Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (review)

When the Toulouse police refuse to pursue any leads regarding Scarlet’s missing grandmother, eighteen-year-old Scarlet takes matters into her own hands, following a tip from a streetfighter named Wolf that eventually leads her to the Parisian den of a notorious crime organization. Meanwhile, Cinder, the cyborg mechanic whom readers last saw rotting in a New Beijing jail cell for treason against the Empire (in Cinder, BCCB 2/12), has escaped and commandeers a rogue spaceship, piecing together information about her unknown past and the recent revelation that she is the rightful heir to the Lunar throne. The two stories converge in a brilliant climax that places Cinder, Scarlet, and Wolf in the grasp of the evil Lunar queen, who threatens to take over Earth with the help of her genetically engineered army. Meyer manages an impressive balancing act here, introducing a new character and storyline alongside the continuation of Cinder’s story while maintaining reader investment for both along the way. The sci-fi elements are stronger than the fairy-tale allusions this time out, but the story remains just as absorbing; as the characters journey from the streets of New Beijing to the French countryside, the world is more fully developed, raising the stakes of the fallout of a Lunar invasion. The romance between Wolf and Scarlet, two hardened and stoic creatures unfamiliar with either tenderness or sentiment, unfolds with a quiet simplicity that makes for a poignant contrast to the often violent and ugly landscape they are forced to inhabit. Readers will be thrilled to discover that this steampunky fairy-tale/sci-fi mashup promises two more installments.