Joint Review: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

by:  Marissa Meyer
published by:  Feiwal + Friends
publish date:  January 27, 2015

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now.

Fairest is sort of a prequel in the Lunar Chronicles.  It tells the story of how Queen Levana comes to power.  Fortunately, a lot is explained in this book because frankly, so much time has passed since I've read some of these Lunar Chronicle books, I don't remember how all these characters relate.  This book did a good job of illustrating the family dynamics between Levana, Cinder and the new character Winter.   This is is a good book to tide the LC fans over until Winter come out.  I think you might be surprised at how sympathetic you might feel towards Levana after hearing her story.

I really enjoyed Fairest and thought is was a great addition to the series.  I am glad that the author wrote it, because it gives us a lot more history and how everyone relates to each other.  I wouldn't recommend reading this one first because things will be spoiled for you before reading the first three.

It's a shorter book, so it can be read quickly.  I admitted to Autumn in the beginning that I felt bad for Lavana and could see how she turned so evil.  But in the end, I decided that she was just basically crazy and not much would have saved her.  The book has the first three chapters of Winter (Book 4) as a teaser bonus. Neither one of us read them so we would be surprised.  I can't wait for Winter to come out this summer!