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?
Series: The Lunar Chronicles (Book 4)
Genre: YA Science-Fiction
Publisher: Square Fish; Reprint edition (January 30, 2018)
Page Count: 832 pages
I’ve finished the Lunar Chronicles series! Whoo hoo! And I’m so happy I did! It’s definitely one of my favorite YA series!
The Plot: The storyline is very complex because there are so many points of views going on, but Meyer handles them seamlessly and all of them weave together into a fantastic and satisfying conclusion to this wonderful series.
The Characters: All of the characters I just fantastic and realistic. I love how the characters allude to their original fairytales while still keeping them fresh. I loved finally seeing more of Winter. She made me laugh several times and I liked her personality a lot. I also love the time spent between her and Scarlet, referencing the fairytale Snow White and Rose Red.
Iko is a joy. Cress is a Gem. I love how Cinder learns how to embrace her heritage and face her inner demons. Kai is fantastic. Thorne is like the fairytale Hans Solo. Levana is formidable. Wolf is great and his POV had me going “NO NO NO NO YOU CAN’T DO THAT” many times. They’re all wonderful.
The Setting: We finally get to go to Luna! Whoo hoo! Throughout the series, this foreboding planet is mentioned so many times, but we don’t actually get to see much of it until this novel. I love how Meyer thoroughly explores her storyworlds. I felt like I got the most I could out of the series and I didn’t feel like parts were unexplored. Luna made a great setting for the climax of the series. It’s foreign but reminiscent of classic fairytales. I also love that the capital is named after the Greek goddess Artemis who happens to be my favorite Greek goddess.
Epic Things: What is not epic about this book?
The Theme: Many of the themes revolve around facing inner demons and accepting who you are now and not what you were or what people tried to make you be.
Content Cautions: Some blood and deaths of characters. Using mind control some characters are forced into self-harm or suicide. D*** is used three times and h*** nine times.
What We Can Take Away For Our Writing:
1.) Taking Away a Character’s Tools – At one point in the book, Cinder loses her connection with the net so she can no longer check the news whenever she wants or research and download information. This gives her a big disadvantage in the oncoming battle, but it worked great for the story because it added extra tension to the plot.
How this can be applied to writing: Have you thought of taking away some of your characters’ tools to add more tension to the plot?
Conclusion: A beautiful conclusion to an epic series!
About the Author:
Marissa Meyer lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and three cats. She’s a fan of most things geeky (Sailor Moon, Firefly, color-coordinating her bookshelf …), and has been in love with fairy tales since she was a kid, something she doesn’t intend to ever grow out of. She may or may not be a cyborg. Cinder, her first novel, debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. Visit Marissa at her website, Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter.
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