Book Review: The Lunar Chronicles

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Rating: PG-13 (violence, medical, and romance)

Recommended for: Ages 15 to Adult

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Now that we have Stars Above, it's a good time to review The Lunar Chronicles. It's like fairy tale meets Star Wars, which is pretty cool, and while the kissing is rather more than what I prefer, I still loved the series.

Cinder

Cinderella is a cyborg. She meets the prince, Kai, when he comes to her mechanic stand with an android he needs to be repaired. He wants to find the lost, supposedly dead, Lunar princess Selene and restore her to the throne, and avert a marriage alliance with evil and manipulative Lunar queen Levana. But Levana is the only one with the cure for letumosis, a deadly and very contagious disease spreading across Earth, a disease the Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth has contracted.

Lunars have the ability to manipulate people's minds and make them see things that aren't really there and make them do things that they don't intend to do. Most Lunars use their glamour to make themselves look more beautiful, but some, like Levana, use their glamour to force people to kill themselves, among other things.

I found Cinder to be a bit predictable, but I still loved it. It was probably the cleanest of the series, less kissing, though I think there was one instance of d---.

Scarlet

Scarlet is Red Riding Hood. She lives on her grandmother's farm in France, but her grandmother is missing. She meets a street fighter called Wolf who turns out to be a bio-engineered wolf soldier of Levana's. Only he doesn't really want to be one.

Cinder is a wanted criminal, on the run with thief Carswell Thorne. She's determined not to let Kai marry Levana, but what can she do?

While I still really enjoyed this book, and most definitely had to continue the series, I think it's my least favorite. Scarlet and Wolf fell for each other way too fast, and some of the kissing was just way too descriptive and way too long. :P They are quite devoted to each other, though. And this one was far less predictable. Scarlet is more violent than Cinder. The wolf soldiers are kind of creepy. I mean, they took normal Lunars and crossed their genetics with wolves so they're like half people, half wolves.

Cress

Cress is Rapunzel. She's also an expert hacker and a shell, a Lunar with no gift with bioelectricity. Not only can she not use a glamour, she can't be controlled by one. She's also lived alone on a satellite orbiting Earth since she was a child.

Cinder's group is still trying to overthrow Levana and save Kai. They take a detour to rescue Cress, but things don't exactly go as planned.

Levana will stop at nothing to make the marriage alliance happen, but Cinder will do anything to stop it.

Thorne is Cress's "prince." He's not my favorite of the guys, he likes the ladies way too much, but he grows quite a bit throughout his relationship with Cress. I do love his sense of humor. And we finally get to see Cinder and Kai together again! But the ending is quite the cliffhanger in the Scarlet/Wolf story line. There's still kissing, but I don't think it was quite as descriptive as in Scarlet.

I skipped Fairest. I was warned to read the reviews first, and it didn't really look like it was clean. Levana's backstory.

Winter

This book is massive. But it's SOOOOO good. Winter is Snow White. She loves her guard Jacin, but Levana, her aunt, wants to marry her off to someone else, a more advantageous match that would keep her out of the way. By the way, Winter is kind of crazy because she refuses to use her Lunar gift.

Cinder's group is ready to get rid of Levana. But there are some necessary rescues ahead, and their plan is very risky. As in they have to let some things they were trying to prevent happen in order to win. And they're around Lunars, so that's dangerous as well.

It's an epic conclusion to The Lunar Chronicles. There are many new stories, more backstory, many old storylines to tie off. In spite of its size, it's still completely action packed. There are a few too descriptive kisses, so warning there. But it's a fairly satisfying conclusion.

Stars Above

And here we have our bonus features. It's a short story collection. Some of them have been released previously, but certainly not all. We get backstory on all the main characters. Well, Kai we just get his first meeting with Cinder from his point of view, but we get to see Cinder, Scarlet, Wolf, Cress, Thorne, Jacin, and Winter as kids.

And then the best one of the collection: Something Old, Something New. This is Scarlet and Wolf's wedding, but we get it from Cinder's point of view. The group is back together, and Cinder and Kai are ready to take the next step in their relationship. While I don't agree with all of Meyer's morals (Scarlet and Wolf are already both living at the farm and Cress and Thorne are traveling the world in the Rampion together even though they're not married), this was a sweet story and I loved it. The perfect epilogue to the series...though I still wish I could see Cinder and Kai's wedding.

Though I don't agree with everything in The Lunar Chronicles, it's a fantastic fairy tale retelling series with plenty of politics. I would recommend it for older teens. I'm just hoping the studio with the movie rights actually goes forward with making them into movies. :D