thumbeleia's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Blood, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Vomit, War, Abandonment, Ableism, Classism, Death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Genocide, and Injury/Injury detail
bean_7088's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Aggressive wolf love interest trope but fairytaleesk and space stuff.
Kai is still annoying, I don't understand him or his decisions.
While I am a but of a sucker fo the more awful abusive relationship garbage, especially possessive wolf boys, I have less patience for it now, especially books directe at teens. It’s bad. If a boy is like Wolf, get him into therapy, don't become his "Alpha female" 🙄
Scarlet was pretty annoying with the "omg I wanna kiss you 💋 😘 "
I loved Thorn. Cinder was mostly better, and I missed Aiko.
As eye rolly as it is, I would have adored this in high school. And it is fun.
Can't wait to get through the books I wanted to read years ago 😅
Oh also, gay wolf's apparently don't exist in this world.
Kai is still annoying, I don't understand him or his decisions.
While I am a but of a sucker fo the more awful abusive relationship garbage, especially possessive wolf boys, I have less patience for it now, especially books directe at teens. It’s bad. If a boy is like Wolf, get him into therapy, don't become his "Alpha female" 🙄
Scarlet was pretty annoying with the "omg I wanna kiss you 💋 😘 "
I loved Thorn. Cinder was mostly better, and I missed Aiko.
As eye rolly as it is, I would have adored this in high school. And it is fun.
Can't wait to get through the books I wanted to read years ago 😅
Oh also, gay wolf's apparently don't exist in this world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Violence, Domestic abuse, Death, and Gaslighting
shadowrain's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Gore, and Death
Moderate: Medical trauma and Fire/Fire injury
msradiosilence's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
TLDR; 5 rating, my favorite, Wolf <3
Content warnings at the bottom. :)
I remember reading this like 4 times in high school. It was my favorite of the series. I love Scarlet and Wolf, I love the French setting, and I hate tomatoes but this book made me want to like them.
Wolf and Thorne are my two favorite characters, and I love them for different reasons. Wolf is the epitome of “I can fix him” and gentle with the people he cares about while being absolutely terrifying to everyone else. This is for sure what molded my love life, at least when it came to men. Thorne is just…he’s a himbo, no thoughts only crime, and he cracks me up.
Iko as the Rampion was fantastic, even if it was a little fatphobic. She didn’t have to talk so bad about how big she was all the time, but Meyer did an excellent job describing how she emotes while an actual ship.
Anyway. Once again, Meyer has a hard time with setting, but with Scarlet and Wolf visiting very specific French places, it’s a little easier to picture, but I wish she would allow herself to be more descriptive with the settings.
Rating: 5
Would I recommend? Yes, especially if you enjoy moon people, quippy robots, and sci-fi fairytale retellings.
Content warnings: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Child death, Medical content, Classism, Death of parent, Gun violence, Ableism, Death, Fatphobia, Grief, Confinement, Alcohol, Blood, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Kidnapping
Content warnings at the bottom. :)
I remember reading this like 4 times in high school. It was my favorite of the series. I love Scarlet and Wolf, I love the French setting, and I hate tomatoes but this book made me want to like them.
Wolf and Thorne are my two favorite characters, and I love them for different reasons. Wolf is the epitome of “I can fix him” and gentle with the people he cares about while being absolutely terrifying to everyone else. This is for sure what molded my love life, at least when it came to men. Thorne is just…he’s a himbo, no thoughts only crime, and he cracks me up.
Iko as the Rampion was fantastic, even if it was a little fatphobic. She didn’t have to talk so bad about how big she was all the time, but Meyer did an excellent job describing how she emotes while an actual ship.
Anyway. Once again, Meyer has a hard time with setting, but with Scarlet and Wolf visiting very specific French places, it’s a little easier to picture, but I wish she would allow herself to be more descriptive with the settings.
Rating: 5
Would I recommend? Yes, especially if you enjoy moon people, quippy robots, and sci-fi fairytale retellings.
Content warnings: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Child death, Medical content, Classism, Death of parent, Gun violence, Ableism, Death, Fatphobia, Grief, Confinement, Alcohol, Blood, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Kidnapping
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Murder, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Car accident, Child death, Gore, Ableism, and Death
kenna13's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I loved this one! Not as good as the last one, but I can’t wait to see what the series holds.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Medical content, and Gore
Minor: Death of parent
strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I liked this way more than the first one. The first one wasn’t bad and I still gave it 4 stars but I was just much more emotionally invested in the characters and the plot of this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: War, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Racism
lis4so's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Classism, Kidnapping, Violence, and Gun violence
Minor: Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Torture, Addiction, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Death of parent
hazydazywaffles's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It was good, not a lot happened until the last 150 pages. Definitely want the 3rd book.
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood and Gore
diana_raquel's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
[buddy reading]
"I think I realized that I would rather die because I betrayed them, than live because I betrayed you."
[Disclaimer: Shortly after finishing Cinder I discover that this series is considered to be a problematic series. According to some people, The Lunar Chronicles series has an offensive Pan-Asian setting that homogenizes Asia and evokes Japanese imperialism and Marissa Meyer uses honorifics in the wrong way. I think these are valid concerns, but I'm not gonna further my opinion on the matter. Look, I'm a white European girl, I'm not the right person to talk about this issue].
Well, that was disappointing. Like I said in my review of Cinder when I started this series I wasn't expecting much out of it. But then, I loved Cinder. So I was excited to start this book. The Little Red Riding Hood is one of my favorite fairytales and I usually like its retellings. However, this one was disappointing.
The story can be interesting, but I hated Scarlet. We just see her concerned about her grandmother and Wolf. So we don't get to know her as a heroine. And because we don't get to know her, she became too irritating and tedious. I think that the narrative tried to show Scarlet as a reckless heroine but didn't deliver it. Every time I was reading her POV I was rolling my eyes. I found Scarlet to be irritating, tedious, and, sometimes, cringy. And although I liked Wolf, he's not sufficient to make me like their storyline.
The only thing I actually liked in this book was the storyline of Cinder and Kai. Their storyline is much more interesting and Cinder is the true heroine of this book (look, it may be Scarlet's story, but the real badass was Cinder). And Thorne is my new favorite character. I hope to see more of him in Cress. Their storyline is the only thing that prevents me from giving an even lower rating.
I'm pretty sure that this book suffers from "second book syndrome", and the only thing that kept me from DNF'ing was my reading buddies. None of us liked this book, and if it weren't for them, I don't know how I even would finish.
I hope that Cress is better.
"It would be easy to abuse a person when they never recognized it as abuse."
"I think I realized that I would rather die because I betrayed them, than live because I betrayed you."
[Disclaimer: Shortly after finishing Cinder I discover that this series is considered to be a problematic series. According to some people, The Lunar Chronicles series has an offensive Pan-Asian setting that homogenizes Asia and evokes Japanese imperialism and Marissa Meyer uses honorifics in the wrong way. I think these are valid concerns, but I'm not gonna further my opinion on the matter. Look, I'm a white European girl, I'm not the right person to talk about this issue].
Well, that was disappointing. Like I said in my review of Cinder when I started this series I wasn't expecting much out of it. But then, I loved Cinder. So I was excited to start this book. The Little Red Riding Hood is one of my favorite fairytales and I usually like its retellings. However, this one was disappointing.
The story can be interesting, but I hated Scarlet. We just see her concerned about her grandmother and Wolf. So we don't get to know her as a heroine. And because we don't get to know her, she became too irritating and tedious. I think that the narrative tried to show Scarlet as a reckless heroine but didn't deliver it. Every time I was reading her POV I was rolling my eyes. I found Scarlet to be irritating, tedious, and, sometimes, cringy. And although I liked Wolf, he's not sufficient to make me like their storyline.
The only thing I actually liked in this book was the storyline of Cinder and Kai. Their storyline is much more interesting and Cinder is the true heroine of this book (look, it may be Scarlet's story, but the real badass was Cinder). And Thorne is my new favorite character. I hope to see more of him in Cress. Their storyline is the only thing that prevents me from giving an even lower rating.
I'm pretty sure that this book suffers from "second book syndrome", and the only thing that kept me from DNF'ing was my reading buddies. None of us liked this book, and if it weren't for them, I don't know how I even would finish.
I hope that Cress is better.
"It would be easy to abuse a person when they never recognized it as abuse."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Gore, Torture, Kidnapping, Death, War, Emotional abuse, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Medical content and Death of parent
k_galloway's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Gore, Violence, and Kidnapping