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Title: Winter
Author: Marissa Meyer
Narrator: Rebecca Soler
Series: The Lunar Chronicles
Series Number: 4
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fairy Tale, Retelling
Audience: Young Adult
Format: Audiobook
My Review:
I’m exhausted. Emotionally and physically exhausted.
Because of my library’s policies, I had two weeks to listen to a 21-part audio book, when it normally takes me that long to listen to about 10 parts. Because I love this series, I buckled down and did it. This can’t have been good for my blood pressure.
I only thought that I despised Levana before this book. I was raging against her as I drove around town. I raged against her when I wasn’t even listening to the book! My husband will be glad that I’ve stopped shouting about her now and he can have his peaceful evenings back.
I love this series and this book did wrap everything up nicely, but I do feel that it was entirely too long. It took forever and a day to listen to this! Events kept happening! Plans kept going awry! Not one character that I liked came through this book unscathed and it pissed me off!
But mostly I was upset because Levana just kept winning. And winning. And winning! When was she going to get the justice that she deserved?!? When was someone going to stop talking to her and giving her time to seize control of his or her mind or someone else’s, and JUST FREAKING KILL HER ALREADY!?!? Villains are supposed to delay the ending with endless prattle about how smart they are. It irritates me beyond all reason when the good guys do it! I got so ridiculously angry at about part 18 or 19 that I walked in the door and told my husband that I was giving up. This book was never going to end and the good guys were never going to get their act together, and I was broken. I just couldn’t do it anymore. He laughed at me, pointed me toward the shower (I’d just gotten home from the gym), started the book back up on my phone and told me to stop being dramatic and keep listening. Which I obviously did. But for about five minutes there I really was that over it.
Aside from all the drama of my personal overreactions….
I still adore the characters that I’m supposed to. Snow White isn’t my favorite fairy tale but it was actually a good choice as the final book in the series. It brought the action closer to home for Levana, which is where everything had to be.
Speaking of closer to home…
I liked seeing more of Luna. When I wasn’t deeply angry at something Levana had done. This book shows more of life in the outer sectors and how bad conditions are for the average Lunar. It also shows more of their technology and everyday lives.
Rebecca Soler’s narration was almost too good in this book. She’s done a fabulous job with the entire series. She does a perfect condescending sneer for all the bad guys that just had me wanting to reach through my speakers and smack somebody. She’s probably most of the reason I was so pissed at Levana.
This isn’t my favorite book from the series but I did actually like it. And feel strongly about it. Obviously. But I do love the entire Lunar Chronicles and recommend it to fans of fairy tale retellings.
Edit: I hate to revise my review because of someone else’s but this is something that truly bothered me as I listened and I forgot to mention it until I started scrolling through other GoodReads reviews. How to say it without spoilers? Physical beauty and being good or evil were linked here. I know this happens in fairy tales, but they originated hundreds of years ago. In 2016, we’re trying to move past it. It’s nice when our arts can lead the way on this. There is some sort of effort to make it sound not-so-bad very late in the book but I already had a bad taste in my mouth at that point. I can’t imagine how I would have felt if I had the same condition that is described here and then read the characters’ reactions to it. I would be beyond crushed. And there are a lot of people out there who really do have this. I’m talking about the fact that everyone seems to finally hate Levana enough to revolt after they see her without her glamour, with all the scars from her horrible burns on display. I despise her because she’s a tyrant. Shouldn’t that be the reason everyone else despises her too? (Highlight to read the spoiler) Physical appearance is something that no one has real control over. Someone’s character cannot be judged based on his or her appearance, no matter how often we all make the same mistake over and over again. That part was not cool. I’m knocking my rating down a star.
My Synopsis:
Winter wraps up The Lunar Chronicles with the story of Snow White. Princess Winter is beautiful and sweet and kind and batty and the people love her. Which, of course, means that her evil stepmother, Queen Levana, hates her. She eventually finds herself joining Cinder and the rest of the group in an effort to overthrow the tyrant queen and win better lives for the people of Luna.
Similar Books:
If you liked Winter, you might also like my reviews of the earlier books in the series:
Purchase:
Buy Winter from Malaprop’s Bookstore in beautiful Asheville, NC.
2 Comments
Great review! For me the book took forever to end but it was because I was on a family vacation and reading in little snippets here and there. I too hated Levana. She was so interesting to me because I know someone just like her. Sad that there are real people out there like that.
Wow that's quite the review and experience with this one. Admittedly, I've not read the series…something about it just didn't call to me. From the sound of things and the legions of fans, there's definitely a lot of merit here and the way you described how attached you were to the characters and such, the author did what they aim to do….draw you in and make you care, even about the baddies. As for the antiquated view you mentioned….I understand where you're coming from and where we are today but remember it's simply fiction and a fictitious world of the author's imagination…not everything is created to deliver a message. Sometimes it's just to entertain. Great review!