Fairest
One of my first encounters with Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series was a review of this book, the prequel novella. I'd been strongly considering diving in at that point, but the review, whose opinion I tend to agree with, hated this book. So I backed off. For about a week, at which point Sarah started reading the series and fell in love with it. Which was all I needed to get back on board. Still, I was a bit worried heading into this book.
I shouldn't have been. I actually loved it so much that I'm reconsidering how I view the reviewer who hated it. The story follows Levana, the evil stepmother queen of the story proper, and her rise to power. Levana is evil, and has always been evil.
But villains never think they're villains. Levanna grew up spoiled and sheltered in a family without love. Her parents were both openly having affairs. Her sister was even more cruel than her. Add in Levana's supernatural manipulation abilities, and there was really no other way she could have turned out.
Even though she truly believes that she has the best interests of her country and her people at heart, she becomes an oppressive dictator without realizing it. She's certainly better at politics than her sister was, which makes her harder to argue with. But by the time she's murdering people to secure her spot on the throne she's too far over the line to remember crossing it.
Meyer does a spectacular job of putting you inside the head of Levanna. She's never all that sympathetic, but it's certainly easy to understand how she ended up the way she did. Knowing how twisted and cruel she can be (seriously, who feels justified in setting a 3-year-old on fire?) will make her fall in the final book so much sweeter.
I shouldn't have been. I actually loved it so much that I'm reconsidering how I view the reviewer who hated it. The story follows Levana, the evil stepmother queen of the story proper, and her rise to power. Levana is evil, and has always been evil.
But villains never think they're villains. Levanna grew up spoiled and sheltered in a family without love. Her parents were both openly having affairs. Her sister was even more cruel than her. Add in Levana's supernatural manipulation abilities, and there was really no other way she could have turned out.
Even though she truly believes that she has the best interests of her country and her people at heart, she becomes an oppressive dictator without realizing it. She's certainly better at politics than her sister was, which makes her harder to argue with. But by the time she's murdering people to secure her spot on the throne she's too far over the line to remember crossing it.
Meyer does a spectacular job of putting you inside the head of Levanna. She's never all that sympathetic, but it's certainly easy to understand how she ended up the way she did. Knowing how twisted and cruel she can be (seriously, who feels justified in setting a 3-year-old on fire?) will make her fall in the final book so much sweeter.
Comments
Post a Comment