Fairest [The Lunar Chronicles, #3.5] by Marissa Meyer

Hi guys! Life has gotten in the way of my normal posting schedule (again, haha), so instead, here's a book review of Marissa Meyer's backstory novella for Queen Levana, which took me way too long to get around to reading. 

Fairest [The Lunar Chronicles, #3.5]
by Marissa Meyer

Genre: YA dystopian retelling

My Rating: ★★★★

Description: 

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is fairest of them all?
Princess Levana Blackburn is desperate for love. In a world where fidelity is a joke and true love is nothing more than a fairy tale, Levana wants to be wanted -- at any cost.

In the chilling prequel to the Lunar Chronicles series, Queen Levana's rise to power is revealed -- from a girl starved for affection to the ruthless Lunar Queen.

Overall Thoughts

Learning a backstory sometimes makes me feel more sympathetic to the villain. With Levana's backstory in Fairest, Marissa Meyer only shows us how messed up the Lunar Queen really is. Seeing Levana's twisted motivations and justifications for her actions was terrifying, and definitely helped make her scarier in my mind. This is a prequel, but I wouldn't recommend reading it until after reading Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress. There are some spoilers for those books in this one, so if you haven't read them yet... please don't continue reading this review!

Thematically, this book was terrifying, about the descent into villainy. It also touches on topics of manipulation and what love looks like (more through Levana's twisted version of love and the contrast with the love shared by Solstice and Evret.) Because the book was so short, the themes didn't really take a lot of precedence, but they were still well thought out.

The Characters

The characters were well-drawn, in true Marissa Meyer form. I liked the conflicts between the characters, and how each character's dialogue was unique and distinguishable from the others, which I feel is something Marissa Meyer excels at. Most of the characters were not likeable characters -- not by any means -- but they felt real, and I guess that just made them even scarier.

Plot/Pacing

The plot takes place over a number of years, starting when Levana is fifteen and going all the way up until she's crowned Queen of Luna. It was fast paced and interesting, showcasing not only Levana's backstory, but also including the cameos or mentions of several important characters in the Lunar Chronicles series, including Winter, Jacin, Sybil Myra, and Selene. The plot itself was very inward-focused -- centering on Levana's desire to be beautiful, her turmoils, desires, and desperation as opposed to having a more outward focused story goal.

I don't feel like there's much more to say about this book, except that, if you like the Lunar Chronicles, you will like this book.

Content

Recommended for ages 15 and up.

There was more sexual content in this book than in the Lunar Chronicles series -- nothing explicitly described, but there were a few descriptions to show that characters were intimate with each other (not graphic), and numerous mentions of infidelity in the Lunar Court. Levana uses her glamour to manipulate another character to do what she wants (which includes her sexual desires.) There is one minor character who is presumably gay. 

Violence including a character remembering being disfigured in a fire. A child is presumed to have died in a fire. A man is shot in the chest. A character stabs another character. A woman dies in childbirth.  A character imagines another character dying in numerous, horrific ways. 

Swearing limited to minor cursing.