Scarlet (novel)

Scarlet is the second novel in Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles, published by Macmillan Publishers through their subsidiary Feiwel & Friends. The story is loosely based on the fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood", similar to its previous book Cinder which was loosely based on "Cinderella".^[1][2]

Plot summary

Scarlet Benoit is a young girl living on her grandmother's farm in France. When her Grandmother all of a sudden goes missing, she embarks on a dangerous mission to solve the mystery of her grandmother's disappearance. Did she abandon her granddaughter willingly, or was she kidnapped?

Scarlet discovers a lead which leads her to Paris, thanks to Wolf, a young Street fighter who is willing to help her on her mission.

Meanwhile, Linh Cinder is now a wanted fugitive since that last time we saw her, with the help of Dr. Erland and the new mechanical appendages. While breaking out of prison, Cinder meets Carswell Thorne, a U.S. Republic fugitive sentenced in New Beijing.

During their escape from the prison, Cinder and Thorne break in to steal Thorne’s stollen U.S. military space ship to leave the atmosphere. While aboard the ship the two come across problems with the ships auto pilot. Remembering that Cinder had Iko's ID chip, she placed it into the ship giving not only Iko a new body but the ship a mind.

While aboard the space ship, Thorne looks for information that may be useful, leading him to believe that Cinder may be the lost Lunar Princess.

Characters

• Scarlet Benoit: Young female farmer who lives on her grandmothers farm in France
• Wolf: Street fighter, who once belonged to a 'Pack' who is willing to help Scarlet find her missing grandmother
• Michelle Benoit: Scarlet’s grandma who has gone missing, possibly taken hostage by “the Pack” for information she may have from when she was a pilot for their air force.
• Luc Benoit: Scarlet's charismatic and selfish alcoholic father
• Gilles: Tavern owner who gives Scarlet a hard time
• Émilie: Young girl who works at the tavern and friends with Scarlet
• Ran: the Omega of the 'Pack' that Wolf was once a part of in the past.
• Linh Cinder: a young female cyborg mechanic and main protagonist in The Lunar Chronicles. Revealed later on that she was the Lunar Princess Selene, in Cinder, who is still the missing heir to the throne and niece of Queen Levana
• Prince Kai: Crown Prince of New Beijing, he has become emperor once his father died due to the plague
• Dr. Erland: Lunar fugitive that took care of Cinder in the first book after spending many years looking for her.
• Iko: Cinder's android partner and one of her only friends. Iko sometimes forgets that she's not human due to her malfunctioning personality chip. She is forcibly dismantled by Adri after Cinder is arrested, but luckily her chip survives and Cinder vowed to give her a new life, which she does in Thorne’s space ship.
• Carswell Thorne: A Cadet of the US republic but referred to as Captain, is a fugitive that escapes with Cinder from prison who was convicted and sentenced to a 6 year prison sentence.
• Queen Levana: The cruel queen of Luna, the moon colony. Not above using terrorist and genocidal tactics to obtain power, she is partially responsible for the existence of the plague on Earth since many of her subjects flee there to escape her influence. She uses a powerful glamour to force people to do her bidding. She is likely based on the Evil Queen of Snow White's history.

References