Book Review - Scarlet by Alexander Emmanuel

I was given this book by the author to review–and I immediately fell in love with the gorgeous, striking cover. The book definitely lived up to my expectations–it started a little slow, but the first chapters gave us necessary background on the story. Around the midway point, things got really interesting.

After falling out with The Source, Gituku’s plan was to alter the Equilibrium of Energies, the force that sustains the universe. A disruption of the equilibrium will set mankind in grave danger as this will alter The Source’s initial purpose for creation. To retain an ideal world – a world without strife, wars, racism, gender imbalance, and a balanced ecosystem, The Source will explore alternatives to stop him. The final battle to determine the hegemony that would control the Equilibrium of Energies would be fought on the Day of Scarlet.

What I Liked:

I loved the cultural aspect of this book–it’s very diverse and you truly feel immersed in another culture and world. I feel like it’s something you can only truly appreciate when you are reading work from an author who is drawing from their own, native experiences and upbringing.
The writing is absolutely beautiful. It’s very poetic, with fantastic imagery and overall it’s well written.
The story covered a lot of interesting issues such as gender equality and dark vs light. It was interesting to see these discussions take place in the unique, fictional setting this book explores.

What I Disliked:

This is only a small complaint, but I found the story a little hard to follow at first. It follows a mystery style where pieces of the overall story are revealed chapter by chapter, and not always in a chronicled timeline. Of course, I’ve read books like this before so once I got used to it, it was much easier to read, and it kept me turning the pages.