Fairest has been one of my most anticipated books of 2015. That and the final book of the series which is coming out fall 2015. Marissa Meyer keeps wowing me with every new book she writes. Although Fairest is more of a novella than a novel, it's longer than most novellas and long enough to give us a good analysis of Levana, the lunar Queen that reader love to hate.
As far as antagonist origin stories go, this one is pretty toxic and twisted. It introduces us to a sad and pathetic Levana, and honestly, after reading all those awful things about her in the other books, I never thought I would actually pity her. Her loveless childhood is probably the reason she is the way she is now. Being raised with no real affection from her parents is probably the reason why, as a queen, she wants the love of all her people. We see her transition from a pathetic teenager looking for love in the wrong places, to a Queen that wants the be the fairest of them all.
As Queen, she really wants the best for her people but in trying to achieve too much, she's running out of resources. That's why she turns to earth and we finally learn the origin of letumosis, a deadly disease the people of Luna are immune to but that is deadly to the people of Earth. The beastly soldiers the scientists are building for Luna are also introduced, but we don't actually get to meet any of them. As far as Evil Queens go, Levana's probably not the worse one out there. She really thinks she's doing the right thing for her subjects, but she's definitely going about it the wrong way. She wants to be loved by all her subjects, probably because she suffers from low self esteem and is trying to compensate by getting what she never got from her parents. I get that she suffered a horrible accident as a child that left her scared and disfigured but frankly, she is very good at glamour and can look like anyone she wants. Still, the illusion of beauty isn't enough for her. The things she does are truly evil, but to her, they are just means to an end. I shiver at all the evil things she did. In a way, I understand why she did them all, but I still don't agree with her reasoning
Timeline-wise, this story begins before Cinder was ever born so I guess it can be seen as a prequel to Cinder but honestly, I think everyone should read this after the three full length novels that were published prior to this one. I think the author made the right decision in not sharing too much information about Levana in the previous books, keeping her a mystery as long as possible. Now is the perfect time to publish Levana's story, right before the full length novel about Winter, Levana's stepdaughter, is released in the fall. I can't wait to find out more about Winter and to see how all the other characters live's unravel.
OOoh nice review! Hearing good things about this one! It's fun to get to know the villain of the story! Looking forward to reading this! Great review!
ReplyDeleteIf you're a fan of the series, definitely worth reading to get to know the villain a little bit more!
ReplyDeleteI read Cinder and I enjoyed it though I haven't gotten around to read the rest of the series. I think I need to.
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