July 18, 2017sarahylockwood

Winter by Marissa Meyer

Winter-final.jpg

Rate:  4/5

Medium: Audiobook

Overview (No Spoilers):

Twice this past week I’ve found myself confused as to where I was in the located within a series. Upon pondering this quandary, I would have to place the fault with my extreme aversion to spoilers.  The first time I was mistaken,  I thought I was reading the final book in a trilogy with The Dinosaur Princess, whereupon I was actually book three of six. When starting Winter, I thought I had at least one more book to go before the series concluded, however approximately 75% of the way through it dawned on me that all the key players were in position for the grand finale! I quickly adjusting my perspective and was soon engrossed in this series ending conclusion. Moreover, I loved the addition of Winter, the evil queen’s stepdaughter, into the storyline, specifically her embodiment of the Snow White fairytale. Of note, her mental illness/instability emphasized quite heavily, however personally I found her character to be more eccentric than crazy, similar to the Etherealists in Jim Butcher’s The Aeronaut’s Windlass, with Meyer throwing in a few breakdowns in to justify the mental illness claim.  With that being said, Winter was a highly entertaining, action packed conclusion to The Lunar Chronicles series, which wraps up almost as predictably and cleanly as one might expect in a fairytale adaption. While I’ve been relatively lukewarm regarding this series throughout, in general I’ve really enjoyed this storyline within the context of the light young adult reading that it was intended to be. Additionally, I wasn’t enthralled with a few of the key protagonists (Cinder), although I grew quite attached with several others as the series progressed, e.g., Cress, Thorne, Iko.  Overall, Winter was a delightful ending to The Lunar Chronicles series, which wove together many of our favorite childhood fairytales in a unique futuristic rendering that was predictable, yet rarely dull.

Additional Insight (Spoilers Abound):

I’m struggling to have additional insight because everything wrapped up so picture perfect, which is on par for a series inspired by fairytales. I find my thoughts centered on the great the social divide on Luna. Specifically, I can’t see the transition to normalcy returning easily. More so, with Cinder dissolving the monarchy, what is going to stop some other tyrant taking over under the guise of being elected. Of course, this is me overanalyzing a series that isn’t meant to be looked into this deeply. As such, this series should be enjoyed and taken for what it is, a YA, feel good series with a feel good ending.

 

26 comments

  2. This was a great review – I highly recommend reading the novellas tied to the Lunar Chronicles. Stars Above was one of my favourite reads of the year, it was a lot of snippets of the characters’ lives post-Winter, I finished it within a day!

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      • Yes! There are 2 novellas – theres Stars Above, and there’s Fairest. I haven’t read Fairest yet but I believe it surrounds Levana and talks a bit more about her story. Definitely recommend picking up Stars Above though, I think there was only one story in the collection which I didn’t like!

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      • Fairest contributes great depth to Levana and her role in the series’s plot. Would definitely recommend reading it before Winter. And Stars Above after.

        Which story in Stars Above didn’t you like?

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  4. I just finished this series too! Cress (the book) was defiantly my favorite, and although I didn’t really love Winter, I did really like the series over all

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  6. I read Cinder a while back but never continued the series. I own Scarlet and would love to finish it one day but I’ll have to find time!

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  11. I have yet to read this series, even though it’s been sitting on my TBR list for years. I regret not getting into it now.

    I just love how Meyer has taken a new twist to retellings. I’m glad you liked this book!

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