Book Review: “Scarlet” by Marissa Meyer
Håfa adai! Welcome to my review of Scarlet, Book 2 of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.
This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.
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Spoiler-Free Plot Summary
Linh Cinder unwillingly went from an unknown cyborg in New Beijing to an internationally-recognized fugitive over the course of a single night at the ball. The only reason Cinder even attended the ball was to warn Prince Kai, now Emperor Kai, of the threat against his life. In doing so, she made her existence known to the cruel and vindictive Lunar Queen Levana, moving the bull’s eye from Kai to her. This put Emperor Kai in the impossible position of either turning Cinder over to Queen Levana or risking war between the nations of Earth and Luna. So he put her in prison.
Now, Cinder must break out of prison if she has any chance of surviving Queen Levana’s wrath. With a new hand and foot from the government medical scientist Dr. Erland, perhaps she can make her getaway and get out of the Eastern Commonwealth. Cinder makes her escape through a solitary confinement cell occupied by Carswell Thorne, a young man claiming to be a captain with a ship just outside the city of New Beijing. Cinder recognizes her need for a vessel once outside of the prison and decides to team up with the questionable prisoner. With the help of “Captain” Thorne and his ship—and Iko’s personality chip and Linh Peony’s identification chip in hand—Cinder makes her way to Europe to learn more about where her adoptive father found her.
In France, Scarlet Benoit is a teenager frantically searching for her grandmother who went missing weeks ago. After witnessing a street fight, Scarlet meets a man named Ze’ev Kesley who has a tattoo eerily similar to those who abducted her grandmother. Ze’ev swears he is not the one who took her grandmother but that he knows of the ones who did. Can she really trust this stranger? Scarlet and Ze’ev make their way to the secret headquarters of the order imprisoning her grandmother when they are accosted by people from Ze’ev’s past and escorted the rest of the way to the prisons. Once there, Scarlet learns that Ze’ev’s involvement with the order is more complicated than sordid history.
My Thoughts on Scarlet: 3.5 stars
Cinder’s journey continues with a newly gained crew in Scarlet, the second book of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. Scarlet explores how complicated pasts come back to derail the present, how notions of destiny can be thrust on to certain people, the internal conflicts that arise from hidden dual identities, and how attraction can spark where you least expect it.
Like Cinder, Scarlet brings an older fairy tale into a cyberpunk future, with the source material in this installment being Little Red Riding Hood. Variations of Little Red Riding Hood were told from 10th-century France and 14-century Italy to 16th-century Taiwan, China, Korea, and Japan. It appears that the storyline and story beats throughout Scarlet most closely mirror the Brothers Grimm version of the tale published in the early 19th century. Perhaps the most common takeaway of this version of Little Red Riding Hood is to be cautious of strangers, as giving too much information was how the Big Bad Wolf was able to harm Red and her grandmother. This story beat is slightly altered in Scarlet from the Big Bad Wolf extracting information from Red to the grandmother being targeted for the information she is suspected to have.
Another way Scarlet closely mirrors the Brothers Grimm fairy tale is through the depiction of Scarlet’s relationship with her grandmother, Michelle Benoit, and their abilities to take care of themselves after receiving some initial help. Based on what we learn of Scarlet’s grandmother’s life before the events of the book, Michelle Benoit was a military pilot for the European Federation involved with diplomatic missions to Luna before something caused her to exchange that life for one of a simple farmer in Rieux, France. Scarlet does not remember, but her grandmother’s reason for going from pilot to farmer are about to forever change Scarlet’s path away from her relatively peaceful life on the farm to being on the run.
While the storytelling in Cinder focuses primarily on Linh Cinder and the overall worldbuilding, Scarlet shifts perspectives between Cinder and Scarlet Benoit until their paths eventually cross, with bits of worldbuilding sprinkled in between. In my review of Cinder, I mentioned two points concerning the worldbuilding in this series that stood out to me. First, the sovereign nations in Cinder have real-world histories of colonialism, imperialism, and intense systemic racism. Second, the program developed in response to the Letumosis pandemic mirrors real practices in modern-day medicine that relied on using Indigenous and Black communities as guinea pigs in medical experimentation. As a result of the tighter focus in Scarlet, the aspects of worldbuilding that I was hoping would be addressed or challenged were left untouched in this installment. I hope that is not a pattern that continues throughout the rest of the series.
Not expanding on how problematic real world histories and practices are repeated in the futuristic cyberpunk setting of The Lunar Chronicles is not the only aspect of Scarlet that did no sit well with me. The greatest thing that felt gross in this book was the forced romance between two particular characters. On the one hand, I understand that The Lunar Chronicles is a Young Adult series and that exploring attraction to others is a staple of the genre. On the other hand, it contradicts the ongoing circumstances and ignores the other character’s questionable involvement in said circumstances. I could see brief moments of vulnerability and attraction, but the way the book ended for these two felt rushed. The way they communicate their attraction to each other also felt nasty, but that may just be a “me” problem. Either way, I would have preferred if their attraction was built up over the rest of the series instead of slammed into a portion of this one installment.
My overall rating for Marissa Meyer’s Scarlet is 3.5 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the experience of Cinder and was looking forward to more in Scarlet. There were many aspects of the story that I appreciated, but the aspects of it that bothered me were too much to ignore. I continue to hope that some of those aspects will be expanded upon as the series goes on. I currently plan on finishing The Lunar Chronicles series and posting reviews for each book.
Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of Scarlet by Marissa Meyer.
Rating Cheat Sheet
4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.
Post Date: 20 January 2025
Published: 5 February 2013 by Feiwel & Friends
Republished: 4 February 2020 by Square Fish
