Wrapping Up The Lunar Chronicles
Winter by Marissa Meyer is the last book in The Lunar Chronicles serial. Cinder, the first book, is a retelling of the Cinderella story, set in a future world with cyborgs, space ships, and settlers on the moon. Scarlet and Cress, the second and third books, continues the story, adding retellings of Litter Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel to the growing cast of characters.
Winter is a retelling of Snow White. In this book, all the main characters from the first books wind up going to Luna, where Winter lives with Queen Levana. All the complex and intertwining storylines come together and are wrapped up in this book. If you want to know more about all the books check out the other reviews. The links are at the end of this post.
Reading Order
Okay, sometimes you can jump into a series and read the books out of order. With The Lunar Chronicles, you want to start at the beginning with Cinder and read the books in order because you’ll be lost if you start with Winter.
This book is a whopping 800 plus pages. If you’ve read the other books, the length probably won’t be a problem because if you are like me, you’ll want to find out what happens to the characters. All the books are full of action, suspense, romance, and complex plot twists. There’s never a dull moment, and you’ll often be on the edge of your seat, reading fast so you can find out what’s going to happen next.
As a final book, Meyer does an excellent job of tying up all the various plot points and brings all the relationships to satisfying conclusions — the plague, the evil Queen, the wolf-men (not to be confused with werewolves), and other questions that came up in the other books, even Cinder’s relationship with her stepmother and stepsister. There’s something satisfying about reading a book that doesn’t leave you hanging or wondering what happen to plot lines or characters you had questions about.
A Grip or Two
Okay, I loved all The Lunar Chronicle books and found them to be quick reads, expect this one (it’s hard to read 800 pages quickly). I would have liked two books rather than one.
First, I thought Winter got shortchanged in this book. She didn’t get as much book time as the other characters did in their books, and I didn’t find her character as engaging as the others. When Scarlet gets impatient with her, I was feeling the impatience too. She is innocent, vulnerable, and damsel-in-distress. For me, the process of her character development wasn’t as deep or as complex as in the other books. Having said that I think some readers are going to love her.
The second reason I thought there should be two books is because an 800-page book is hard on the wrists! I’m joking. I read on a Kindle or listen to audios.
My real second reason is some parts of the plot seems a little far-fetched, and I had to keep reminding myself, “This is a young adult book.” The other books could have set up the major plotline of this book a little better. “It” (not giving the “it” away) happened too fast to be completely plausible.
Overall
Overall, I recommend The Lunar Chronicles. All the books are fasted paced. There’s an element of all the fairy tales that’s intriguing, but the setting and world Meyer created are fantastic. The plot complexity and twists are often unexpected and always fun. All characters are varied, and I got attached to all of them, and absolutely loved a couple of them.
If you want fun, adventurous, and “I can wait to find out what happens next” books, you’ll enjoy The Lunar Chronicles.
You Might Also Like:
Cinder: a Fairy Tale with a Twist of Science Fiction
Scarlet: Continuing the Lunar Chronicles
Cress: the Girl with Lots of Hair
The Usual Reminders
If you’ve read Winter, what do you think?
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