Though I didn't love Cinder, I was intrigued enough by the worldbuilding to buy Scarlet for my Kindle. After reading/skimming a third of the book, nothing terribly interesting or original happened. Meyer relied on far too many tropes with this one. The heavy-handedness of the Red Riding Hood (Scarlet) storyline was irritating and pushed me out of the story. Thorne was a caricature (though I recognize he may have developed eventually). I think readers would have been intelligent enough to make connections to the original Red Riding Hood story without Meyer needing to name her characters Scarlet and Wolf, or mentioning Scarlet's red hoodie or red hair every five pages. She's DEFINITELY RED RIDING HOOD, I get it, move on. Further, the pacing was just so slow. I must admit I did not finish this book, and I'm actually pretty okay with not knowing what happens in the end. This book just wasn't engaging for me in any way. I couldn't connect with it. 
 I'm disappointed. After all the hype surrounding Cinder, I really wanted to like this series. Cyborgs in a fairy tale retelling? What's not for me to like? Unfortunately, this series is just not working for me.