Book 2 in the Scarlet Trilogy
AUTHOR: A. C. Gaughen
PUBLISHED: February 11th
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Historical Fiction (sort of), Retelling
PREMISE: Scarlet continues her adventures
MY REVIEW: I was probably one of like ten people or so who thought Scarlet was just okay. I mean, I didn't think it was horrible. But at the same time...I wasn't very impressed either. It was one of those situations where I was kind of scratching my head and wondering why people where going nuts over it which kind of happens to me a lot, sadly.
I happened to see the second book in the library and decided to give it another try. Sometimes second books in series/trilogies are better after all. Look at what happened with Across the Universe. Unfortunately, that didn't happen here. In fact...I think the sequel just magnified the problems I had with the first one. Which was mainly that Scarlet did EVERYTHING. I've been trying to stay away from using the term Mary Sue lately because of the way fans tend to just throw the term at characters they just don't like. But I'm sorry, in Scarlet's case? She's kind of a Mary Sue. She's literally perfect. Has no faults whatsoever. Never screws up, always seen as in the right, etc, etc. Honestly...she's damn boring once you take away the fact that she dressed as a boy and joined the Merry Men (and it's never clear on why she even joined the Merry Men in the first place).
The real sad thing is, I LIKED the idea of Will Scarlet actually being female. That could have been golden. But Scarlet does all the things that WIll Scarlet never did. In the first one, she basically took over the role of Robin Hood (even though Robin Hood was RIGHT THERE, along with Little John and don't even get me started on that ridiculous love triangle). I had wondered in my review where hell Maid Marian was and it turns out, Scarlet is also Marian. What are the odds, right? Literally, she is every good character in Robin Hood EXCEPT Will Scarlet. Oh, and on top of being Maid Marion, turns out she's actually secretly a heir to the throne. Sigh.
I'll give that Gaughen can spin an entertaining and readable tale. But it's all sort of surface quality. Once you actually start to sit and think about the book, the whole thing falls apart. So, I must bid this series farewell. It just is not for me.
WHO SHOULD READ: Fans of Scarlet
MY RATING: Three out of Five kind of annoying main characters
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