Scarlet

Reread May 2015
This was just as good as I remembered. I absolutely love the story of Robin Hood. It has always resonated with me. I love both the BBC Show and the Disney movie, for me they both showcase the story in different ways. While Scarlet is a Robin Hood retelling, A. C. Gaughen puts her own flair on the story. The cast of characters is roughly the same, however he have Will Scarlet who is actually a girl. When this book begins it is only Robin and his lads that know Scarlet is actually a girl.

First, I want to talk about the writing style. When you first start this book, it can be extremely off-putting because it sounds and looks wrong, but after a bit you get used to it and it is less noticeable. But I applaud A. C. Gaughen's ability to write so flawlessly and consistently in this Old English style. The writing is definitely authentic to the time period of the Crusades. While the writing is a small aspect overall, I loved the detail that went into making it authentic for the time period.

As for the characters, I have a lot of thoughts. For Scarlet, she is definitely an extremely flawed character, there is a lot from her past that she is hiding from everyone. She is ashamed and blames herself for a lot of the outcomes. This hatred causes her to shut down and hide herself from everyone around her, even the ones who love her. While I respected Scarlet's desire to help save and protect the townspeople, her hatred and reasoning for it made her a weaker character in my mind. I also appreciated that she did not let the other guys tell her what to do and constantly protect her.

Robin. Robin is one of those characters that you cannot help but love. He does everything for the people and takes any and all risks to keep them safe. While it was clear he loved Scarlet, I disliked the way he went about it. Calling her a whore and constantly ragging on her about John was really annoying.

John. He was definitely my least favorite character. He was overly flirtatious and totally obnoxious to Scarlet. Luckily the romance (and ridiculous love triangle) were such as small aspect of the book and my dislike of his character did not affect my overall enjoyment of the book.

Much. For me Much and Allan a Dale have always been my favorite outlaws. While we do not get to see Allan a Dale in this book, we do get Much. Much was one of the best “main” characters in this book. He does not have a big role but he is the voice of reason a lot and does give Scarlet someone to talk to and practice with.

Overall, this book was really enjoyable for me. There may be some flaws with the plot overall, but I love the adventure and the story. This book definitely leaves a lot of unanswered questions and I cannot wait to pick up Lady Thief.

First read April 2012

What if Will Scarlet was a girl? That question begins a whole new thinking of the Robin Hood legend. This book got me so emotionally invested. When I finished, I had to just sit and feel. In the beginning of the book, I didn't expect to get my heart so attached to these characters, but they work their way into your heart.

Phenomenal artwork. The plot for me was eh at times. I feel like with this type of world building you're trying to establish it should be fleshed out more. Iris and Finé have an interesting bond and story and it would have been nice to see how they became friends. I did enjoy it but it had the potential to be better.

Another YA book with a good idea that didn't live up to its potential. Sadly, I found this to be poorly written, peopled with bland characters and (and I haven't used that word to describe a book since I was a kid) boring. Full review here: http://sffbookreview.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/a-c-gaughen-scarlet/

Pois é. Eu li.
Espero que Robin Hood esteja bem também depois dessa.
Para um livro tão curto, esperava que fosse entrar na estória rapidamente. O que não aconteceu, e levou a demorar de terminar o livro.
Como membro do bando de Robin, Scarlet é uma jovem que, em uma sociedade que não dá liberdade a mulher ter livre arbítrio e atitudes livres, finge ser homem e ladrão para manter-se viva. A trama a qual levou Scarlet a tornar-se um ladrão (e “renomado” com o nome de Will Scarlet) é a sua maneira, interessantíssimo - embora um pouco clichêzona - e por um lado, tolerável a necessidade de manter o segredo. Mas pra quê tanto DRAMA? Para segurar a história até o final, obviamente, mas aind assim, haveria outras formas, além de abrir mais espaço a um desenvolvimento mais épico ao desfecho (não tão desfecho Porquê, como ela mesma disse, todo o sofrimento, todas as mortes, todos os anos escondida como homem, para acabar esposa do mesmo cara, que aliás, não é um vilão que ainda não se mostrou tão medonho ) desse livro.A tentativa de triangulo amoroso também, não foi uma das melhores coisas abordadas pela autora. Estava tão NA CARA O SENTIMENTO DESSE POVOO!! E por mais que Robin fosse "grosso" com a Scarlet e tenha a chamado de whore (a boa e velha meretriz ou vagabunda, na minha terra)... Eu estava concordando com ele. Ficar de graça com o John não ajudou em absolutamente nada, nem para o vazio dela e nem pra nada. Todas as cenas românticas com Robin foram muito mais tocantes do que aquelas com John, cheias dos braços fortes e beijos profundos e olha que os dois não trocaram mais que um beijinho no rosto Scarlet mostrou-se uma mulher forte e estrategista, sim, como ladrão, salvando as pessoas, sendo altruísta. Mas acredito que esperava mais decisões dela, não como heroína-ladrão-menino, mas como mulher. Ser uma revolucionária como mulher e menos como Will Scarlet.Quanto ao Robin, eu o via como Oliver Queen... Tenho sentimentos confusos sobre ele. Não que seja ruim o livro. Mas também não é dos mais maravilhosos para justificar uma trilogia.O dólar abaixando, eu compro os outros dois. :D

Reseña completa: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Todo se resume en esto:



Una de las primeras cosas que pensé al terminar el libro fue: ¿Cómo es posible que este libro no haya sido adaptado al español? Por alguna razón veo a Oz Editorial trayéndola (Si no son ellos, al menos alguna otra editorial debería hacerlo). En últimas traducciones, al menos las pocas que he leído últimamente, no hay personajes femeninos como el de Scarlet, me gustaría leer más personajes así.

Empecemos por la portada. Hay muchísimas portadas, infinitas de ellas, con un rostro como tema, pero esta en especial tiene algo que me hace quedarme prácticamente enamorada de lo que veo, quizá sea el hecho que en realidad es un retrato o los detalles del personaje bien hechos, la decoración de los hojas ¿han visto sus cejas? Son preciosas, sin duda una de las portadas con rostro que no me parece aburrida.

Como han visto con mi nuevo sistema de rating (las estrellitas azules bien bonis) le he dado cinco.

Este libro fue por recomendación de mi representante/relacionista pública/¿publicista? (no sé si son lo mismo ._.) Rele, la condición era “Tú lees este que me ha gustado un montón y yo leo ese que te ha gustado un montón”. Aunque al final terminó siendo el libro de nuestro club de lectura interno (¿les gustaría participar en un club de lectura con el gatito? ¡Díganme en los comentarios!) el cuál nos dejó completamente maravilladas. Sé que te estarás preguntando por qué, ya que hasta ahora me las he ingeniado para hablarles de otra cosa y no de la reseña en sí. Esas habilidades que tengo.

Muy pocas veces podemos encontrar una heroína como Scarlet, al menos en literatura juvenil, alguien del cuál el oscuro pasado no la dirija exclusiva y únicamente a los brazos de su contraparte masculina. O sea, sí, hay romance, pero el libro es mucho más que eso. Para empezar Scar no es la damisela en apuros, los “damiselos” son Robin y su pandilla. Sin contar su envidiables habilidades con los cuchillos. O la manera en la que por ser una guerrera pierde su feminidad. La chica no solo es... ¿Genial? ¿Cool? (no encuentro una palabra que la defina mejor), está en el Top-Top de mis personajes femeninos favoritos. Scarlet demuestra que no toda la literatura juvenil está compuesta con personajes femeninos clichés y sin gracia.

Es un excelente retelling de Robin Hood, dándole un buen giro a la historia, le da más importancia a algunos personajes . La narración es bastante particular, ojalá si alguna editorial apuesta por este libro, no se pierda.

This just isn't my species of book. Don't get me wrong, I love Robin Hood as much as the next girl, but I'm more into the fantasy sort.

No one really knows 'bout me. I'm Rob's secret, I'm his informant, I'm his shadow in dark places.

This is just another of those books I can eat up in a day. I was gripped while I was reading it. Right from the start to the end. But I won't be gushing about it for a year, or giving it more stars, cause frankly I've come across too many rare gems of books to just freely throw my stars about.

But to be fair to A. C. Gaughen, she has pulled of quite a dishy Robin Hood.

“You are my whole heart, Scarlet. And this is breaking it.”“Let me heal up a bit, and we'll see if we can make his part of ‘so long as ye both shall live' a little shorter.”“I'll keep your heart, Scar,” he whispered. “If you keep mine.”

And Scarlet herself is fierce. “I'm saying that some girls slap, but I have knives.”

And wise. “I know what it's like when you can't get no one to listen to you. When what you say don't matter. I half think every girl knows what it's like to be silenced.”

And sometimes she just breaks my heart. “He takes the guilt and responsibility that others can't. John takes the punches. I just take the hunger, and most times it feels like awful little.”

Having said that, this just hasn't met my expectations. It felt too forced, too strained and stilted at times. Scarlet was unconvincing now and then, and she is too much of a martyr, she keeps relentlessly punishing herself, and I've honestly read enough about tortured souls to last me a life time. It was just plain annoying at times. Rob's merry men John and Much also felt too hackneyed every so often. Even Rob himself was typecast once in a while.

I was keen on the story line, a merry woman is fresh and revolutionary. That is a redeeming facet of this book. And all in all, it was a good debut, but unfortunately not the unforgettable sort.

I really wanted to love this book but it just wasn't the case. The premise sounded amazing- a bad-ass girl dressed up as a boy to be a part of Robin Hood's gang, how awesome is that? But to me, everything in this book felt forced.

Starting off with the way she talked. She was supposed to talk with ungrammatical sentences and slang but she would talk SOMETIMES like an illiterate and sometimes like a proper lady. It made it so hard for me to get into the story because her narrative voice didn't feel genuine to me. It can be argued that it was done on purpose because of what is revealed later on but still, it was so difficult to get invested in the story with an inconsistency like that.

Then, the romance. It was more than obvious that she was going to have a thing for Robin but was it really necessary to have a love triangle? It was so very much like insta-love and, like I mentioned before, very forced.

And lastly, the villain. Gisbourne felt like a cartoon villain. There was no middle ground with him and nothing he did was justified. It would have been nice to see some insight on why he felt he needed to do what he did or at least, some more backstory.

The pacing was ok. There was some action, which I quite enjoyed and found refreshing after chunks of the romantic aspect of the story.
Quite disappointed with this book but it was still enjoyable, especially towards the end.