Scarlet (novel)

Scarlet

Book cover of Scarlet
Author	Marissa Meyer
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	The Lunar Chronicles
Genre	Young adult, Romance, Science Fiction, dystopian
Publisher	Feiwel & Friends
Publication date	February 5, 2013
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book
Pages	454
ISBN
OCLC	805044396
LC Class	PZ7.M571737 Sc 2013
Preceded by	Cinder
Followed by	Cress, Winter

Scarlet is a 2013 young adult science fiction novel written by American author Marissa Meyer and published by Macmillan Publishers through their subsidiary Feiwel & Friends. It is the second novel in The Lunar Chronicles series and the sequel to Cinder. The story is loosely based on the fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood", similar to Cinder, which was loosely based on "Cinderella".

Scarlet Benoit is a young girl living on her grandmother's farm in Rieux, France. Her grandmother is missing and Scarlet is sure that she has been kidnapped rather than left on her own will as the authorities believe. While delivering fresh goods to one of her loyal but unfriendly customers, her friend Emilié introduces her to a jittery shy street fighter whose code name is Wolf, who saves her after she makes a speech defending Linh Cinder, the Lunar cyborg who caused chaos at the Eastern Commonwealth ball. She notices a tattoo on his arm; a string of numbers and letters that have no meaning to her. When she gets back from her job, her estranged 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 grandmother because she is hiding something. The one clue that he can remember is that the kidnappers had a tattoo on their forearm, similar to Wolf's. Scarlet heads out to question Wolf in a fight ring, where he defeats and almost kill the champion. The next morning Wolf comes by her farm and tells her that the tattoo stands for a group he used to be part of and that they are the ones who kidnapped her grandma. He decides to help Scarlet and they both embark on a trip to Paris.

On the train to Paris, Scarlet meets a man called Ran who Wolf seems to smell on her later. They jump off the train after a letumosis outbreak occurs and continue their journey through the woods. While resting, Ran shows up and Scarlet realizes that he and Wolf already know each other and don't get along well. Wolf fights with Ran and almost kills him until Scarlet shoots him in the arm. They leave Ran unconcious and get on another train to Paris.

Meanwhile, Cinder teams up with Carswell Thorne, a fellow prisoner who stole a spaceship from the American Republic military. They escape on the ship, a Rampion, but find problems with the autopilot. Cinder remembers that she has Iko's personality chip and inserts it. Once in space, Thorne asks Cinder where she wants to go and even though Dr. Elrand told her to go to Africa, she chooses to go look for Michelle Benoit, a woman connected to the missing lunar Princess Selene (Cinder) and Scarlet's grandmother.