Book Review: Winter

Winter
Marissa Meyer
Feiwel and Friends, 2015
Source: Purchased
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I may or may not have had this book delivered to school and then carried it around with me all day, even to go make copies and to refill my water during my plan time.  I did not have much time to read it during the school day, but it did not leave my line of sight.  It would be an understatement to say that I was excited about reading Winter.  I was looking forward to this so much and really needed something to pull me out of my not wanting to read state of affairs.  It worked.

In this last installment of The Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and her friends wage their battle on the Lunar queen Levana.  It's epic and full of emotional ups and downs as you watch her friends separate and reunite and separate, and never know if they will ever again find themselves together.  Also, in this book we're introduced to Winter, Levana's stepdaughter who is said to be the most beautiful girl on Luna, despite the scars Levana forced her to carve into her own face.  Our final fairy-tale princess is Snow White, but she's not the Snow White you'll remember.  Instead Winter is a little crazy.  She suffers from a condition caused by the disuse of her Lunar gift.  Her stepmother sees her as weak and just wants to be rid of her, but she underestimates her stepdaughter.

Meanwhile Cinder has brought the fight to Luna.  Along with her friends, she is determined to find Levana's weak spots and expose them to her people and the people of Earth, saving her friends, her planet, Luna, and Kai from a devastating future.

My favorite characters are Thorne and Cress.  Thorne reminds me of Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly, so it was a little difficult not to completely follow Cress's giggling over him.  Sometimes I wanted to be annoyed by Cress because she does seem so naive, but I never was.  Maybe because I felt that I would be the closest to Cress (except for the whole technological genius thing).

I even started to like Scarlet a little bit.  I haven't really been a fan of hers at all until this book.  I can't really put a finger on it, but I didn't like her during her first appearance in Scarlet and I continued to just want to get back to Cinder's story during most of Scarlet.  She disappeared early enough in Cress that I wrote her off.  I didn't worry too much about her, even though we were shown that she was alive.  But here she stepped up in my mind.  Scarlet has jumped in and become a leader of this band of heroes.  I began to like her more than I liked Cinder, who kept making stupid decisions.

Okay, here comes the part I don't like and, out of necessity, SPOILERS.

***TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT ANY MAJOR SPOILERS!!***






Issue #1) No one dies.  How is that possible?  Someone should have died.  Yes, tons of Lunars died fighting Levana and her thaumaturges.  Many Earthens also died from the mutant soldiers.  One of the group should have died.  It just made sense.  Scarlet should have died from letumosis when she got it.  Thorne should have been killed when captured (although I may have stopped reading altogether had that happened, so it's a good thing he wasn't killed).  Kai should have been killed by Levana.  Cinder should not have survived.

I know, you think I'm crazy.  I do love these characters--even Scarlet who I didn't really like that much, was important and I would have sobbed at her death. I just don't understand how can so many people die in this book and it never is one of the main characters.

Issue #2) They all get their man.  Sigh and roll of eyes.  Stifle a groan.  I love a good romantic vibe and was ALL OVER Thorne and Cress's scene when he confessed his feelings for her.  In fact, I am thinking of going back to read it again, but is it that easy?  Maybe I'm just a big old crab and need to lighten up.  I mean if I'm really going to take on a feminist reading of this, there are lot more issues that I should be focusing on, but I enjoyed this book too much to even pay attention to those details.

So I loved it.  Despite those issues, I'm still giving it 5 stars.  It was that good.  Really and truly.  It fits in with the entire series so well and ends in a place where I feel confident for our characters futures.  And I still love all my characters, even Jacin--with whom I would probably get along well seeing as we both seem to be crabs and easily annoyed.  Happy reading!

Check out my other Lunar Chronicle reviews:
Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress
Cinder
Fairest

Image Source: Goodreads


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