Fairest by Marissa Meyer Series: The Lunar Chronicles #3.5
Genres: Young Adult, Fairytale Retelling, Sci-Fi
Published by Macmillan on January 27th 2015
Also by this author: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Winter, Heartless, Wires and Nerve, Gone Rogue , Renegades , Archenemies , Supernova
Format: Audio/Physical (220 pages) ⢠Source: Library, Scribd
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In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levanaâs 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 âglamourâ to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story â 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 don’t have a lot to say about this one overall. I liked it and am glad it exists, because Levana’s point of view is fucking crazy, but it wasn’t at the same level of the rest of the books. Obviously the entire series is ridiculously epic and twisty and turny. This book was really just a summary of Levana’s life before Cinder technically takes place. I think this would make more sense as a 0.5 instead of 3.5, but what are ya gonna do?
My Goodreads review successfully sums up my feelings on this book:
Stars Above by Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #0.5
Genres: Young Adult, Fairytale Retelling, Sci-Fi
Published by Macmillan on February 2nd 2016
Also by this author: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Winter, Heartless, Wires and Nerve, Gone Rogue , Renegades , Archenemies , Supernova
Format: eBook (369 pages) ⢠Source: Purchased
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The enchantment continues....
The universe of the Lunar Chronicles holds storiesâand secretsâthat are wondrous, vicious, and romantic. How did Cinder first arrive in New Beijing? How did the brooding soldier Wolf transform from young man to killer? When did Princess Winter and the palace guard Jacin realize their destinies?
With nine storiesâfive of which have never before been publishedâand an exclusive never-before-seen excerpt from Marissa Meyerâs upcoming novel, Heartless, about the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Stars Above is essential for fans of the bestselling and beloved Lunar Chronicles.
I’ve been looking forward to this epilogue foreeeeever. Oh yeah, and the rest of the novellas in there đ I actually hadn’t read any of the existing novellas for this series yet, so the whole book was new to me. It was an absolutely great way to wrap up the series. Here are some very mini reviews on each novella included:
- The Keeper: I loved seeing Michelle and Scarlet’s relationship develop! Getting a little background about how everyone came together pre-Cinder was awesome. And I loved seeing her become Cinder (and why that name!)
- Glitches: I’m pretty sure this one was previously released, but I’m reading all of these novellas for the first time! It was heartwarming to see how Garan and Peony really did care for her, unlike the rest of them. Made me sad/happy. Also IKO!
- The Queen’s Army:Â Really interesting (and terrible) to learn about how the queen acquired her army. I felt so bad for Z because he obviously had no choice in his future, but dang things escalated quickly.
- Carswell’s Guide to Being Lucky: Baby Thorne! It was fun to see him in school, dealing with parents, and being a semi-normal kid. I can definitely see how young Thorne becomes the older Thorne that we know. Honestly, some mixed feelings about it overall, but he was young at the time…so I can cut him some slack.
- After Sunshine Passes By: Cress is my favorite so it was nice to see more of her. I feel bad for her because she’s so innocent and hopeful… and easily duped into things. Poor girl.
- The Princess and the Guard: Obviously Winter and Jacin are the two characters we had the least amount of time with in WINTER, so I’m so glad we got a lengthy story about them here. I’ve enjoyed all the stories so far but this one is probably the one that actually added the most context and relevant background story.
- The Little Android: I thought this was about Iko (pre-Cinder), so whoops. I saw this was a Little Mermaid retelling after the fact, but I didn’t enjoy the story too much. The android was super jealous the whole time and then randomly changed its (her?) mind at the end. Just meh.
- The Mechanic: I’ve been waiting for this story. Kai is considered the most bland Lunar Chronicles boy, so I was eager to be in his head before/during meeting Cinder. Not bad.
- Something Old, Something New:Â I won’t spoil who got married, but I will say that I loved it. It was just so wonderful to see everyone together after the craziness in Winter. I seriously want to spend forever watching all of these ships sail off into the sunset. My hunch was kind of correct, regarding who got married, and then ~something else~ I had as a secondary prediction was also pretty accurate. Go me!
I love your comments on Stars Above. I’m so glad these novellas exist. They add a little more fun to the whole series…especially the wedding. I really, really, really want to see movie versions of these books SOON. đ
Yes, absolutely! I loved the wedding. Movies would be AWESOME.
I need to read Stars Above, it’s the only book in the series that I’m missing, glad to see you loved it!
Thank you! It was just a lot of fun. Some novellas were better than others, but nothing beats being back in that world.
I’ve only read the novella “The Queen’s Army” out of the Stars Above collection so I’m eager to get my hands on this. I really prefer when they do a novella bind up for a series, rather than chasing the different stories around on the internet or downloading them onto my ipad..it just feels disjointed, and I prefer to have them all in one place!
I completely agree! It’s awesome to have them in one place and count it as one book for reading challenges too haha. I don’t like having too many little novellas in there. Bind-ups are the best!
I pretty much felt the same way about Fairest. I am glad I read it. I am glad it was written. Levana is straight up crazy. lol (I too thought for a minute Meyer was going to try to get her sympathy votes, but nope. I liked that about the story!) BUT, it didn’t quite read like the other books and wasn’t as epic and I think that threw me off.
As for Stars Above, I loved it! I hadn’t read any of the short stories before this book either. Something Old, Something New made me so happy. If only we could get just one more book…