The Lunar Chronicles
Juvenile Fiction
Feiwel & Friends
November 10, 2015
Hardcover
832
Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana. Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend--the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long. Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer's national bestelling Lunar Chronicles series.
WrensReads Review:
This is one of the hardest reviews for me to write. I have so many feelings and even after a week of finishing it, I still don’t know where to begin or how to gather my thoughts into actual words. So here is me trying my best.
It was absolutely wonderful. This whole universe that Marissa Meyers morphed into her own is wonderful. Cyborgs, moon-people with brain manipulation (that is actually more scientific than magic) and the fight for the throne. That’s what it boils down to, right? Fighting for the throne?
What I especially loved about this book was Winter. She was so damaged and ‘crazy’, but she was still kind of wanting to do the right thing and selfless and– absolutely adorable. When Marissa described the visions she would have about turning to ice or heads rolling on the floor or the walls bleeding, I felt like it was legitimately happening. Like, I saw what she saw and I understood why she would let other people believe her mind was completely gone: because it was easier to seem crazy than to seem weak.
She reminds me so much of the cartoon Snow White though.
Lover of all animals? Check.
Kind of a loon? Check.
Has an evil step-mother? Check.
Has an evil step-mother that disguised herself as.. er.. this? Check.
Eats an apple and falls asleep/dies? Check.
Awakes with true loves..er.. yah. Well, maybe.
Singing randomly? Check.
My one concern is.. where are my dwarves?
Unless we are counting Cinder, Cress, Scarlett, Thorne, Wolf, Iko and Kai as the dwarves.. which is a little weird but I could go with it.
Meyer stayed true to the tales in each of these books. Even though they were formed into one, twisted and beautiful masterpiece, each character had their own fairytale.
Jacin, our huntsman in this tale, is absolutely wonderful. He did everything in his power to keep his princess (Winter) safe. He got manipulated by Levana and her goons, basically was treated like a Ken doll because he had to keep his mind so blank, he would betray even the rightful queen to the throne if it meant saving the girl he-loves-but-won’t-say-out-loud-because-that-might-put-her-in-more-danger-so-he-tries-to-keep-that-part-to-himself.
Scarlett and Wolf are the epiphany of “I will love you no matter what you look like and no matter how many times you try to kill our friends and no matter how many times you do the stupidest thing you can think of”. Scarlett really became her own wolf in this book. She saw what had to be done and did it with no remorse.
Cinder and Kai are the most selfless people in this whole story. Especially Kai. Kai is set to marry the person he loathes the most. He is willing to kill her and himself in order to keep his people safe. Cinder has become the world’s most wanted, has ruined her reputation, and has risked her life for people she has never even met before. For people she never even had any good thoughts about before. Even though they have something pure between them, they know what matters most is their kingdoms. I wish these two were real people. We need that kind of selflessness in these times.
Thorne and Cress are my absolutely favorite characters possibly of all books and movies and shows I have ever witnesse in my life. Cress is full of pureness. She just wants to help. She is so scared of most things but she is still going to do what she has to in order to help her friends. Thorne sees that pureness and wants to live up to deserving her love. Because boy, does Cress love Thorne up and down and all around. My goodness, that crush is bigger than the moon itself. And I LOVE THAT. Because usually, heroines in young adult books these days are too stubborn or stupid to admit they like someone as much as Cress does. She doesn’t care.
I JUST LOVE THEM! I AM TRASH FOR THEM.
IKO! It was really hard to find a GIF for Iko, so there’s Nicki Minaj with blue hair. It kind of fits, right? No? Okay well anyway, Iko will do anything to help Cinder. She is obsessed with material things like dresses, make up, and imagining she knows what certain things taste like. She likes to look nice, there is nothing wrong with that! But she is so unbeliebably funny and realistic for an android and just flat out human. More human than most humans.
Levana.. I liked her as the villain. She was flawed and hurt and basically trying to prove to no one but herself that she was worthy of being a queen. She wasn’t pure evil, she had a reason for the things she was doing (even if they were legitimately wrong and she should have not tried to kill a child because of something someone else did). A good villain to me is someone who is doing what they see as right and that they have understanding and reasoning behind what they are doing. I mean, they are still wrong, hence being a villain, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t see where she is coming from.
She wore her own kind of masks.
It’s absolute agony that this series is over.
I have the novellas and the comic left to read, but I am going to miss these characters like I would miss my right arm. Meyer really knows how to make you fall in love with some characters that don’t exist. But to soften the blow of a story ending, here is some killer fan art that someone named Julie Crowell drew. It’s absolutely wonderful and miraculous and I wish I had this kind of talent.
CREDIT: JULIE CROWELL
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