Winter

by Marissa Meyer
published:
pages: 824

Princess Winter is kind, generous and well loved by the people on Luna.  She is also the stepdaughter of Queen Levana, which happens to be a dangerous position.  While Levana tries to secure her vision of world domination, Winter has been subtly undermining Queen Levana for years.  Disguising her strength in her biggest weakness, Winter decides it's time to do something about her stepmother and her personal guard Jacin, knows where to go for help.

The conclusion of The Lunar Chronicles is upon us.

I think I've said this in every Lunar Chronicles review, but this story is so much more than just a retelling of Snow White.  Sure, you get the Snow White story, but you have the fate of the world and Luna resting on a couple rebels too.  I was curious to see how different sections of the story would be represented and I wasn't disappointed.  I thought it was really cool that Snow White's seven dwarfs were represented in the other main characters.  It was never said explicitly that Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and company were the seven dwarfs but subtle hints and actions made it increasingly obvious. The way that Snow White is weaved into the more complex and ultimately engaging plot is incredible.

It was long for a good reason. With eight main characters to follow and for main story arcs to conclude, it is impossible to know exactly where everyone is all the time.  It's hard to balance them well and move the plot forward in an engaging fashion. To be honest, this was one of aspects of the book that concerned me before reading it. I think it is done fairly well in this book. There are definite periods of time where I wondered what a certain character was up to because they hadn't been apart of the central plot for a chunk of time. Cress goes missing for a while and so does Winter.  But for the most part, the page time is well balanced and the absence of certain characters provide more momentum for the story.

This book was so gratifying. Marissa Meyer threw me for a loop and then gracefully put everything together in the end.  She finished this story in a most unpredictable yet completely satisfying way. I am sad that my time in the Lunar Chronicles world is ending but I am looking forward to what Marissa Meyer will write in the future.

Stars: 4/5 

Praise:

"Yes, it's another one of Meyer's very fractured fairy tales, in which she offer a new amalgam of Grimm's fairy tales, science fiction, violence, women's lib, and romance."
     --Booklist

"Like the previous entries in this widely appealing series, this title features strong heroines taking control of their destinies set against a fully developed and imaginative world.
     --School Library Journal

A Full House Reading Challenge 2015 book!