Character Spotlight: Winter

Winter Hayle-Blackburn -- Princess Winter
Winter
Marissa Meyer

Winter Hayle-Blackburn carries a lot of turmoil with her and it has piled up on her heart. Her mother died in childbirth.  As a child her cousin and friend died in a fire, in which Winter almost died as well.  Her father was murdered and she was left in the care of Queen Levana Blackburn.  Her step-mother, jealous of Winter's beauty, slashed her face when she was just a girl, causing Winter to make one of the most important decisions of her life.  She chose never to use her Lunar gift again because she would not find herself manipulating others.  Winter sticks to this, even though it causes her to have hallucinations on a regular basis.  Over the years she has become weakened by her hallucinations, finding it difficult to function without seeing blood pouring out of the walls, her body turning into ice and breaking off, and other horrible images.

With Winter's mental breakdowns, she comes across as weak.  She cannot stand up to Levana and knows she will be given as a bride to whomever is most convenient for her step-mother.  She is in love with her childhood friend, a guard at the palace whose presence she depends on greatly.  It's easy to overlook her as nothing important.  However Winter shows us that she is, in fact, much stronger than we believe.

She plays up the "crazy factor" quite a bit because it works for her.  There are multiple times when she depends on people believing she's just a little crazy and not to worry about, but just go along with it so she'll get over it.  Winter knows what she's doing, but she is losing her grip on reality.  Her hallucinations are terrifying to her and she is having difficultly separating what is real and what isn't.  But she isn't afraid to stand up to Levana--not when a true chance to do so is offered to her.

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

Image Source: Goodreads

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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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5 Books I'm Looking Forward to Reading by the end of 2015

So there are a few books in my TBR pile that I'm really really looking forward to reading soon!  Some I own, some I want to own, and some I'm just waiting to be released.  Here they are:


First and foremost, I have to talk about Winter, the fourth book in Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.  It's being delivered to school so that I have it as soon as possible and drop whatever I'm reading right away and join in with my kids during Silent Reading Time!!

 

Next is Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty.  I have this one sitting on our dining room table (which we only use when we have company) and I see it taunting me every day to finish the book I'm on so I can get to it.

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalup sounds incredibly good and it's been on my list for a few months.  It's one I'd like to have finished before the year is up.  Also, it sounds terrifying and will probably make me more anxious than I already am.  Maybe I should stop reading so much dystopian/post-apocalyptic books... Or whatever.

I recently put 1984 by George Orwell on my list because I've never read it.  Can you believe that?  This is another must be read by the end of the year.

I saw the movie version of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro on accident.  I didn't realize it was a book when I started to just watch it on TV.  I didn't pay attention to the name and by the time I looked at the title, I thought, isn't this a book?  It was too late.  I was sucked in.  However, that was a few years ago and although it's vaguely familiar to me, I believe it's time that I can read it without thinking too much of the movie.

I have plenty of other books that I'll be reading around these books, but my plan to hopefully finish reading these five by the new year.  Fingers crossed!!

Are there any books you can't wait to read?  Did mine surprise you?

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