
In "Scarlet," the second installment of 'The Lunar Chronicles' series by Marissa Meyer, readers are introduced to a new character, Scarlet, who is on a quest to find her missing grandmother. Set in a futuristic world with elements of science fiction, genetic engineering, and retellings of fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, the book weaves together the stories of Scarlet and Cinder, the protagonist from the first book. The plot unfolds with fast-paced action, near escapes, and intricate world-building, keeping readers engaged as they delve deeper into a world filled with political intrigue and futuristic technology.
The narrative in "Scarlet" alternates between Scarlet's journey to uncover the truth about her grandmother's disappearance and Cinder's escape from capture, while also introducing new characters like Wolf and Captain Thorne. Marissa Meyer's writing style combines elements of fantasy, steampunk, and cyberpunk genres, creating a modern techno tale that updates classic fairy tales for a new generation. With a blend of suspense, romance, and adventure, the book offers a compelling continuation of the series, leaving readers eager for more revelations and plot twists.
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Has Romance?
Scarlet contains a high level of romance primarily between Scarlet and Wolf, as well as hints of romance with Cinder and Thorne.
From The Publisher:
The second book in the #1 New York Times- and USA Today- Bestselling Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer like you've never seen it before, now with new cover art! Our cyborg heroine teams up with two new characters, Scarlet and Wolf, to defend Earth against a wicked space queen.
"An interesting mash up of fairy tales and science fiction . . . a cross between Cinderella, Terminator, and Star Wars."-Entertainment Weekly on the Lunar Chronicles
"Prince Charming among the cyborgs." -The Wall Street Journal on the Lunar Chronicles
Cinder is back and trying to break out of prison-even though she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive if she does-in this second installment from Marissa Meyer.
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.
The adventure continues in this fresh fairytale retelling that combines elements of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood.
Don't miss Marissa Meyer's other books and series':
The Lunar Chronicles:
Cinder
Scarlet
Cress
Winter
Stars Above
Fairest
The Lunar Chronicles Coloring Book
Wires and Nerve: Vol. 1
Wires and Nerve: Vol. 2
Renegades:
Renegades: Book One
Archenemies: Book Two
Supernova: Book Three
Heartless
Ratings (74)
Incredible (22) | |
Loved It (32) | |
Liked It (9) | |
It Was OK (7) | |
Did Not Like (3) | |
Hated It (1) |
Reader Stats (99):
Read It (79) | |
Want To Read (17) | |
Not Interested (3) |
6 comment(s)
Here’s a scenario.
Imagine being the leader of a nation. You are the protector of your people, tasked with defending their liberties, guarding their inalienable rights, etc.
Now after years of saber-rattling, a hostile kingdom arrives at your doorstep with a delegation that includes The Evil Queen, who can control people with her mind.
Do you,
A) Invite this psycho to the heart of your government, where she can mind-control everyone to do whatever she wants.
B) Tell her that you must conduct meetings remotely, maybe over Skype.
C) Have her assassinated immediately in any of a dozen creative ways.
D) Marry her.
Well, if you’re Kai, you do A and D. And you make these decisions unilaterally and with zero deliberation. Lesser Emperors might have consulted their top generals or their intelligence chiefs. But not Kai! He must “make this decision alone” (his words). Maybe additional facts and intel would only cloud his special brand of logic.
Anyway, that’s how Kai sells out the people of his country: at the first available opportunity. He hands them over as slaves to a mind-controlling sadist for her to do with them as she pleases without even putting up a fight.
If you are wondering why,
why would Emperor Kai (who is really good looking, btw) do such a thing? Well, according to the lore of The Lunar Chronicles, Kai does this because he is braindead. I think the technical term is shit-for-brains. Where there should be brains in his cranium, there is instead shit. But again, he’s also very attractive - keep that in mind - just not smart, since that's not a quality familiar to Meyer or any of her fans or characters.
Anyhow, another thing you might be wondering is why in a future of such flourishing scientific progress, the nations of Earth have reverted to an autocracy reminiscent of the Dark Ages. Great question! The reason is that authors like Meyer prefer to write about despotic regimes, even when it doesn’t make sense, because they think it’s easier.
Look, real governments are messy: layers of complex bureaucracy, 99.999% of decision-making delegated to agencies, regulators, clandestine organizations, keepers of institutional memory and expertise many degrees of separation from elected leaders. We’re talking FDA, FCC, BGI, FEC, FTC, FFA, CIA, DOD, NGA, FBI, etc., and I only made up a few of those! There are so many three letter agencies they have their own three letter initialism: TLA.
As you can see, writing about real governments is exhausting and requires thinking and knowing stuff, which Meyer doesn’t do. Instead, she imagines a future where all the governments of Earth are ruled by despotic kings and queens. It's simpler to write, she thinks, mistakenly.
Anyway, there’s a reason that monarchies went out of style with the rise in literacy rates. Public knowledge and education are inversely proportional to a belief in the Divine Right to Rule.
So is it possible to have a monarchy in the 21st century? Of course, and here are some examples.
China’s model of authoritarianism leans heavily into censorship, limiting the population's access to objective sources of information. Wikipedia is banned in China, of course, as are all search engines that don't censor history, philosophy, and many, many books, including those by Carl Marx. All social media companies are controlled by the CCP, and encryption is illegal. The words “Tiananmen Square” and that iconic photo below are also illegal.
The CCP utilizes various other psychological techniques, like a weird social credit system and a surreptitious form of state violence, as in they'll make dissenters disappear but always deny it.
Russia has a different strategy. They are overt about state violence! No denials here. People are encouraged to report each other to the state, and dissenters are beaten and publicly humiliated, put through a kangaroo court, and imprisoned. Whereas Chinese repression relies on ignorance, the Russian variety relies on fear.
The third model for authoritarianism in the 21st century could be
Saudi Arabia, whose mechanism of control is financial, although religion also plays a small part.
Most Saudi citizens work very little, an average of an hour or two a day, engaged in fake jobs for the government funded by oil. Actual labor is conducted by slaves. This arrangement keeps Suadis docile and dependent. The royal family doesn’t have to coerce its citizens or even lie to them: everyone knows exactly what’s happening. They are in a gilded cage of suburban blight.
To sum up, these are some of the main strategies for maintaining autocratic rule.
1. Keep the population stupid.
2. Keep the population terrified.
3. Keep the population dependent.
4. Use religion.
Now Meyer has created a fantasy realm in which all the people of earth (billions and billions of them) enjoy enough scientific understanding to have spaceships and cyborgs but not democracy.
So how does Emperor Kai maintain control? Does he rely on censorship and indoctrination to keep his citizens stupid, or does he have his secret service kidnap protestors and torture them to death? Does he simply pay people to STFU and pretend he’s an "Emperor"? Does he even take his own fake title seriously, or is the population of earth so stupid that they actually believe in the Divine Right of Kings?
Anyway, there's so much to complain about here. The "terrifying" invading Lunar army is... wait for it... wolves with no guns. They are vulnerable to bullets, but alas it never occurs to Kai or his minions to shoot at them, hence his instantaneous surrender. The way it’s described, I doubt the Lunar army could conquer Texas let alone all of earth with their gunless wolves, but whatever.
****3.0****
For me this series will be a 3 star I guess. This book left me with the exact feelings that I felt when I finished Cinder.
Cinder is on run. But Cinder is not the only focus. Scarlet is the new heroine here. Scarlet, a young farmer lives with her Grandmother. But she is on edge when her Grandmother goes missing and the police ( or whatever they are called in here) close the case saying her Grandmother left on her own will. So she sets on her own to find her Grandmother.
On this journey "Wolf" accompanies her. And together they try to solve the mystery of "The Missing Grandmere". Somehow everything goes haywire and Cinder crosses their path.
Well, It was a good narration. But It didn't touch my heart. I hated it when Scarlet was ranting about her Grandmere, which was totally normal but somehow it felt unnecessary to mention it like a 100 times.
Enjoyable read with a bit of rant and rage. Pick it up if you can bear Scarlet.
Happy Reading!!
I love this book it had so many twists,it had me going 'what?!' The whole time,what it says is so true I will never forget this book ugh it's just so awesome I love it
I was worried that I wouldn't like this book when I reread it. It used to be my favorite book in the series when I first read it because of the main romance plot but I was scared it wouldn't hold up. It's a very high school-feeling romance, kinda instant love-y. It might be a little cringe for some readers, especially older ones but I didn't feel like it was cringy enough that it was unenjoyable. It was slightly cringy in a wholesome way. I don't think it'll stay my favorite book in the series after my reread but I still really love this book for both the romance plot and the rest of the plot.
Not as good as the first book, but still a pretty good read. I was glad that we got to keep up with Cinder as well as Scarlet. I want to read more from Kai, but all in all, the series is progressing nicely.
It's got much more Cinder in it than I was expecting.
About the Author:
Marissa Meyer is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Renegades Trilogy, The Lunar Chronicles series, as well as the graphic novels Wires and Nerve: Vol. 1 and Wires and Nerve, Vol. 2: Gone Rogue, and The Lunar Chronicles Coloring Book. Her first standalone novel, Heartless, was also a #1 New York Times bestseller. She lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and their two daughters.
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