Cress: A Rambling Review

Cress by Marissa Meyer

I wasn't as engaged with the story as I was with Scarlet. The pacing seemed uneven – large slow stretches peppered with short bursts of excitement – and I wasn't the biggest fan of how we kept switching character POVs (there were some storylines I had less interest than others). I think part of it was just that I don't really have the time/energy to read during the week, so I kept just reading a little bit each weekend, then waiting a whole week before reading another chunk...but still, I found it easy to put down, and it wasn't strongly compelling me to pick it up again.

That said, I enjoyed spending time with the characters; I'd say characters and dialogue are Marissa Meyer's strengths. Perhaps because the plot was getting more intense, I think there was less humour in this one than in Scarlet (everyone was too busy trying to stay alive to crack a lot of jokes). I liked that Cress was not a "perfect" sort of character, but I did wish she'd been given a few more attributes to make her a little less one-note; it seemed like she was used for all technology-related needs and not much else (and she turned into a liability in any physical fight, although at least she couldn't be mind-controlled). I really enjoyed finally getting to see Kai and Cinder meet up again, and how that scene played out. I'm also intrigued by the introduction of Winter, and interested to get to know her better in the next book.