All the crew get their time to shine in this big screen styled finale.
Genre: Y/A, Science Fiction
No. of pages: 827
Princess Winter is admired for her grace, kindness and beauty, despite the scars on her face. She’s said to be even more breath-taking than her stepmother, Queen Levana…
When Winter develops feelings for the handsome palace guard, Jacin, she fears the evil Queen will crush their romance before it has a chance to begin.
But there are stirrings against the Queen across the land. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even find the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.
Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter claim their happily ever afters by defeating Levana once and for all?
A fitting end to a marvellously entertaining series (even though there is a collection of short stories and graphic novels that take place after ‘Winter.’)
I started reading ‘Winter’ back in 2016 and then abandoned it after 145 pages. Mainly because of the pacing. There was so much detail bogging down the narrative flow – and so many character perspectives setting the scene in multiple locations – that I simply put it down in favour of more engaging reads. But now with my attempts to #BeatTheBacklist – basically my goal to reduce the ridiculous amount of titles on my TBR shelves, and to complete all those series I started to read and abandoned halfway through.
This time around, I did feel that sluggish start, but it wasn’t too far past that 145 page mark where the pace picked up and kept on a solid beat right up until the end. (With exception of the last few chapters which I thought could have been better as an afterward – as it was tying up minor story threads after the main plot line concluded.) Every character got their time to shine, face obstacles, got thwarted, and battle to victory… not without a cost. Marissa Meyer’s ability to track so many story arcs, have them all weave into each other AND mirror elements of the original fairytales she has based her characters on is simply masterful and a joy to read. With a glut of fairytale re-tellings on the market, this collection is one of the better in the YA genre. Plus this girl loves her science fiction. ‘Winter’ managed to feel original and have all the Disney trappings I have known from childhood.
There is an awful lot that goes down in this novel – and for its 800 plus pages you’d expect so. I kept getting a sore wrist trying to hold my hardcover copy.
Marissa Meyer’s writing style is an easy read and builds the world of the Lunar Chronicles effortlessly. Iko’s bubbly effervescence is always a welcome break to the narrative. I’m looking forward to graphic novels ‘Wires and Nerve’ following her story after ‘Winter.’ I won’t get into details of the plot and character development for this concluding instalment because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who has not read ‘Winter.’ But it does justice to the themes and character arcs.
I would have liked the ‘voice’ of our main heroines to feel a little more distinct. If you removed their names from the narrative I would have had difficulty discerning who was taking the point of view. As much as I enjoyed ‘Winter,’ and loved the complexity of the plot, I feel it lost a little of its magic because of the pacing. Though it engaged me enough as a reader, parts are slow, and this is one huge book to get through. Especially for YA. But having said that, many who get this far along in the series will be fans, and such small criticisms like this will not deter them. So if you love the concept of a fairytale retelling with a sci-fi twist, this is a beauty!
While this is the last novel in the collection, there is a following collection of short stories ‘Stars Above’ that I will follow this with. And as mentioned, the graphic novels following Iko’s story.
Overall feeling: End to the epic
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Casey Carlisle 