by Marissa Meyer
Date Read: 3/17/15
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
I expected this to be a novella. Rather than a novella, it was a short story. It was 220 pages long! What I liked best about this book? It was the story behind the evil queen. I really like when books make me feel sympathy for the villain. Of course, this one was unique in the fact that I can understand how she transitioned to as bad as she is by the events of the Lunar Chronicles, but at the same time, she always was a little evil, and she just kind of changed to super evil over the course of her life due to circumstance plus a little bit of crazy.
This story starts when Levana is a teenager. We get little
tid bits of a teaser regarding what happened to her to disfigure her, but in a
perfectly placed location toward the end of the book, we get the full
story. Meyer did a great job in building
this story and setting up everything we know starting in Cinder. She created a
character that you can sort of feel sympathy for, but at the same time, it wasn't
a giant leap to evil. I thought Levana's
story was very believable because she always had a hint of crazy and evil
there. Watching her transition slowly over the course of the years was very convincing.
Characters from the Lunar Chronicles show up or are
mentioned in this story. People like
Princess Selene, Winter, Prince Kai, Sybil Mira, and Jacin. I really enjoyed seeing how they all
interconnect and how some of them rose to where they are now. [SPOILER: I also liked the hint of when
Winter was asking her dad why a doctor couldn't save the princess. What a cute
touch that was!! END SPOILER]
Another thing I loved about this book is that though she
used her mind control to obtain what she wanted, she still ended up unhappy. Just
because she used mind control to gain a husband, he never loved her, and she
never got the true heir she wanted. Evert was actually a very interesting character
to me. [SPOILER: I liked that he married her in order to protect his
daughter. He always tried to be Levana's friend and did the best he could with
what he was dealt, but he never loved Levana – and by the time she finally let
her walls down to show him the real her, it was too late. END SPOILER]
I am thoroughly happy with how this story turned out and it
makes me very anxious to read Winter later this year. This series is a great read for both lovers
of fairy tale retellings and science fiction. Meyer combines the two in to a
magnificent tale that you can’t put down. I can’t wait to see how she concludes
her series.
The covers for these books are always beautiful
as well.
NOTE: The hardback version of this book also includes a
sneak peak at the first 3 chapters of Winter! *FANGIRL SQUEAL*
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