FAIREST by Marissa Meyer – can we say awesome?

OMGosh, I finished it!  This! This beauty of a book! This way too short explanation of why Queen Levana is such a nasty, nasty person.

I started the book on the February 1 and finished it last night only because work got in the way and I couldn’t read straight thr0ugh. Ugh.  Anyway, I loved this book, though I have to say I was hoping for a bit more intensity, but I wasn’t disappointed in what I got.

I like that we get to see why Queen Levana is the way she is. We all know that no one is all bad or all good. We all have our flaws and life events that make us who we are.

I felt sympathy and sorrow for her. She endured so much at the hands of other people, all the things that break a soul, a spirit. Like all humans, all she ever wanted was to be loved. What she got was anything but.

I would have liked to have seen a bit deeper POV in Levana, I mean, really, really dig into her heart. Meyer touched on it a couple of times, and I have to admit, there was one part of the book where I actually felt a tear welling in the corner of my eye. Still, I didn’t get the gut-wrenching heart-ache I was expecting.

There are two characters I would have liked to have seen developed more as a pair – Evret and Sol. I would have liked to have seen Levana torn a bit more between her feelings for the two of them. I think Levana was capable of so much more compassion and love, but her desperation overshadowed it. I wish Meyer had made Levana a bit more sensitive so we could really see an internal battle within. There were times when Meyer brought me right to the edge, where I could see Levana about to be kind and caring … and then she yanked me back before it could happen.  I really wanted more internal struggle.

And poor Evret. I would have loved to have seen his character a bit more in the story. What a good, kind soul. And for someone who had such a huge part in Levana’s life, it felt more like he was a walk-on character.

I give Fairest 4 stars. Despite this being a filler novel, (actually more like a novella), I’m still a HUGE fan, and I’m really, really looking forward to the final story in the series, WINTER. I read the first 3 chapters that are at the end of Fairest. OMGosh!! Totally awesome!!!

So, there you have it. If you’re a Lunar Chronicles fan, you should really read Fairest. It will help you to understand Levana’s character so much more and will shed some light on how life, jealousy, rejection, pain, death and yes, even love, can change and mold us in profound ways and not always for the best.  We may not agree with or like the person she turned out to be, but at least now, we can understand it and hope that Winter, Cinder and Scarlet and their amazing male counterparts, can save the day…and the world in the end. I’m looking forward to finding out.