Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Before anything, Renuka over @ Past Bedtime Blog and I did a super fun post naming the first books were thought of with 10 epic Disney characters. Check out the post here!

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Um, the day is here, where I bring to you all: me at my fangirling messiest. That’s right – it’s me, probably going to squeal and swoon and cry and just FEEL ALL THE FEELS. I forgot how good this was. Like, I knew it was good, but I somehow forgot just how amazing it was? I always thought in my head, Cinder and Scarlet is where Meyer was going through some opening pains, but Cress is where you fell in love. BUT I WAS SO WRONG.

Let’s just get to the summary so I can fangirl more.

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. 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.

Okay, you do need to read Cinder before you read this one. The series does not work as standalones, but it’s just so good that you will want to read alllllllllllllll of them. My fangirling heart wants you to read them, so please?

Now, it’s been a while since I read this book. I read it decently quick after it came out – maybe a few months after – because I remember waiting forever for Cress, forgetting that it was coming out, and then all of a sudden it was there and I had kind of forgotten what had happened in Scarlet. So, I want to say that I read it pretty soon after it came out…which was in 2013….four years ago. And that was the last time I read it.

So, of course, I knew the whole idea of what happened in this book, but there was a lot of things I didn’t remember like, Wolf had never had a tomato before. Or the whole opening escape scene. Or, you know, the whole character of Ran. o.o Er, yeah, that was kind of a biggie. Oops.

Going back through this book was so exciting, though. I loved the characters even more. Scarlet is ridiculously fierce, she’s passionate, and I love her as a main character. She didn’t let anything stop her or scare her. And when people got in her way? She found a way around because she had a grandmother to find and save. Her interactions with Wolf were perfect as well. Obviously, in Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf is the big scary monster, and Scarlet was like, oh, no, here, I’m going to tell you like it is. If there was a Mulan award for fierceness, Scarlet would be winning for sure.

I also loved the way that Meyer weaves a story. She has three major things going on in this story, and you’re like, um, how are any of these things going to connect? But she manages to slide it all into place so effortlessly. Even though I clearly knew some of the big reveals and how things were connected, reading it again was like doing it again for the first time. I still am in awe of how she got all of her pieces aligned so perfectly.

Okay, the romance? It probably is the cheesiest of all the ships in TLC (it also seems to get the least amount of love), but I DON’T CARE. I’M TOTAL WOLFLET TRASH NOW. Okay, not more than Cresswell since they are forever the OTP, but oh gosh. They were just cute little baby cinnamon rolls, and I just wanted to love them forever. (Also, never want to call anyone else cute little baby cinnamon rolls forever).

Ugh, this book was so much better in the reread. I don’t get how it could get better, but it did. Thorne. Oh, Thorne, was so ridiculously amazing in this book, and literally the whole opening prison scene with him was so amazing. And precious Kai. XD Cinder was still so awesome, and of course, how you can forget the amazing fangirl, Iko? This series just brings so many feels back, and I’m so glad that I reread this. My TBR wasn’t so pleased, but I now know I have been missing out, thinking this was somehow not as amazing as the rest of the series. If you haven’t read this series, dooooooooooo. Meyer is an amazing storyteller, and she has created one of the best crews of all time.

Five crowns, and of course, the Princess train is coming out for this.

I think Scarlet is basically Merida, so we have to include her. And I mean, Rapunzel must be in for the swoons. Aurora’s here because of course, it’s an instant classic. Fierce Mulan for Fierce Scarlet, and I mean, with how much I love this, how could Moana not be here?

Check it out:

• Goodreads
• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble

What do you think? Have you read this series yet? What do you think of rereads? Do they ever work out for the better like this or for the worse? Let’s discuss in the comments below!