engelsk omtale fra goodreads, skrevet i 2012.

"a thief could die to let the hero live."

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
Rating: 4.5/5
Release date: February 14th 2012
Publisher, Place: Walker Childrens

The story takes place in the Sherwood’s, England during the regime of Richard the Lionheart. The king is out of the country and his brother, Prince John is an unfair ruler while he is gone. The story revolves around a band of outlaws, Robin Hood’s band. They steal from the rich and give to the poor. The group’s main focus is on making life the life of the inhabitants of the different towns around the Sherwood easier for them.

The story shows the band of outlaws, including Robin Hood, Little John, Much and Will Scarlett, fight for justice. They do all they can to ensure the towns safety. They do not bow to the authorities or run away scared. Through the book a lot of unfortunate run-ins with the sheriff and his new employed thief-taker lead up to unfortunate events. There is always something going on and the gang barley gets time to rest before they are thrown another problem.

Scarlet the protagonist is a self taught thief and kick ass girl posing as a boy. She sees herself as “the scarred girl who hung her heart on a hero,” because all her hope is in Robin and what he does. Believing in what they do makes her would be think it would be worth it for her, 2a thief could die to let the hero live”. She is described as a smart warrior woman and appears as a loving character with a broken past. We learn more about her and her past through the book. Having had bad experiences with love and the rules of society in the past is the reason she has a hard time opening up to others. When she opens up inch by inch we get to see all the hurt beneath and learn more about who she truly is. Her relationship with the boys is interesting and heartbreaking to read about, and other relationships reveal a whole new world that used to be hers.

The language in this book is set to match or mimic the one used when this story took place, the language of the common folk and not the upper class. Examples are the frequently use of ‘bout and the double negative “no _ none”. In the beginning I found this a little disturbing, but after turning some pages I realised that it made the story a whole lot better. It made it easier to place the story in its time, not ours. Even though some expressions like “he looked like he just swallowed a canary whole and it were singing out his throat“ never made much sense to me.
Seeing the story through Scarlet’s eyes is interesting. She is observant and her thoughts also give us a lot of information. We are easily told stories from her past, and through her emotions we also understand her actions a lot better. We get to see her struggle with love and learn information that might be useful for a future prison break.

I loved this world and fell in love with the main character already on the first page. There is always something in this book and it kept me flipping the pages like crazy. The only thing that made it loose 0.5 points is that sometimes I felt like the author skipped a sentence, or rounded up the battle scenes in an odd fashion leaving out some minor information. But all in all this is the best book I’ve read in a while and it kept me entertained through the whole story. Not to forget the heartbreaking love triangle. There is never a dull moment, and that is how I love it.