Suite Scarlet, written by Maureen Johnson

As an avid vlogbrothers fan, I felt it was my duty to check out Maureen Johnson, a.k.a. the real John Green. She seems to be a very fun and amusing person in real life, and my hope was that this would transfer to her written work. The only other book I have read of hers is 13 Little Blue Envelopes, which I might review some day. Right now, however, I will review her novel Suite Scarlet, which I finished approximately five minutes ago.

Let's see, where to begin... I suppose a summary is in order. The novel is about Scarlett Martin, a 15-year-old who lives with her parents, two sisters, and brother in the Hopewell Hotel. The Hopewell Hotel is in New York City and is rather run down, slowly losing money, etc. when all of a sudden a very wealthy guest named Mrs. Amberson moves into the Empire Suite and their lives are turned upside-down!

Okay, honesty time: I am horrible at summarizing, especially if I'm not supposed to spoil anything. It would be a much better idea to just look up a summary somewhere online, because my above summary in no way reflects the actual plot to the novel. Let's move on to my personal opinion of the novel, which hopefully will make more sense than my summary.

I'm still not sure how to feel about Maureen Johnson's writing style. On one hand, I am determined to love her writing because John Green does and he has fantastic taste (for the most part). On the other hand, I've read better, which sounds kind of snotty and is also in no way a good reason to dislike a book. I suppose a pro/con list is in order.

Pros:

• The relationships between siblings was fantastic. While there were some romantic relationships, there was a focus on the family that I really appreciated, especially between Scarlett and Spencer. Their relationship made me want to have a brother, which I don't say too often.
• I really liked Spencer as a character. He's witty, charming, and someone that is determined to follow his dream of becoming an actor even after being constantly shut-down. He is Scarlett's rock and kept Scarlett relatively sane throughout all of the drama she goes through.
• Scarlett is also pretty awesome, and for me it is important to have a likable main character, or else I will not enjoy the novel (which kind of happened with 13 Little Blue Envelopes). She has Spencer's wit and handles everything that Mrs. Amberson throws at her with very little panicking. There are times where she's mopey and slightly frustrating, especially about Eric, but she is able to solve her problems as well as others. I appreciate that she is a flawed character, because those that are perfect are absolutely no fun to read about.

Cons:

• Marlene was a hard character to deal with. I know that she had cancer, but her personality afterwards did not seem likely. I found it hard to understand or empathize with her, but then again I've never liked the bratty younger sibling in books or TV shows (Megan in Drake and Josh, anyone?). 
• Eric was predictable. *SPOILERS!* I knew from the beginning that something was off. Authors do not describe their characters having flawless bodies if they also have amazing personalities. While I can somewhat understand where Eric was coming from, cheating on his girlfriend from home as well as leaving Scarlett in the dark made me upset with him. Scarlett's reaction to Eric's explanation, as well as her interaction with Eric as a whole, did not seem very Scarlett-y either, which was frustrating.
• The plot, which is kind of a big deal when discussing the overall value of the novel. I think the main problem I had with it was that the main conflict kept changing. I like my novels to have one main conflict that is resolved in the end, which side problems along the way, though I am notorious for changing my mind and therefore this statement may not apply to other novels. It just seemed that the book was a list of problems and once one problem was solved, another would appear. Even after the performance of Hamlet there were still problems and at that point I was ready to just walk into the book, explain everything to everybody, and make any lingering problems go away.

Final review: 4/5 stars

Overall, and this may be a shock to you, I would recommend this novel. While disliking the way the plot was set up cannot be ignored, it is my personal preference and therefore I'm sure many people can easily just ignore my critiques and enjoy the book. It's a fun summer read that is pretty easy to get through; definitely more for a day at the beach then a men's book club (this is more of a chick book I think, plus I doubt there are men's book clubs). I enjoyed it, and I think many other people will too.