.
Two sidenote pet-peeve nitpicks:
First, there is one character that falls victim to one of the more obnoxious (if innocuous) YA tropes: having a given name that is indicative of a trait gained later in life (a la Remus Lupin). It's not a big deal, but I do always hate to see it.
Second: There is a scene in which a revealed antagonist who has previous expressed sexual interest in one of the heroines pins her to the ground and says something along the lines of "I could take advantage of you right now if the idea weren't so abhorrent." Look, if you don't want to write a sexual assault into your YA novel, don't. If you do, do. This weird "I want to rape you but rape is bad even though I'm a villain so I actually don't want to rape you" thing is another common YA trope that just comes off as an awkward and inauthentic half measure.
Somewhat unfortunately, Scarlet's story isn't quite as interesting as Cinder's and leans harder on some of YA's more annoying cliches. That being said, I never lost interest, never became frustrated with the characters or the writing, and never found the trope-leaning to be too egregious. Since this is an immediate continuation of the first book, it doesn't really have to opportunity to use worldbuilding in the way the first one does. These little things make it a somewhat less enjoyable read than the first book, but still better-than-average YA that I genuinely enjoyed.
Two sidenote pet-peeve nitpicks:
First, there is one character that falls victim to one of the more obnoxious (if innocuous) YA tropes: having a given name that is indicative of a trait gained later in life (a la Remus Lupin). It's not a big deal, but I do always hate to see it.
Second: There is a scene in which a revealed antagonist who has previous expressed sexual interest in one of the heroines pins her to the ground and says something along the lines of "I could take advantage of you right now if the idea weren't so abhorrent." Look, if you don't want to write a sexual assault into your YA novel, don't. If you do, do. This weird "I want to rape you but rape is bad even though I'm a villain so I actually don't want to rape you" thing is another common YA trope that just comes off as an awkward and inauthentic half measure.
soulzediblez's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
yasamanvf's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
trutiffany's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5