Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cress
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: Lunar Chronicles, Book 3
Genre: Young Adult Science-Fiction
Release Date: 4 February 2014

Rapunzel’s tower is a satellite. She can’t let down her hair—or her guard.

In this third book in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker—unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

After the intense enjoyment I got out of both Cinder and Scarlet, I was PUMPED to read this book. I looked forward to the release, and even paid nearly $9 for the ebook - when my limit is more like $5.

To say I was disappointed is a bit of an understatement.

I've now waited eleven days to try and write this review. It's not that the book is bad, because it's not. But it definitely is a transition book. There's, almost quite literally, absolutely nothing happening throughout this whole book. I was bored out of my mind while reading.

So it's a bridge book. Lots of series have them. I get it, there's stuff that has to happen to get us to the climax. I just wish it'd been done so that I felt some investment, or felt like there was something going on. 85% of the book I was wondering when the hell something was going to happen other than traveling from here to there - this close to the end, traveling's not what I want to read about.

Another problem for me with this book was Cress herself. She names herself a damsel-in-distress. I can't stand damsels-in-distress. I want my girls to save themselves. To be a little fair to Cress, she does a pretty good job of contributing to the saving, and planning, and I think there's a good opportunity, and that Meyer is setting this up, for Cress to realize her own agency. Unfortunately, it didn't happen enough for me in this book.

In fact, there were a lot of character issues, in that I didn't feel like characters were acting 'in-character' or realistically. This one is harder for me to talk about without spoilers, so I'm going to be fairly vague. Something traumatic happens to one of the main characters - disabling traumatic - and it's just shrugged off. No big deal. 'Oh, I lost a leg ? No big deal. I'll just attach this wooden crutch to my knee and carry on walking.' WHAT? I can't buy that anyone could deal with this kind of thing so easily. I don't care how capable you are, or how much of a front you may be putting on. Nope, not buying it.

All that being said, the world still fascinates me. The story is still, over-all, interesting, and I can't wait for the final book: Winter. We got to meet Winter in this book, and I'm already half in love.

Long story, short: Slow, slow book - until the last 15%, where it picks up considerably and became fun to read again. Honestly, so little happens in this book though, that I think you could read a few key chapters, or maybe even the last 15%, and be prepared to finish out the series next year when Winter releases.

Grade: D+

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Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Title: Scarlet
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: Lunar Chronicles, Book 2
Genre: Young Adult Steampunk
Release Date: 5 February 2013

The fates of Cinder and Scarlet collide as a Lunar threat spreads across the Earth...

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Though I greatly enjoyed Cinder, I did have some issues with it. The sense of place wasn't entirely clear, the secondary characters weren't exactly well-developed, and the whole 'draft' issue pretty much just irritated me. I'm glad that I didn't have any of these issues in Scarlet.

I did have a slight problem with the pacing in the beginning of the book. The first 100 or so pages felt somewhat choppy with the switching between four character point-of-views. Happily, I was invested, immediately, in each of the POV characters so it made it easier for me to overlook this.

Scarlet quickly endeared herself to me. We join her as she's determined to find her grandmere, who has been missing for a few weeks. Things quickly spiral out of control and she finds herself in the company of an intriguing, unknown man named Wolf. I was rooting for her from the beginning. She was always smart and competent. Though she did have some damsel-in-distress moments, I loved how she continued to fight - even for someone she wasn't entirely sure of, Wolf.

Wolf is such a great character. I'm shipping them SO HARD. His confusion as he travels with Scarlet, his fighting against and with his instincts, his absolutely protective personality and too-few smiles make me utterly enamoured of him. He's so tentative, like an injured animal, but utterly sure of himself at the same time. I love the dichotomy of Wolf.

Then there's Captain Thorne. I admit, I was unsure of how I felt about him in the beginning, but I quickly grew to love him. He's so cocky and fun, so up for an adventure and unapologetically selfish. I still don't want him to end up with Cinder, unlike some of my friends, but I can't wait to see what happens with him. The way that he ends up part of Cinder's group, how his loyalty begins to transfer to her after being with her for a while; he just insinuated himself into my heart.

I couldn't end this review without talking about Cinder. I loved her in the first book, and I LOVE HER EVEN MORE here. She's just starting her real journey after finding out who she actually is. She's got questions, and concerns; worries and fears, but she forges ahead on her own path until she feels sure of what she's doing. It's not always a neat trip, she makes mistakes and some choices that I might not agree with, but I can't help but admire her.

Immediately upon finishing this I wanted to dive right into Cress, thank goodness it's already out, but I forced myself to write this review first. So forgive me if it's a little incoherent. Marissa Meyer's got me hooked. Her world is original and intriguing, and her characters - my god, her characters are FAN-TASTIC. I can't get enough of them.

Grade: A-

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Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: Lunar Chronicles, Book 1
Genre: Young Adult Steampunk
Release Date:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

I admit, I was nervous to pick up this book, no matter how much I love fairy-tale retellings. So frequently they don't live up to my hopes and dreams. Cinder, while not perfect, absolutely did! I was engrossed and enamoured of the story and characters from the very beginning. Marissa Meyer pulled me in and, even when I was questioning the logic, or despite knowing exactly what was happening, she didn't let me go.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I picked up this book. Sure, I knew it had androids and it was a Cinderella retelling. I expected romance, machinery, evil step-sisters and a prince. While I got most of that, it's put together in such a fascinating way that I couldn't help but be charmed. If you've read any fairy-tales, or fairy-tale-like stories, you will probably see the 'surprise' coming a mile away (or from the very first pages of the book more like) - but that's okay. That's part of the fun of reading retellings.

I find it hard to talk about this book for fear of spoiling anyone that hasn't read it yet (I know there's got to be a couple of you out there yet). Cinder's an interesting character. She's not a goody-two-shoes, she's not perfect, and yet she's one that I can absolutely root for. I wanted to see her get her freedom, not just from her present situation either. I really liked how she took concrete steps to try to forge forward with the life she wanted. While she didn't always think things through, and her planning sometimes did not result in her anticipated goals - the fact that she was trying and determined made me love her.

Prince Kai. *sigh* He could almost be too perfect. Almost. But he isn't. He's real and sweet and charming and…I could go on. I loved the sweet flirting between Kai and Cinder; there were times I literally 'aww'd out loud as I read some of their interactions. I 'ship this pairing so hard! I need them to get together.

There aren't a lot of other characters that get a lot of depth, Queen Leveana - the antagonist - barely does; Dr. Erland gets a bit more (I still hate him); and we at least get some understand of one of Cinder's sisters.

Going back to Dr. Erland - I hate the cyborg draft. HATE. Even with his reasons, I can't help but hate him. One of my friends had some issues with the logic of the cyborgs being used in this way, I didn't have these issues. I have no doubt that this kind of thing would result in prejudice and a feeling of superiority from "real" humans. After all they're "pure," not part machine. So I get that. I did wonder where the hell animal testing had gone though. What, are there no rats or mice in this new world? My issue though was with what the character did, not really the logic of that plot-line.

I also have to admit to some confusion on the sense of place. We're in New Beijing. Okay, where is that? Are we still in China? Asia? Somewhere else? It kind of had a feeling of Euro-Chinese - which could be completely valid as New York is a long ways from York, for example. I think I'd just like a better idea of how the world is laid out and divided amongst the Earthens.

Most of these questions and thoughts popped up while reading and were quickly brushed aside as I was absorbed back into the story once again. They still hang with me, but didn't detract from my enjoyment at all.

Cinder ends on one hell of a cliff-hanger. Things come to a head, stuff happens, Cinder's in trouble and recognizes that everything - including herself - is changing and something new has to happen…and then it ends. I'm dying to pick up Scarlet. And I already can't wait for Cress. If either or both of these turn out as fun as Cinder was, Marissa Meyer's got a new fan.

Grade: B+

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