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 Rieux, France. When her grandmother goes missing, she embarks on a dangerous mission to solve the mystery of her grandmother's disappearance. While delivering fresh goods to one of her loyal but unfriendly customers, she meets a jittery shy fighter whose code name is revealed to be Wolf, who saves her after she makes a speech about Cinder, a Lunar cyborg. She notices a tattoo on his arm; a string of numbers and letters that have no meaning to her. Wolf says to meet him at an abandoned farm, where people box and place bets. When she gets back from her job, her dad is there and is crazily trying to find something. She questions her dad, who has burn marks all up his arms from being tortured, and he says that the same people have her grandma. The one clue that he can remember is that the kidnappers had a tattoo on their forearm. Scarlet heads out to question Wolf. She goes and watches Wolf fight. Wolf almost kills the opponent, and she runs away repulsed by what she saw, and goes home. The next morning Wolf comes by and explains to her what happened (he ran away from the kidnappers and now fights to make a living). Scarlet discovers information which leads them to Paris. Wolf decides to help her find her grandmother. The kidnappers want to interrogate the grandmother in order to obtain information about the lost Lunar princess Selene. The princess is actually Linh Cinder, a cyborg mechanic. Cinder found this out through a Dr. Erland at the end of the first book.

Meanwhile, Linh Cinder is now a wanted fugitive, breaking out of prison with the help of Dr. Erland and the new mechanical appendages he gave her. While escaping, 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 stolen U.S. military space ship to leave the atmosphere. While aboard the ship the two come across problems with the ship's auto pilot. Cinder, remembering she has Iko's personality chip, places it into the ship, giving the childhood friend and android a new body. Cinder slowly starts to learn how to use her Lunar powers.

Characters

• Scarlet Benoit Red headed and curly haired, she is one of the main characters. She wants to find her grandmother, who is missing.
• Wolf: Street fighter who once belonged to a 'Pack,' 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 in Cinder that she was the Lunar Princess Selene, who is still the missing heir to the throne and the niece of Queen Levana.
• Prince Kaito: Known as Kai, the Crown Prince of Eastern Commonwealth, has become emperor after his father died in 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 survived 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. He is a fugitive that escapes with Cinder from prison after being 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 appear captivatingly beautiful and force people to do her bidding. She is likely based on the Evil Queen of Snow White's history.

References