Fairest by Marissa Meyer Series: The Lunar Chronicles #3.5
Published by Feiwel & Friends on January 27th 2015
Genres: Dystopian YA, Science Fiction
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
Also in this series: Cinder, Scarlet, Cinder, Cress
Also by this author: Cinder, Scarlet, Cinder, Cress
Source: Bought it
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told.
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of them all?Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now.
Marissa Meyer spins yet another unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes full-color art and an excerpt from Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles series.
I’m a huge fan of Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series. Like most of the people I know, to be honest. I’m always craving more of this world and these characters. However. The one character I probably couldn’t care LESS about is Levana. I only care about her as she relates to Kai or Cinder or, as we’ll find out soon, Winter. So when I found out that WINTER, the last book in the series, was going to be pushed back in favor of publishing a shorter story about Levana and her backstory, I was excited and bummed at the same time. That’s basically my feelings about FAIREST right there.
Queen Levana of Luna is a formidable enemy for the United Commonwealth and the people of Earth. She’s manipulative, crazy, vicious, dangerous, power-hungry, and…well, she just sucks. I can’t say that I’ve ever wondered, “Hey, WHY is Levana so mean?” so I didn’t really think I was missing anything that would fill a hole in the narrative. That being said, I am glad that I got to read more about Levana’s childhood, her relationship with her sister, Channary, who also sucks, and her relationship with one of her guards that becomes something more. It was interesting. But also incredibly creepy, and in the end, didn’t do much of anything to make me hate Levana any less.
It’s easy to see how Levana grew into the villain that she did just from her antagonistic and frankly terrible interactions with her older sister, Channary. This is the part of FAIREST where I was like, “If this book was an episode of the Oprah show, this is when we would blame the parents.” Since their parents die early on in FAIREST, Levana is left at the mercy of the new Queen Channary. Channary treats Levana abominably, at one point forcing Levana too close to a fire ON PURPOSE. There’s nothing redeeming about their relationship as sisters or as a Queen and her subject. It’s really the beginning of the end for any redeeming qualities of Levana’s.
Levana’s interactions with Channary when she was a young girl were the only things that ever made me feel a small amount of sympathy for her. However, she always showed a propensity for manipulation, no matter the cost. This is particularly evident when it comes to Evret, the guard who shows kindness to the young Levana that she misinterprets as love because she doesn’t know any better. Which is so sad. But then things quickly become incredibly uncomfortable, and THEN they get downright disturbing and wrong. It didn’t take very long for FAIREST to reach the point where I was like, “Ah, here’s the Levana I know.” (which is bad). I swung rapidly from feeling some sympathy for Levana to feeling mostly sorry for everyone else, and once I started feeling this way, Levana’s actions only made things worse.
I don’t think I’ve ever included a picture of my Goodreads status updates in a book review, but I wanted to do it for FAIREST because I think I managed to sum up my thoughts about it pretty succinctly.
So there you have it, guys. FAIREST was interesting but majorly effed up and didn’t make me feel any better about Levana. It DID make me want WINTER even more, though. It whet my appetite for it just enough. That’s probably the only truly positive thing in FAIREST. If you LOVE this series and want to read ALL THE THINGS, then definitely grab FAIREST. But even if you DO love this series and you maybe aren’t sure about FAIREST, I wouldn’t make yourself crazy over not reading it.
Yes, I agree that it’s all kinds of messed up. Levana is EFFING CRAZY. I liked that Meyer didn’t try to soften her. And I know what really disturbed you about Levana’s relationship with Evret, and I actually really, really like that Meyer included that because kings do/did that ALL THE TIME. The methodology is just different.
Anyway, I reviewed it at my blog. You can see it here.
And I totally agree that it made me ready for Winter.
Yes, you’ve basically summed up my exact feelings towards Fairest! It was interesting to learn a little of Levana’s history, but she still remained the villain I hated by the end of it.