Book Review: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Age Suggestion: 13+

Aaaaah these books are wonderful and amazing!! I thought I would review them today just so I could bask in the wonderfulness a little longer. YAY YAY YAY.

Okay…so I’m going to try and be serious and review-ish, but it will be hard.

The Books

Cinder: Linh Cinder (based on Cinderella), a cyborg living with her stepmother and her two stepsisters, works as a mechanic in a booth at the market place, where she meets Prince Kai. As a result of being forcibly volunteered for plague testing, a lot of previously unknown things regarding Cinder’s origins surface. At the same time, tensions between Earth and Luna are rising with Prince Kai being caught in the middle of it.

Scarlet: Scarlet Benoit (based on Little Red Riding Hood) is the granddaughter of Michelle Benoit, a farmer and former military pilot who has suddenly gone missing. On Scarlet’s journey to find her, she teams up with and learns from a street fighter named Wolf that her grandmère may be hiding secrets regarding Princess Selene, the Lunar princess.

Cress: Crescent Moon ‘Cress’ Darnel (based on Rapunzel) is a banished hacker who is somehow caught up in Cinder and her crew’s plot to overthrow the wicked Lunar queen. However, soon everything goes awry. The crew must do anything they can to reunite and prevent the royal wedding that could put Earth into Queen Levana’s hands.

Winter:  Winter (based on Snow White) is Queen Levana’s stepdaughter. She’s seen how Levana’s use of glamour has turned her into a heartless tyrant and so she has not used her Lunar “glamour” since she was twelve, causing her sanity to deteriorate. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

The series also includes Fairest, the backstory of Queen Levana.

What I Didn’t Like

I just want to get this out of the way first so it isn’t the last impression you’re given. Because make no mistake, I absolutely loved these books. They were incredible!

I did have a few minor issues. First of all, by the third book there was one “connection”, “coincidence”, “secret reveal”, whatever you want to call it, that just felt a little forced and a little much. (sort of like Star Wars…) I can’t say which one it is because of spoilers 🙂

Secondly, I thought that Cinder and Scarlet were a little too similar. They could have used some differentiating characteristics.

What I Liked

And now for the fun part!

These books are genius. The whole plot is so intricately planned out, with connections that make perfect sense but yet you don’t see them coming, and everything paced exactly right.

The fairy-tale elements are worked in cleverly and subtly, adding another level of interest. These are by far the most unique fairy-tale retellings I have ever read.

The characters are for the most part incredibly well-developed and complex. It’s a unique, interesting group, and I really want to see these books made into movies just so I could see how each character was interpreted.

The setting is also intriguing; it’s set on Earth, but in the future, when we have world peace. BUT we don’t have universal peace, and the people of the moon want Earth. The setting and history are very well-thought out and developed.

You will not be able to put these books down! They grip you and make you want to read them 24-7, day and night, without stopping. You have been warned.

Content 

I was really surprised at how clean these books were, for the most part. There are a few minor swear words, and once Thorne is introduced in Scarlet, his morals are a little loose, but there is never anything blatantly inappropriate. For a New York Times bestseller, I was really surprised!

The exception, I would say, is Fairest, in which the romance felt a little more mature than the other books and there were some things that would be better for a slightly older audience.

As for scariness, I think the most intense books are probably Scarlet, which involves pretty scary mutant wolf-men, and Winter, which has all of the final battle scene and stuff. So if you’re really sensitive, be cautious. But it shouldn’t be anything that twelve-year-olds and up can’t handle.

My Favorites

Favorite book: Cinder or Cress

Favorite male character: Thorne

Favorite female character: Iko

Favorite couple: Scarlet and Wolfe

Would I Recommend It?

Absolutely! If you like fantasy or sci-fi, or even if you don’t, you must add this series to your to-read list. It’s a wonderful, well-written series that entirely deserves to be a bestseller! Go read it now!

 

Have you read the Lunar Chronicles? Did you like them? Who were your favorite characters? Which book did you like best? If you haven’t read them, will you read them now? I’m not just saying to leave a comment because I want comments; I NEED TO FANGIRL WITH PEOPLE WHO LOVE THESE BOOKS AS MUCH AS ME!!!!!! 

Be sure to share this post and subscribe to my blog if you aren’t already. But really, LEAVE A COMMENT if you’ve read these books! 

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♥ love, grace ♥

Coming soon: Another installment in the New Year’s Resolution series