Review: Scarlet

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Scarlet tells a tale of Robin Hood from the point of view of Will Scarlet, who in this case happens to be a girl and a thief. I really enjoyed the twist. It was easy to get into, a fun read with plenty of the adventure you would expect from Robin Hood. And the twist only added to it while staying mostly true to the most recognizable aspects of the legend, I believe.

There a couple of things that got in the way of my enjoyment. For some reason, the author chose to write in first person using a dialect that I found jarring. Here's an example: "It were like the road we walked near every day were gone." It wouldn't have bothered me so much had the dialect stayed within actual dialogue, but it was that way through all of the narration. I got used to it after a while, but every now and then it still jarred me out of the story.

The other part that bothered me was the focus on Scarlet refusing to eat. She was basically anorexic for a lot of it, and it was never dealt with enough to satisfy me that she improved. This is perhaps not the greatest example of how to deal with life's problems to be offering to a young adult audience.

All in all, it was an enjoyable take on an old legend, with a little bit of romance and a lot of knife throwing. Recommended in spite of these minor complaints.



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