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.
