WSE, FOLKS! The time has come! SCARLET is officially out in the world!!!
Thanks to everyone who came to the Virtual Launch Party yesterday and put up with all the technical glitches (glitches – get it?!). I’m thinking the sheer awesomeness of Scarlet must have overwhelmed the program? But I had fun, and I hope you did too!
If you couldn’t make the party, here is the EXTENDED audioclip that we played last night (so even if you were at the party – this audioclip goes beyond what we played).
From Chapter 8 of Scarlet:
I’m also celebrating with two new reviews that just came in this morning. I hope they whet your appetite (even more!).
Note: These include some spoilers for Cinder.
From Horn Book Reviews: Scarlet [Lunar Chronicles]
by Marissa Meyer
Middle School, High School Feiwel 452 pp.
2/13 978-0-312-64296-9 $17.99 g
Fiercely independent but naive Scarlet Benoit would do anything to find her missing grandmother. When a mysterious street fighter named Wolf offers to help Scarlet, the two travel to Paris, where Scarlet risks her life trying to save her grand-mère, uncovering shocking truths about Wolf, her grandmother, and her own past along the way. This engrossing sci-fi adaptation of the Little Red Riding Hood story (complete with Scarlet’s red hoodie) takes inspiration from the original folktale but adds its own unique twists, including romance. Meanwhile, and picking up where Cinder (rev. 1/12) left off, cyborg Cinder escapes prison in the Eastern Commonwealth (via spaceship) with fellow inmate Carswell Thorne. Cinder has discovered she is the missing heir to the Lunar throne, and even though a world-wide manhunt is underway, she and Thorne follow a lead that eventually brings them to Scarlet and Wolf. By the end of this second series installment, the two pairs have joined forces to stop evil Lunar Queen Levana. Meyer exhibits impressive growth as a writer, seamlessly weaving the multiple story lines together throughout the novel. She introduces a new heroine in Scarlet—as strong, yet vulnerable, a character as Cinder—and Meyer doesn’t allow Cinder’s continuing story to detract from maintaining primary focus on Scarlet’s tale. Further development of this futuristic world plus plenty of action, surprises, and a fast pace will keep readers invested in their journey.
-Cynthia K. Ritter
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From BCCB, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books:
Meyer, Marissa. Scarlet. Feiwel, 2013 [464p]
(The Lunar Chronicles)
ISBN 978-0-312-64296-9
$17.99
Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 8-12
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.
– KQG
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On that note: go forth and read and meet Wolf and squee and meet Thorne and swoon and say hi to Cinder again and – and – ohmygosh, enjoy!!