Scarlet Morning

Scarlet Morning (2025) is an illustrated middle-grade fantasy novel by ND Stevenson, author of the Nimona (2015) graphic novel. Featuring Stevenson’s illustration work, Scarlet Morning centers on two children, Wilmur and Viola, who live on the island, Caveat, which was isolated following a cataclysmic event called the Great Blow, caused by the infamous pirate, Scarlet Morning. Wilmur and Viola believe that their parents left them on Caveat in the wake of the Great Blow and will one day return. When a mysterious woman, Cadence Chase, arrives on a ship demanding that the children give her their single prized possession—a strange, nonsensical Book—the children take matters into their own hands. They agree to give Chase the Book in exchange for passage on her ship to find their parents.

The children soon find that life beyond Caveat is more complicated than they imagined. Soon, they find themselves among pirates and monsters, confronting truths about themselves and the world they would rather not learn. With fast-paced adventure, detailed illustrations, and surreal interludes, the novel explores the complex relationship between stories and the truths behind them, the burden children bear in confronting the failures of the adults around them, and the value of friendship and found family amid scarcity and loss.

This study guide refers to the 2025 hardcover edition published by Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Content Warning: This guide and the source material contain depictions of death, child death, animal death, and graphic violence.

Plot Summary

On the island of Caveat, a woman named Hestur tells two young children about the queen of Dickerson’s Sea, Hail Meridian, whom the pirate, Scarlet Morning, killed. The queen’s murder triggered the Great Blow, a cataclysmic event that turned the sea into sludge and covered it in salt. In retaliation, Parliament started the Pirate Massacre. Hestur warns the children that Scarlet Morning is still alive, and they must never let her have the Book that Hestur keeps hidden under her pillow.

Years later, Hestur vanishes, leaving the children, Wilmur and Viola, alone. They still have her Book—a journal written by Alias Crowe about the strange occurrences in Dickerson’s Sea. One night, a woman, Cadence Chase, arrives claiming to be the captain of a ship and demanding the Book. The children agree to give it to her in exchange for passage on her ship. Chase agrees and takes them to her ship, the Calamary Rose. Wilmur makes friends with the crew, but Viola is shy. She discovers that some crew members are former pirates who escaped the massacre. She learns that Chase is trying to decipher the Book in search of clues or a map to help her with a specific goal.

The Calamary Rose travels in the Bleachfields, where the salt pack covers Dickerson’s Sea. Viola overhears murmurings that lead her to conclude that Chase is Scarlet Morning. She tries to steal a page from the Book, but Chase catches her. A whale attacks the ship, knocking Viola and Chase overboard.

Viola and Chase wake deep in the Bleachfields, the sea having mysteriously transported them, and work together to survive. Chase confirms that she is Scarlet Morning, but her stories do not match the legends about her. Viola realizes that the stories were invented to prejudice those who hear them against Chase. One night, Chase sleepwalks into a strange fog, nearly walking off a cliff. Viola saves her. Chase confides that there was something wrong with Dickerson’s Sea long before the Great Blow. This fog, called the Gray, surrounds the area and is spreading. Things lost in the fog disappear entirely. Recalling a passage from the Book, Viola believes the Gray is the same thing that Alias, the Book’s author, called the “Lacuna Laridae” (33).

They find an old friend of Chase’s, who warns her that the Silver Circle is coming. Then gulls attack, poisoning Viola. She falls into dreams in which she sees Hail Meridian conspiring with a man called Ves, a pirate who has placed Hail Meridian on the throne in a conspiracy to create a new age of piracy. Viola wakes two weeks later. She and Chase have been rescued by a merchant ship. However, the captain recognizes Chase as a pirate and throws them in the brig. While telling Chase about her dreams, Viola realizes they are true. She now believes that Chase killed Hail Meridian to save Dickerson’s Sea from Ves’s plot.

On Chase’s orders, Viola convinces the crew that Chase kidnapped her, and she disembarks on the island of Wilder’s Green. She follows Chase’s directions to find help and meets an older girl named Elvey, who leads her to the Second City: an underground city atop which the new city was built. Elvey and her group of friends are all children who lost their parents during the Pirate Massacre.

Viola meets an oracle called Tal dei Tali, and her visions reveal that the oracle is Hail Meridian in hiding. Viola discovers that the queen faked her death and is afraid to come forward with the truth. She does not believe her old guard, the Queensmen, would believe her because she lost her crown. Hail Meridian, like Viola, has visions. They both have pale rings in their eyes, the mark of the Silver Circle.

Determined to help, Viola enters the Second City. She finds Hail Meridian’s pistol, which will help her locate the crown. She also encounters a mogrim, a creature described in the Book. The mogrim warns her that the Silver Circle will consume everything. While Viola is in the Second City, the gulls attack, killing many people. Hail Meridian falls into a delirious sleep, triggered by the gulls.

Meanwhile, Wilmur leaves the Calamary Rose to find Viola. A Queensmen ship, the Excelsis, rescues him. The head of the Queensmen, Herman Ravenspurn, leads the ship. He is the only surviving member of Parliament who ordered the Pirate Massacre. The ship reaches Wilder’s Green, and Wilmur leaves to search for Viola. Wilmur and Viola reunite. Herman follows and finds them with Hail Meridian, whom he recognizes and takes back to the Excelsis for medical treatment.

Aboard the ship, Wilmur discovers that Herman is his father. Chase, under an alias, was once Herman’s wife and therefore Wilmur’s mother. Hoping to uncover the truth of Chase/Scarlet Morning’s true identity, Viola forces a vision. She learns that Chase worked for Ves. Then Hail Meridian wakes and makes Viola her heir, naming her Queen Cry Abilene. She orders Herman to help Viola find the crown. She believes that Viola is Dickerson’s Sea’s only hope. As the novel closes, Hail Meridian dies.