I'm back after finishing the second book in The Lunar Chronicles, Scarlet. This post, unfortunately, will contain spoilers, so come back and read it after reading Scarlet.

Right off the bat we're introduced to a new character, Scarlet. In my last blog post, I complained about Cinder's (and many other characters') lack of personality and "flavor". I'm happy to report that I could immediately get a sense of Scarlet's character; I can clearly define her personality with a few key words: fiery, passionate, and somewhat sassy.

Alas, the same trope appears in this novel; Scarlet is summoned to her "hero's journey" by the disappearance of her grandmother. This book does spend a little more time than Cinder does building up the relationship between Scarlet and her grandmother, however, so I do appreciate that. Their relationship is more meaningful, and therefore, I'm able to sympathize more with her need to save her grandmother.

Now let's talk about some of the other characters we are introduced to.

We meet Wolf, a mysterious, rugged street fighter. Despite his line of work, we get a sense that this man is deserving of our respect for helping Scarlet. I don't like Wolf, nor his relationship with Scarlet. Although I admit he does help Scarlet quite a bit near the end, he did still lie to and betray her. Not to mention, their relationship progressed far too rapidly. Scarlet addresses this herself, yet her acknowledgment doesn't make me understand their immediate desire for one another. I mean for Christ's sake, by the end of the book, the two have known each other for what, a week at most? And Wolf is already claiming she's "the one" for him. Please.

I didn't expect that Wolf would be Lunar; that caught me off guard. I thought he was some kind of werewolf being (throwback to Twilight). Meyer's constant use of wolf-like diction was very tiring. With the ways Wolf "prowled" through the forest, "perked up" his ears, or "sniffed" the air, my mind was screaming, "I GET IT; HE'S ABNORMAL!" Not to mention, when he claimed he could take on six wolves—hello, no.

(I have to agree with Iko; their "gushiness" is not comfortable to read/listen to at all.)

We also meet Thorne, who really serves no purpose in this book other than providing the getaway ship. Thanks Thorne. When we're first introduced to him, I was scared that he was destined to be the missing angle of some sick love triangle with Cinder and Kai. Thankfully, that didn't happen; there are enough love triangles out in the YA world already. Again, I have to be honest; I didn't particularly like Thorne, but I definitely don't dislike him as much as I do Wolf. He really served no purpose in this book. Like, at all. Meyer makes it pretty obvious that he'll be our Rapunzel's love interest, so at least he'll have something to do in Cress.

Overall, this book felt a lot slower to me. Granted, school interrupted my reading flow this week, but I just did not enjoy this novel as much as Cinder. The plot wasn't that interesting to me, the new characters were not any more charming than the characters in Cinder, and I'm slowly losing interest. I'm now working on the third book, and already, I'm cringing when reading from Cress's point of view (no offense, Cress). I still read through it pretty quickly, and, as a whole, enjoyed it, but I'm hoping the pace will pick up a little more.

Anywho, that's all for me today. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back (hopefully soon) to review the next of The Lunar Chronicles.