Tag: marissa meyer

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Heartless by Marissa Meyer
heartless

This is the tale of how the Queen of Hearts became the cold and heartless character of Through the Looking Glass fame.

Origin stories and fairy tale re-tellings are where its at. I’ve lost track of how many books I’ve read that examine well-known stories from a different point of view. Marissa Meyer does an excellent job maintaining the whimsy of the first book while weaving her new story in-between.

I’ll confess- I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Heartless as much as I did.

A few months ago, I read her Lunar Chronicles and I was sorely disappointed with it. Meyer is playing upon all of her strengths here. She tells the story of two or three characters rather than a cast of twelve or more. Whenever her character’s conversations threatened to bog down the action, they were cut short.

The pace is excellent. The tale kept me guessing. And the ending was something to be enjoyed rather than eye-rollingly trite. (Unlike some other books by this author that I won’t sully this review by mentioning.)

Catherine is the daughter of the Marquis and Marchioness of Rock Turtle Cove. She loves to bake and dreams of the bakery shop that she will surely one day own with her dear friend and maid, Mary Ann. Unfortunately, Catherine’s mother has other plans.

I liked that Meyer made Catherine both a product of nature and destiny. See the description of Catherine’s mother: “She was often a warm, loving woman, and Cath’s father, the Marquis, doted on her incessantly, but Cath was all too familiar with her mood swings. All cooing and delighted one moment and screaming at the top of her lungs the next. Despite her tiny stature, she had a booming voice and a particular glare that could make even a lion’s heart shrivel beneath it.” pgs 14-15. Sounds familiar, no?

The King of Hearts and his court of cards, talking animals and other magical creatures were also similar to the original book: “The King was a sweet man. A simple man. A happy man, which was important, as a happy king made for a happy kingdom. He simply wasn’t a clever man.” pg 26.

One of my favorite characters, the Cheshire Cat, appears in this too:“She slumped against the baker’s table. “I never dreamed such a thing could happen here.” Cheshire’s yellow eyes slitted as he held her gaze for one beat, two. Then he began to unravel from the tip of his tail, a slow unwinding of his stripes. “These things do not happen in dreams, dear girl,” he said, vanishing up to his neck. “They happen only in nightmares.” pg 93. Dun, dun, daaaaaaah!

And also, the merry, merry unbirthday singer and snappy dresser himself, Hatta, also known as the perhaps-not-yet-mad Hatter: “Was he mad already? She couldn’t help inspecting him, newly speculative and curious. He didn’t seem mad. No more mad than anyone else she knew. No more mad than she was herself. They were all a little mad, if one was to be forthright.” pg 222. Harkens back to the original text: “We’re all mad here.”, doesn’t it.

We are introduced to an entirely new character, the King’s joker, a man named Jest. At the beginning of the story, Catherine finds herself dreaming of a man with yellow eyes and guess who matches that description?

Mix all of these together and you have a great young adult fantasy. Recommended for anyone who is curious as to why a raven is like a writing desk.

Thanks for reading!

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4) by Marissa Meyer

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4) by Marissa Meyer

winterWarning: There are spoilers in this review. Please do not read further if you have not read this book.

Winter is the disappointing final installment of the promising Lunar Chronicles. Coming in at over 800 pages, I thought that this was going to be an epic conclusion. Sadly, I found it to be uninspired and far too repetitive.

Cress was my favorite of this series. In it, Meyer is at her best. Her fairy tale re-telling of Rapunzel was brilliant. She took the elements of the classic tale and gave it a science fiction twist. There’s adventure, danger and an inspiring heroine.

Winter reaches for that mix with the re-telling of Snow White, but it never makes it.

I started going through the stages of mourning with the ending of this series.

First, I was in denial. This couldn’t be the last of it. That’s not how the story ends… it can’t be!

Then, I was angry. These were characters I cared about. They deserved inventive and unique endings and not necessarily all perfectly happy ones wrapped in a bow. I know this isn’t a popular opinion but, sometimes there isn’t a happily ever after. Every single one of the protagonists ends up together. How predictable and trite.

On to bargaining. I thought that maybe if I waited to write my review, that I’d like it more. Perhaps time passing would blunt the edges of my disappointment. Perhaps I needed to accept that this book was written for the young adult audience and look at it from that point of view.

Then depression. So many readers loved this series, maybe my opinion was just wrong. Maybe I wouldn’t know what a good story was if it punched me in the face. Maybe I disliked this series just to be contrary to popular opinion.

Finally, acceptance. I did not like Winter. I didn’t like its emphasis on physical appearance and connecting that to internal characteristics. How many times did we have to hear how ugly Levana was under her glamour? And don’t we find out in this book that it wasn’t her fault? That she was physically abused and then taunted because of her appearance? So, yeah, let’s talk more about how repulsive she is.

I didn’t like how the worst thing that Meyer could think to write of her antagonists was “He/she was INSANE.” We get it.

I didn’t like how the characters would turn to each other and talk through obvious motivations. Do you think she/he did that/this because she knows we’re coming/going/trying to escape? Yeah, I do! Now stop talking and go face your destiny. We could have saved almost 200 pages if the characters would have acted instead of talked endlessly about acting.

And Iko’s happy ending was that she got a bunch of dresses and color-changing eyes? That was the final straw for me. She was my favorite character and she deserved an ending that matched her unflagging spirit, loyalty and optimism.

I listened to this entire series on audiobook. Was it worth the hours of my time? I guess that depends on what which book we’re talking about. If this series had ended on a book the quality of Cress, this would be a very different review.

My apologies if this is your favorite series. No book appeals to every reader. Winter just wasn’t for me.

Thanks for reading!

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer

cressI’m pleased to report that this series continues to improve. Cress, the third entry in The Lunar Chronicles, introduces the reader (or audio book listener) to a girl named Crescent Moon.

Cress, for short, has long tangled hair like Rapunzel. The clever parallels to the classic fairy tale continue through the story and, of course, the characters from the first two books are woven throughout.

I find that I’m invested in Cinder’s story now whereas after the first book, I was lukewarm about the whole thing. And how about that Scarlet? I think her portion of this novel nearly gave me a heart attack.

No spoilers, but one of the most fascinating new characters in this entry comes from Luna. If you’ve read it, I’m sure you know who I’m talking about. Can this new person be as kind or genuine as he/she appears to be or is it all just another glamour? Here’s hoping.

Teen angst continues in this book but it is, thankfully, hidden behind intergalactic and earth-bound chase scenes and daring missions. Small gripe here, but did literally everyone in this book have to have a love interest?

And, in case anyone is wondering, I am still Team Iko. 🙂

Recommended for readers looking for slightly different fairy tales or who enjoy young adult fantasy. I can’t say that the first two entries lived up to the hype that I’d heard, but this one was approaching it.

Thanks for reading!

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, #2) by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, #2) by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet the second book in The Lunar Chronicles is better than the first. The introduction of Scarlet and Wolf is a clever and breaks up the the Cinder story line. I don’t like to read reviews of books before I read/listen to them, so I had no idea that Meyer wove more than one fairy tale together. I liked that a lot.

This book, like the previous one, is still plagued by cringe-worthy teen romance scenes and angst. But, it’s easier to ignore those bits because of the crazy stuff that begins to happen with the Lunar Queen and the intense chase scenes.

Iko is by far my favorite character. Team Iko!

Recommended for ages 13+ because of some disturbing, non-graphic torture descriptions. The audiobook is pretty good and may work out well for road trips. You don’t need to have read the first book to appreciate this one because the author does a good job of outlining the backstory. Personally, I prefer to read books in a series in order, but it’s not required here to understand what’s going on.

Thanks for reading!

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer

cinderTypical young adult fantasy in that the ‘big twist’ was obvious from the start, but this story still has some charm. Cinder is a cyborg mechanic who wants to go to the ball, but she doesn’t have the time or money to do so. She lives in a world where cyborgs are despised, but tolerated. Humankind is suffering from a plague, one which strikes without warning and leaves the affected dead within days. There’s a draft for cyborgs to be tested upon in order to find a cure for this disease but Cinder is lucky in that her number hasn’t been drawn yet.

Unfortunately for the citizens of New Beijing, the emperor has been struck down with this disease. His son, Kai, is not ready to take the throne, but he doesn’t have time to prepare because an evil Queen from Luna is headed to the planet, presumably to marry Kai and extend her holdings from the moon to earth. Queen Levannah is a member of the race called Lunars who, though once regular settlers from earth, have evolved the ability to control their bio-electric energy and can make others do their bidding. The stage is set for an epic show down between prince, cyborg, and moon queen and it’s all going to happen at, of course, the ball.

Which, like in the original Cinderella tale, was my favorite part. Meyer’s plot very slowly winds itself towards this pivotal moment and I loved her take on the ‘slipper’ left on the stairs. I listened to this audio book on my commute to work but, when I got to the ending, I had to finish it in one night rather than waiting for the next day. That says something, I think, about the power of the story once it gets going despite my lukewarm feelings for the first part of it. Also, I’m on the hold list for the next digital audio book which also says something about this tale. I grew fond of Cinder as the story progressed but not of much else.

Other than the true magic of the ball, readers will find much of Cinder predictable and slow. Only recommended for the serious connoisseur of young adult novels and similar to: Splintered, Ash & Bramble, or The Girl of Fire and Thorns.